One other matter remains to be mentioned; namely, the relative number of words named in the half-minute periods. As would be expected, the rate of naming words decreases as the test proceeds. In the case of the 10-year-olds, we find the average number of words for the six successive half-minutes to be as follows:—
18, 12½, 10½, 9, 8½, 7.
Some subjects maintain an almost constant rate throughout the test, others rapidly exhaust themselves, while a very few make a bad beginning and improve as they go. As a rule it is only the very intelligent who improve after the first half-minute. On the other hand, mentally retarded subjects and very young normals exhaust themselves so quickly that only a few words are named in the last minute.
Binet first located this test in year XI, but shifted it to year XII in 1911. Goddard and Kuhlmann retain it in year XI, though Goddard’s statistics suggest year X as the proper location, and Kuhlmann’s even suggest year IX. Kuhlmann, however, accepts fifty words as satisfactory in case the response contains a considerable proportion of abstract or unusual words. All the American statistics except Rowe’s agree in showing that the test is easy enough for year X.
X, Alternative test 1: repeating six digits
The digit series used are 3–7–4–8–5–9; and 5–2–1–7–4–6.
The procedure and scoring are the same as in [VII, 3], except that only two trials are given, one of which must be correct. The test is somewhat too easy for year 10 when three trials are given.
The test of repeating six digits did not appear in the Binet scale and seems not to have been standardized until inserted in the Stanford series.
X, Alternative test 2: repeating twenty to twenty-two syllables
The sentences for this year are:—