Procedure and Scoring. Exactly as in years [VII] and [IX].[73]
XII, 7. Interpretation of pictures
Procedure. Use the same pictures as in [III, 1], and [VII, 2], and the additional picture d. Present in the same order. The formula to begin with is identical with that in [VII, 2]: “Tell me what this picture is about. What is this a picture of?” This formula is chosen because it does not suggest specifically either description or interpretation, and is therefore adapted to show the child’s spontaneous or natural mode of apperception. However, in case, this formula fails to bring spontaneous interpretation for three of the four pictures, we then return to those pictures on which the subject has failed and give a second trial with the formula: “Explain this picture.” A good many subjects who failed to interpret the pictures spontaneously do so without difficulty when the more specific formula is used.
If the response is so brief as to be difficult to classify, the subject should be urged to amplify by some such injunction as “Go ahead,” or “Explain what you mean.”
One more caution. It is necessary to refrain from voicing a single word of commendation or approval until all the pictures have been responded to. A moment’s thought will reveal the absolute necessity of adhering to this rule. Often a subject will begin by giving an inferior type of response (description, say) to the first picture, but with the second picture adjusts better to the task and responds satisfactorily. If in such a case the first (unsatisfactory) response were greeted with an approving “That’s fine, you are doing splendidly,” the likelihood of any improvement taking place as the test proceeds would be greatly lessened.
Scoring. Three pictures out of four must be satisfactorily interpreted. “Satisfactorily” means that the interpretation given should be reasonably plausible; not necessarily the exact one the artist had in mind, yet not absurd. The following classified responses will serve as a fairly secure guide for scoring:—
(a) Dutch Home
Satisfactory. “Child has spilled something and is getting a scolding.” “The baby has hurt herself and the mother is comforting her.” “The baby is crying because she is hungry and the mother has nothing to give her.” “The little girl has been naughty and is about to be punished.” “The baby is crying because she does not like her dinner.” “There’s bread on the table and the mother won’t let the little girl have it and so she is crying.” “The baby is begging for something and is crying because her mamma won’t give it to her.” “It’s a poor family. The father is dead and they don’t have enough to eat.”
Unsatisfactory. “The baby is crying and the mother is looking at her” (description). “It’s in Holland, and there’s a little girl crying, and a mamma, and there’s a dish on the table” (mainly description). “The mother is teaching the child to walk” (absurd interpretation).
(b) River Scene
Satisfactory. “Man and lady eloping to get married and an Indian to row for them.” “I think it represents a honeymoon trip.” “In frontier days and a man and his wife have been captured by the Indians.” “It’s a perilous journey and they have engaged the Indian to row for them.”
Unsatisfactory. “They are shooting the rapids.” “An Indian rowing a man and his wife down the river” (mainly description). “A storm at sea” (absurd interpretation). “Indians have rescued a couple from a shipwreck.” “They have been up the river and are riding down the rapids.”
The following responses are somewhat doubtful, but should probably be scored minus: “People going out hunting and have Indian for a guide.” “The man has rescued the woman from the Indians.” “It’s a camping trip.”
(c) Post-Office
Satisfactory. “It’s a lot of old farmers. They have come to the post-office to get the paper, which only comes once a week, and they are all happy.” “There’s something funny in the paper about one of the men and they are all laughing about it.” “They are reading about the price of eggs, and they look very happy so I guess the price has gone up.” “It’s a bunch of country politicians reading the election news.”
Unsatisfactory. “A man has just come out of the post-office and is reading to his friends.” “It’s a little country town and they are looking at the paper.” “A man is reading the paper and the others are looking on and laughing.” “Some men are reading a paper and laughing, and the other man has brought some eggs to market, and it’s in a little country town.” (All the above are mainly description.)
Responses like the following are somewhat better, but hardly satisfactory: “They are reading something funny in the paper.” “They are reading the ads.” “They are laughing about something in the newspaper,” etc.
(d) Colonial Home
Satisfactory. “They are lovers and have quarreled.” “The man has to go away for a long time, maybe to war, and she is afraid he won’t return.” “He has proposed and she has rejected him, and she is crying because she hated to disappoint him.” “The woman is crying because her husband is angry and leaving her.” “The man is a messenger and has brought the woman bad news.”
Unsatisfactory. “The husband is leaving and the dog is looking at the lady.” “It’s a picture to show how people dressed in colonial times.” “The lady is crying and the man is trying to comfort her.” “The man is going away. The woman is angry because he is going. The dog has a ball in its mouth and looks happy, and the man looks sad.”
Such responses as the following are doubtful, but rather minus than plus: “A picture of George Washington’s home.” “They have lost their money and they are sad” (gratuitous interpretation). “The man has struck the woman.”
Doubt sometimes arises as to the proper scoring of imaginative or gratuitous interpretations. The following are samples of such: (a) “The little girl is crying because she wants a new dress and the mother is telling her she can have one when Christmas comes if she will be good.” (b) “The man and woman have gone up the river to visit some friends and an Indian guide is bringing them home.” (c) “Some old Rubes are reading about a circus that’s going to come.” (d) “Napoleon leaving his wife.”
Sometimes these imaginative responses are given by very bright subjects, under the impression that they are asked to “make up” a story based on the picture. We may score them plus, provided they are not too much out of harmony with the situation and actions represented in the picture. Interpretations so gratuitous as to have little or no bearing upon the scene depicted should be scored minus.
Remarks. The test of picture interpretation has been variously located from 12 to 15 years. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that everything depends on the nature of the pictures used, the form in which the question is put, and the standard for scoring. The Jingleman-Jack pictures used by Kuhlmann are as easy to interpret at 10 years as the Stanford pictures at 12. Spontaneous interpretation (“What is this a picture of?” or “What do you see in this picture?”) comes no more readily at 14 years than provoked interpretation (“Explain this picture”) at 12. The standard of scoring is no less important. If with the Stanford pictures we require three satisfactory responses out of four, the test belongs at the 12-year level, but the standard of two correct out of four can be met a year or two earlier.
Even after we have agreed upon a given series of pictures, the formula for giving the test, and upon the requisite number of passes, there remains still the question as to the proper degree of liberality in deciding what constitutes interpretation. There is no single point in mental development where the “ability to interpret pictures” sweeps in with a rush. Like the development of most other abilities, it comes by slow degrees, beginning even as early as 6 years.