(a) The road downhill
Satisfactory. “If it was downhill to the city it would be uphill coming back.” “It can’t be downhill both directions.” “That could not be.” “That is foolish. (Explain.) Because it must be uphill one way or the other.” “That would be a funny road. (Explain.) No road can be like that. It can’t be downhill both ways.”
Unsatisfactory. “Perhaps he took a little different road coming back.” “I guess it is a very crooked road.” “Coming back he goes around the hill.” “The man lives down in a valley.” “The road was made that way so it would be easy.” “Just a road. I don’t see anything foolish.” “He should say, ‘a road which goes.’”
(b) What the engineer said
Satisfactory. “If he has more cars he will go slower.” “It is the other way. If he wants to go faster he mustn’t have so many cars.” “The man didn’t mean what he said, or else it was a slip of the tongue.” “That’s the way it would be if he was going downhill.” “Foolish, because the cars don’t help pull the train.” “He ought to say slower, not faster.”
Unsatisfactory. “A long train is nicer.” “The engine pulls harder if the train has lots of cars.” “That’s all right. I suppose he likes a big train.” “Nothing foolish; when I went to the city I saw a train that had lots of cars and it was going awfully fast.” “He should have said, ‘the faster I can run.’”
(c) The girl who was thought to have killed herself
Satisfactory. “She could not have cut herself into eighteen pieces.” “She would have been dead before that.” “She might have cut two or three pieces off, but she couldn’t do the rest.” (Laughing) “Well, she may have killed herself; but if she did it’s a sure thing that some one else came along after and chopped her up.” “That policeman must have been a fool. (Explain.) To think that she could chop herself into eighteen pieces.”
Unsatisfactory. “Think that she killed herself; they know she did.” “They can’t be sure. Some one may have killed her.” “It was a foolish girl to kill herself.” “How can they tell who killed her?” “No girl would kill herself unless she was crazy.” “It ought to read: ‘They think that she committed suicide.’”
(d) The railroad accident
Satisfactory. “That was very serious.” “I should like to know what you would call a serious accident!” “You could say it was not serious if two or three people were killed, but forty-eight,—that is serious.”
Unsatisfactory. “It was a foolish mistake that made the accident.” “They couldn’t help it. It was an accident.” “It might have been worse.” “Nothing foolish; it’s just sad.”
(e) The bicycle rider
Satisfactory. “How could he get well after he was already killed?” “Why, he’s already dead.” “No use to take a dead man to the hospital.” “They ought to have taken him to a grave-yard!”
Unsatisfactory. “Foolish to fall off of a bicycle. He should have known how to ride.” “They ought to have carried him home. (Why?) So his folks could get a doctor.” “He should have been more careful.” “Maybe they can cure him if he isn’t hurt very bad.” “There’s nothing foolish in that.”
Remarks. The detection of absurdities is one of the most ingenious and serviceable tests of the entire scale. It is little influenced by schooling, and it comes nearer than any other to being a test of that species of mother-wit which we call common sense. Like the “comprehension questions,” it may be called a test of judgment, using this term in the colloquial and not in the logical sense. The stupid person, whether depicted in literature, proverb, or the ephemeral joke column, is always (and justly, it would seem) characterized by a huge tolerance for absurd contradictions and by a blunt sensitivity for the fine points of a joke. Intellectual discrimination and judgment are inferior. The ideas do not cross-light each other, but remain relatively isolated. Hence, the most absurd contradictions are swallowed, so to speak, without arousing the protest of the critical faculty. The latter, indeed, is only a name for the tendency of intellectually irreconcilable elements to clash. If there is no clash, if the elements remain apart, it goes without saying that there will be no power of criticism.
The critical faculty begins its development in the early years and strengthens pari passu with the growing wealth of inter-associations among ideas; but in the average child it is not until the age of about 10 years that it becomes equal to tasks like those presented in this test. Eight-year intelligence hardly ever scores more than two or three correct answers out of five. By 12, the critical ability has so far developed that the test is nearly always passed. It is an invaluable test for the higher grades of mental deficiency.
As a test of the critical powers Binet first used “trap questions”; as, for example, “Is snow red or black?” The results were disappointing, for it was found that owing to timidity, deference, and suggestibility normal children often failed on such questions. Deference is more marked in normal than in feeble-minded children, and it is because of the influence of this trait that it is necessary always to forewarn the subject that the sentence to be given contains nonsense.
Binet located the test in year XI of the 1908 scale, but changed it to year X in 1911. Goddard and Kuhlmann retain it in year XI. The large majority of the statistics, including those of Goddard and Kuhlmann, warrant the location of the test in year X. Not all have used the same absurdities, and these have not been worded uniformly. Most have required three successes out of five, but Bobertag and Kuhlmann require three out of four; Bobertag’s procedure is also different in that he does not forewarn the child that an absurdity is to follow.
The present form of the test is the result of three successive refinements. It will be noted that we have made two substitutions in Binet’s list of absurdities. Those omitted from the original scale are: “I have three brothers—Paul, Ernest, and myself,” and, “If I were going to commit suicide I would not choose Friday, because Friday is an unlucky day and would bring me misfortune.” The last has a puzzling feature which makes it much too hard for year X, and the other is objectionable with children who are accustomed to hear a foreign language in which the form of expression used in the absurdity is idiomatically correct.
The two we have substituted for these objectionable absurdities are, “The road downhill” and “What the engineer said.” The five we have used, though of nearly equal difficulty, are here listed in the order from easiest to hardest. Our series as a whole is slightly easier than Binet’s.
X, 3. Drawing designs from memory
Procedure. Use the designs shown on the accompanying printed form. If copies are used they must be exact in size and shape. Before showing the card say: “This card has two drawings on it. I am going to show them to you for ten seconds, then I will take the card away and let you draw from memory what you have seen. Examine both drawings carefully and remember that you have only ten seconds.”
Provide pencil and paper and then show the card for ten seconds, holding it at right angles to the child’s line of vision and with the designs in the position given in the plate. Have the child draw the designs immediately after they are removed from sight.