THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE. By H. J.
Humpstone, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania.
Of the origin and history of the Binet tests there is no need to write here, but to understand the significance of the results obtained by the use of the tests it is necessary to know something of their genesis. In 1904 Binet was appointed by the French Ministry of Public Instruction a member of a commission to take charge of the study of measurements for the insuring of the benefits of instruction for defective children. Of course the first problem that confronted the commission was the finding of a method of detecting the defective children. Out of their efforts to solve this problem came the method of testing and the series of tests which came to be known as the Binet-Simon scale. Binet published the story in a series of articles and books. These have been translated into English and put together into two books.1 In 1905 in his magazine, L'Annee Psycholojique, Binet published an article entitled "New Method for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals." Notice the title. He says "Intellectual Level." Intelligence is not mentioned in either the title of the article nor the statement of the problem. He says, "Our purpose is to be able to measure the intellectual capacity of a child who is brought to us in order to know whether he is normal or retarded.
We should therefore, study his condition at the time and only. We have nothing to do either with his past history or with his future; consequently we shall neglect his etiology, and we shall make 110 attempt to distinguish between acquired and congenital idiocy; for a stronger reason we shall set aside all consideration of pathological anatomy which might explain his intellectual deficiency." (Page 37.) that
Now if the followers of Binet had stuck to that we should have quarrel with their methods or with their tests. Then Binet goes on to distinguish the different kinds of subnormal children and the tests that he employed with them. "Here we shall limit ourselves to the measuring of their general intelligence. We shall determine their intellectual level, and, in order the better to appreciate this had
no
1 The Intelligence of the Feeble-minded, translated by Elizabeth S. Kite, 1916, The Training School, Vineland, New Jersey. The Development of Intelligence in Children, translated by Elizabeth S. Kite, 1916, The Training Sr.hool, Vineland, New Jersey. Thu quotations in this article are made from the latter.
(18)
THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE.
19
shall compare it with that of normal children of the same analogous level. The reservations previously made as conception of arrested development, will not prevent our finding great advantage in a methodical comparison between those of inferior and those of normal intelligence." (Page 39.) "The Psychological Method. The fundamental idea of this
level,
we
age or of an to the true
method is the establishment of what we shall call a measuring scale of intelligence. This scale is composed of a series of tests of increasing
difficulty, starting from the lowest intellectual level that can be observed, and ending with that of average normal intelligence. Each group in the series corresponds to a different mental level. This scale, properly speaking, does not permit the measure of the intelligence, because intellectual qualities are not superposable, and, therefore, cannot be measured as linear surfaces are measured, but are, on the contrary, a classification, a hierarchy among diverse intelligences; and for the necessities of practice this classification is equivalent to a measure. We shall, therefore, be able to know, after studying fr\vo individuals, if one rises above the other and to how many "
degrees,
if one rises above the average level of other individuals considered as normal, or if he remains below. Understanding the normal progress of intellectual development among normals, we shall be able to determine how many years such an individual is advanced retarded. In a word, we shall be able to determine to what of the scale idiocy, imbecility, and moronity correspond." 40 and 41.)
or
degrees (Pages
"Our purpose is to evaluate a level of intelligence. It is understood that we here separate natural intelligence and instruction. It is the intelligence alone that we seek to measure, by disregarding m so far as possible, the degree of instruction which the subject He should, indeed, be considered by the examiner as a complete ignoramus knowing neither how to read nor write. This necessity forces us to forego a great many exercises having a verbal, literary or scholastic character. These belong to a pedagogical examination. We believe that we have succeeded in completely disregarding the acquired information of the subject. We give him nothing to read, nothing to write, and submit him to no test in which he might succeed by means of rote learning. In fact we do not even notice his inability to read if a case occurs. It is simply the level of his natural intelligence that is taken into account." (Page 42.) Note particularly the statement just read. We must disregard the degree of instruction possessed by the subject. And yet we question him on the days of the week, the names of the months and to count forwards and backwards, etc. Are not these facts
possesses.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
20
instruction? He even contradicts the sentence that "we disbelieve that we take into account any acquired information." Some of the tests in the later revisions do ask him to read something and to write something. In my opinion this does not interfere with the purpose as expressed by Binet.
acquired through
My criticism of the Binet Test and the series is not against work, nor against the tests themselves, but against the use to which they have been put in the American adaptation. It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration, or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting one's self to circumstances. To judge well, to comprehend well, to reason well, these are the essential activities of intelligence. A person may be a moron or an imbecile if he is lacking in judgment; but with good judgment
Binet's "
he
can never
seem
of little
be either.
