Scoring. The test is passed if the child succeeds in fitting the blocks into place three times in a total time of five minutes for the three trials.
The method of procedure is fully as important as the time, but is not so easily scored in quantitative terms. Nevertheless, the examiner should always take observations on the method employed, noting especially any tendency to make and to repeat moves which lead to obvious impossibilities; i.e., moves which leave a space obviously unfitted to any of the remaining pieces. Some subjects repeat an absurd move many times over; others make an absurd move, but promptly correct it; others, and these are usually the bright ones, look far enough ahead to avoid error altogether.
Remarks. This test was devised by Professor Freeman, was adapted slightly by Healy and Fernald, and was first standardized by Dr. Kuhlmann. Miss Gertrude Hall has also standardized it, but on a different procedure from that described above.[67]
The test has a lower correlation with intelligence than most of the other tests of the scale. Many bright children of 10-year intelligence adopt the trial-and-error method and have little success, while retarded older children of only 8-year intelligence sometimes succeed. Age, apart from intelligence, seems to play an important part in determining the nature of the performance. A favorable feature of the test, however, is the fact that it makes no demand on language ability and that it brings into play an aspect of intelligence which is relatively neglected by the remainder of the scale. For this reason it is at least worth keeping as an alternative test.
FOOTNOTES:
[66] See “Genius and Stupidity,” by Lewis M. Terman, in Pedagogical Seminary, September, 1906, p. 340 ff.
[67] Eugenics and Social Welfare Bulletin, No. 5, The State Board of Charities, Albany, New York.