V, 2. Naming colors
Materials. Use saturated red, yellow, blue, and green papers, about 2 × 1 inch in size, pasted one half inch apart on white or gray cardboard. For sake of uniformity it is best to match the colors manufactured especially for this test.[52]
Procedure. Point to the colors in the order, red, yellow, blue, green. Bring the finger close to the color designated, in order that there may be no mistake as to which one is meant, and say: “What is the name of that color?” Do not say: “What color is that?” or, “What kind of a color is that?” Such a formula might bring the answer, “The first color”; or, “A pretty color.” Still less would it do to say: “Show me the red,” “Show me the yellow,” etc. This would make it an entirely different test, one that would probably be passed a year earlier than the Binet form of the experiment. Nor is it permissible, after a color has been miscalled, to return to it and again ask its name.
Scoring. The test is passed only if all the colors are named correctly and without marked uncertainty. However, prefixing the adjective “dark,” or “light,” before the name of a color is overlooked.
Remarks. Naming colors is not a test of color discrimination, for that capacity is well developed years below the level at which this test is used. All 5-year-olds who are not color blind discriminate among the four primary colors here used as readily as adults do. As stated by Binet, it is a test of the “verbalization of color perception.” It tells us whether the child has associated the names of the four primary colors with his perceptual imagery of those colors.
The ability to make simple associations between a sense impression and a name is certainly present in normal children some time before the above color associations are actually made. Many objects of experience are correctly named two or three years earlier, and it may seem at first a little strange that color names are learned so late. But it must be remembered that the child does not have numerous opportunities to observe and hear the names of several colors at once, nor does the designation of colors by their names ordinarily have much practical value for the young child. When he finally learns their names, it is more because of his spontaneous interest in the world of sense. Lack of such spontaneous interest is always an unfavorable sign, and it is not surprising, therefore, that imbecile intelligence has ordinarily never taken the trouble to associate colors with their names. Girls are somewhat superior to boys in this test, due probably to a greater natural interest in colors.
Binet originally placed this test in year VIII, changing it to year VII in the 1911 scale. Goddard places it in year VII, while Kuhlmann omits it altogether. With a single exception, all the actual statistics with normal children justify the location of the test in year V. Bobertag’s figures are the exception, opposed to which are Rowe, Winch, Dumville, Dougherty, Brigham, and all three of the Stanford investigations.
The test is probably more subject to the influence of home environment than most of the other tests of the scale, and if the social status of the child is low, failure would not be especially significant until after the age of 6 years. On the whole it is an excellent test.
V, 3. Æsthetic comparison
Use the three pairs of faces supplied with the printed forms. It goes without saying that improvised drawings may not be substituted for Binet’s until they have first been standardized.