“Forty dollars’ | worth of temper,” | exclaimed the man. | “I think I shall mend my ways.” | His disposition | afterward | became so | good | that | the servant became worried, | thinking the man | must be ill. |
Figure VIII—Logical Memory—“A Farmer’s Son”
The Results. The material for the test is divided into units as indicated by the vertical lines. The pupil’s written reproduction should be compared unit by unit with the story as printed, and given one credit for each unit adequately reproduced. The norms for the three tests are shown in the accompanying Figures [VII], [VIII], and [IX]. In these and all the graphs which follow, the actual ages are shown in the first horizontal column. The norms for girls appear in the second horizontal column, the norms for boys in the column at the bottom. By the norm for an age is meant the average performance of all the pupils of that age examined. Age ten applies to those pupils who have passed their tenth birthday and have not reached their eleventh birthday, and the other ages are to be similarly interpreted. The vertical lines in the graphs indicate birthdays and the scores written on these lines indicate ability at these exact ages. The column marked ten, for example, includes all the children that are over ten and not yet eleven. The graphs show the development from age to age. In general, it will be noticed, there is an improvement of memory with age, but in the high school, in the “Costly Temper” test, there is a decline. This may not indicate a real decline in ability to remember ideas, but a change in attitude. The high school pupil probably acquires a habit of remembering only significant facts. His memory is selective, while in the earlier ages, the memory may be more parrot-like, one idea being reproduced with about as much fidelity as another. This statement is made not as a fact, but as a probable explanation.
Rote Memory
Figure IX—Logical Memory—“A Costly Temper”
Object. The object of the rote memory tests is to determine the pupil’s memory span for unrelated impressions—words that have no logical relations with one another. Much school work makes demands upon this ability. Therefore, the tests are of importance.