The code test was first described by Healy and Fernald in their “Tests for Practical Mental Classification.”[77] The authors gave no data, however, which would indicate the mental level to which the test belongs. Dr. Goddard incorporated it in year XV of his revision of the Binet scale, but also fails to give statistics. The location given the test in the Stanford revision is based on tests of nearly 500 individuals ranging from a mental level of 12 years to that of “superior adult.” It appears that the test is considerably more difficult than most had thought it to be.
Average adult, alternative test 1: repeating twenty-eight syllables
The sentences for this test are:—
- Walter likes very much to go on visits to his grandmother, because she always tells him many funny stories.
- Yesterday I saw a pretty little dog in the street. It had curly brown hair, short legs, and a long tail.
Procedure. Exactly as in [VI, 6]. Emphasize that the sentence must be repeated without a single change of any sort. Get attention before giving each sentence.
Scoring. Passed if one sentence is repeated without a single error. In [VI] and [X] we scored the response as satisfactory if one sentence was repeated without error, or if two were repeated with not more than one error each.
Remarks. The test of repeating sentences is not as satisfactory in the higher intelligence levels as in the lower. It is too mechanical to tax very heavily the higher thought processes. It does, however, have a certain correlation with intelligence. Contrary to what one would have expected, uneducated adults of “average adult” intelligence surpassed our high-school students of the same mental level.
Binet located this test in year XII of the 1908 series, but shifted it to year XV in 1911. The American versions of the Binet scale have usually retained it in year XII, though Goddard admits that the sentences are somewhat too difficult for that year. Kuhlmann puts the test in year XII, but reduces the sentences to twenty-four syllables and permits one re-reading. We give only two trials and our sentences are considerably more difficult. With the procedure and scoring we have used, the test is rather easy for the “average adult” group, but a little too hard for year XIV.