Indeed the rest of the intellectual faculties in comparison with judgment." (Pages
importance
42 and
43.) Intelligence, level of intelligence, intellect, level of intellect, judgment, initiative, comprehension and adaptation are different Those terms are all used as equivalent in this article, terms used. and they are also used in the same article as elements which he has analyzed out of something else for which he uses the same term. In the next article which he calls: "Application of the New Methods to the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level Among Normal and Subnormal Children in Institutions and in the Primary Schools," he goes back to the use of the word in his first article, and it is clear that "Intellectual Level" is what is meant by all the terms. "Application of the New Methods of the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level Among Normal and Subnormal Children in Institutions and in the Primary Schools. The preceding article contains a strictly theoretical exposition of the methods of diagnosis which we have devised for recognizing and measuring intellectual inferiority. It remains to complete the preliminary work, to standardize it, to show how far these methods work out when applied to real facts. After the theory must come the proof. "The psychological examination of a subject lasts on an average forty minutes. We made in the beginning many useless tests with each child, because we were doing a work of investigation; we were groping; now that one knows what to look for, one can proceed more rapidly, and we believe that a half-hour will suffice to fix the state of the intellectual development of each child." (Page 91.) In the
use
of the tests certain concepts have been formed and
THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE.
21
in general use. Two of these concepts are fundamental. The first is the concept of the mental age. It is claimed that by the use of the Binet scale we arrive at a figure or a number which represents the mental age of the child. What is meant by Mental Age? If the term means an intellectual level it seems to be about what Binet intended provided it is taken in a rather broad sense. If we say "He has the intelligence level of about ten years," that is under-
are
standable and rather
acceptable; but considering the Mental Age mentality of a normal child of that age is quite another matter. Along with that goes the concept that feebleminded children represent stages in the development of normal children; that is to say an imbecile is like in mentality a normal child of a certain age, and the expression is used constantly to indicate the fact or to stand for the concept. This is the meaning given by
as
equivalent
to the
the foremost exponents of the Binet method in this country. It is not true that an idiot or an imbecile or even a moron has the mentality of a normal child of any age whatever. One boy, nineteen years of age, had been in school up to the age of fourteen and had then gone to work. He was the driver of an ash cart in a gang that went around the city streets. He earned something like ten dollars a week at that time which would be to about twenty now, but when I saw him he was in rags. I said to him: "Is that the only suit of clothes you have?" "Yes." "Why don't you get a decent suit of clothes?" I asked. "I have started to save to buy some," answered the boy. "How much have
equivalent
you saved?"
I questioned, and received the reply: "Seventy-five cents." The boy spent as he earned, in saloons and on prostitutes. He had had five years of experience in the life of a big city, sleeping under the cover of his ash cart or beneath the shelter of a dry goods box. Three of us tested him, giving him every advantage possible, and we found that he had a mental age score of a little less than nine and a half years. Does that represent the mentality of a normal child of nine and a half years? The diagnosis of feeble-minded children is made entirely on that concept by those who use the Binet scale and apply it strictly. The tests are arranged with that fundamental concept in view. No feeble-minded child ever gets a mental age above twelve. If the is twelve or over we do not have a feeble-minded child no matter what the age of the child may be. Three grades are made and the subject is classified under that grade which is indicated by his mental age. An idiot has a mental age of two or less. From two to seven or eight is classed the imbecile, and from eight to twelve the moron. There are three degrees in each grade and each
mentality
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
22
of those degrees has its own mental age.1 That is the classification which is most widely used in this country, based on the concept of mental age and the other concept which goes with it, that intelligence is a unit characteristic. In spite of the analysis which Binet started to make, it is specifically taught in the use of the one
Binet tests that
intelligence is a unit characteristic. Therefore, feeble-mindedness is also a unit characteristic. Such studies as have been made of families, with a view of arriving at the etiology, all point to the fact that the mental aberrations that are present in those children whom we call feeble-minded are different, not only in different localities and in different families, but also in the same family.
