Some children who assert that they do not know how to tie a bow-knot are sometimes nevertheless successful when urged to try. It is always necessary, therefore, to secure an actual trial.

Scoring. The test is passed if a double bow-knot (both ends folded in) is made in not more than a minute. A single bow-knot (only one end folded in) counts half credit, because children are often accustomed to use the single bow altogether. The usual plain common knot, which precedes the bow-knot proper, must not be omitted if the response is to count as satisfactory, for without this preliminary plain knot a bow-knot will not hold and is of no value. To be satisfactory the knot should also be drawn up reasonably close, not left gaping.

Remarks. This test, which had not before been standardized, was suggested to the writer by the late Dr. Huey, who in a conversation once remarked upon the frequent inability of feeble-minded adults to perform the little motor tasks which are universally learned by normal persons in childhood. The test was therefore incorporated in the Stanford trial series of 1913–14 and tried with 370 non-selected children within two months of the 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th birthday. It was expected that the test would probably be found to belong at about the 8-year level, but it proved to be easy enough for year VII, where 69 per cent of the children passed it. Only 35 per cent of the 6-year-olds succeeded, but after that age the per cent passing increased rapidly to 94 per cent at 9 years.

This little experiment, simple as it is, seems to fulfill reasonably well the requirements of a good test. The main objection which might be brought against it is that it is much subject to the influence of training. If this were true in any marked degree, the mentally retarded children of 7-year intelligence should be expected to succeed better with it than mentally advanced children of the same mental level, since the former would have had at least two or three years more in which to learn the task. A comparison of the two groups, however, shows no great difference. The factor of age, apart from mental age, affects the results so little that it is evident we have here a real test of intelligence.

It would, of course, be easy to imagine a child of 7 years who had not had reasonable opportunity to make the acquaintance of bow-knots or to learn to tie them. But such children are seldom encountered in the ages above 6 or 7. Of 68 7-year-olds who were asked whether they had ever seen a bow-knot (“a knot like that”) only two replied in the negative. It cannot be denied, however, that specific instruction and special stimulus to practice do play a certain part. This is suggested by the fact that girls excel the boys somewhat at each age, doubtless because bow-knots play a larger rôle in feminine apparel. Social status affects the results in only a moderate degree, though it might be supposed that poor ragamuffins, on the one hand, and children of the very rich, on the other, would both make a poor showing in this test; the former because of their scanty apparel, the latter because they sometimes have servants to dress them.

The following are probably the chief factors determining success with this test: (1) Interest in common objective things; (2) ability to form permanent associative connections between successive motor coördinations (memory for a series of acts); and (3) skill in the acquisition of voluntary motor control. The last factor is probably much less important than the other two. Motor awkwardness often prolongs the time from the usual ten or fifteen seconds to thirty or forty seconds, but it is rarely a cause of a failure. The important thing is to be able to reproduce the appropriate succession of acts, acts which nearly all children of 7 years, under the joint stimulus of example and spontaneous interest, have before performed or tried to perform.

VII, 5. Giving differences from memory

Procedure. Say: “What is the difference between a fly and a butterfly?” If the child does not seem to understand, say: “You know flies, do you not? You have seen flies? And you know the butterflies! Now, tell me the difference between a fly and a butterfly.” Proceed in the same way with stone and egg, and wood and glass. A little coaxing is sometimes necessary to secure a response, but supplementary questions and suggestions of every kind are to be avoided. For example, it would not be permissible for the examiner to say: “Which is larger, a fly or a butterfly?” This would give the child his cue and he would immediately answer, “A butterfly.” The child must be left to find a difference by himself. Sometimes a difference is given, but without any indication as to its direction, as, for example, “One is bigger than the other” (for fly and butterfly). It is then permissible to ask: “Which is bigger?”

Scoring. Passed if a real difference is given in two out of three comparisons. It is not necessary, however, that an essential difference be given; the difference may be trivial, only it must be a real one. The following are samples of satisfactory and unsatisfactory responses:—

Fly and butterfly

Satisfactory. “Butterfly is larger.” “Butterfly has bigger wings.” “Fly is black and a butterfly is not.” “Butterfly is yellow (or white, etc.) and fly is black.” “Fly bites you and butterfly don’t.” “Butterfly has powder on its wings, fly does not.” “Fly flies straighter.” “Butterfly is outdoors and a fly is in the house.” “Flies are more dangerous to our health.” “Flies haven’t anything to sip honey with.” “Butterfly doesn’t live as long as a fly.” “Butterfly comes from a caterpillar.”

Sometimes a double contrast is meant, but not fully expressed; as, “A fly is small and a butterfly is pretty.” Here the thought is probably correct, only the language is awkward.

Of 102 correct responses, 70 were in terms of size, or size plus color or form; 12 were in terms of both form and color; 6 in terms of color alone; and the rest scattered among such responses as those mentioned above.

Unsatisfactory. These are mostly misstatements of facts; as: “Fly is bigger.” “Fly has legs and butterfly hasn’t.” “Butterfly has no feet and fly has.” “Butterfly makes butter.” “Fly is a fly and a butterfly is not.” Failures due to misstatement of fact are of endless variety. If an indefinite response is given, like “The fly is different,” or “They don’t look alike,” we ask, “How is it different?” or, “Why don’t they look alike?” It is satisfactory if the child then gives a correct answer.

Stone and egg

Satisfactory. “Stone is harder.” “Egg is softer.” “Egg breaks easier.” “Egg breaks and stone doesn’t.” “Stone is heavier.” “Egg is white and stone is not.” “Egg has a shell and stone does not.” “Eggs have a white and a yellow in them.” “You put eggs in a pudding.” “An egg is rounder than a stone.” We may also accept statements which are only qualifiedly true; as, “You can break an egg, but not a stone.” Likewise double but incomplete comparisons are satisfactory; as, “An egg you fry and a stone you throw,” “A stone is tough and an egg you eat,” etc.

A little over three fourths of the comparisons made by children of 6, 7, and 8 years are in terms of hardness. The other responses are widely scattered.

Unsatisfactory. “A stone is bigger (or smaller) than an egg.” “A stone is square and an egg is round.” “An egg is yellow and a stone is white.” “Stones are red (or black, etc.) and eggs are white.” “An egg is to eat and a stone is to plant.” “An egg is round and a stone is sometimes round.”

It will be noted that the above responses are partly true and partly false. The error they contain renders them unacceptable. Most of the failures are due to misstatements as to size, shape, or color, but occasionally one meets a bizarre answer.

Wood and glass

Satisfactory. “Glass breaks easier than wood.” “Glass breaks and wood does not.” “Wood is stronger than glass.” “Glass you can see through and wood you can’t.” “Glass cuts you and wood doesn’t.” “You get splinters from wood and you don’t from glass.” “Glass melts and wood doesn’t.” “Wood burns and glass doesn’t.” “Wood has bark and glass hasn’t.” “Wood grows and glass doesn’t.” “Glass is heavier than wood.” “Glass glistens in the sun and wood does not.”

An incomplete double comparison is also counted satisfactory; as, “Wood you can burn and glass you can see through.”

Unsatisfactory. “Wood is black and glass is white.” (Color differences are always unsatisfactory in this comparison unless transparency is also mentioned.) “Glass is square and wood is round.” “Glass is bigger than wood” (or vice versa). “Wood is oblong and glass is square.” “Glass is thin and wood is thick.” “Wood is made out of trees and glass out of windows.” “There is no glass in wood.”

The two most frequent types of failures are misstatements regarding color and thickness. The other failures are widely scattered.