The
same
is true of normal children.
the two fundamental concepts which underlie the general applications of the Binet-Simon Scale for intelligence, and they are both false. The mental age score is not the representation of the mentality of the child, because feeble-mindedness does not Those
are
indicate the arrested development at is intelligence a unit characteristic
some
stage, necessarily.
Nor
is feebletransmissible, mindedness a unit characteristic transmissible. There is a sense in which it is perfectly justifiable to arrive at a number which they call a mental age and to use it as an index. You can think of the nor
of the intellect and intelligence as the child grows older and older and develops. A child does not have a memory At the age of ten his memory span of six because he is ten years old.
development
span may cover six
digits or more. What is meant by a normal mental age of ten? Nobody knows. But we can have a general idea of the mental level of ten years. We are more and more convinced that these absolute general diagnoses do not give us the expression that we want. What we have to do is to analyze out of the performances and behavior of a child the specific competencies or in the last analysis the capabilities (congenital competencies) of the child, and then we have something to work on. The result of the Binet tests as expressed in some objective score?that is, the scoring of each test as right and wrong and the compilation of the results of those scores into a final score expressed as Mental Age, Intelligence Quotient or a rating on a Point Scale?does not help us at all in such No matter how excellent the Intelligence Quotients criteria for the differentiation of children in the grades prognosis of their intellectual development, the score alone derived from any of these arrangements of the tests in the series is
analysis.
an
may be or for a
as
absolutely 1
worthless for
diagnostic
purposes.
What does the I.
Q.
Of course the mental age must be considered with reference to the attained chronological age, and the twoand-three-year system is understood in this discussion.
THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE.
23
mean? Does it mean social competency? No. The M. A. or the I. Q. is no index of social competency. Under certain circumstances it may be an index of educational competency. They are using these tests very largely in the public schools for the purpose of educational differentiations, and in the right hands with the proper safeguards they are extremely valuable for that purpose because they can be administered and scored with a minimum of training and can be checked up and verified as occasion arises for such procedure. This usage agrees with the purpose as expressed by Binet. But the use of the
criteria for vocational guidance is a different matter There entirely. may be some vocations in which a high intellectual level is required where a Binet test would help in the selection, but I do not think of any at this time. scores as
What do these tests measure? A series of tests which applied and the results used in any field should be selected and
can
be
applied
show definite competencies or proficiencies necessary in that field. How can you give vocational guidance unless you know what competencies are required in a particular vocation and whether the person applying for the job has these competencies? What
so as to
girl that you would be willing to prognose competencies to make a successful stenoghaving rapher and typewriter? You can, however, use some tests in negative guidance very well. I have seen girls whom I had no hesitation in telling that they were wasting their time in studying stenography, for they will never get anywhere with it. Suppose we say that the Binet series tests the general ability to get on. Even this assumption has been proved false by the study of many individual cases. The Terman revision is undoubtedly the best form which we have today. We have tried to make an analysis of the Terman series and see what it is that is involved in the successful performance of each of these tests, and we have found that no test in the series involves any single competency; and very few tests definitely test one specific competency. The memory span tests come the nearest to it, but even in these are involved audition, vision, attention and imageability. The memory span test may be for simple discrete units, for complex units, for still more complex units or for a combination of units. In making a classification of the tests included in the series the first category we would have to have is memory span. In the whole series, including the alternate tests, there are ninety tests. Seventeen of these are memory span tests, using digits, sentences or ideas, and they all use auditory stimuli. Visual memory span is not tested at all, although some of the other tests involve some visual memory span. The next ability which seems to be tested by some of the
competencies will distinguish as
the
a
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
24
tests is memory. There is no attempt to distinguish between auditory or visual memory. Most of the memory tests involve chiefly verbal So the analysis can not and that may be largely motor. memory be very fine. We might the title of one category. But of what use is gory.
the term "general information" as Many of the tests can be put in this cateuse
general information if you can not recall it? Using memory in a broad sense and putting the general information tests with the others, we find that there are forty-one Of the tests which primarily tests which belong under that heading. test discrimination of some sort, like lifted weights and likenesses and unlikenesses, there are ten. There are some tests which primarily test imagination. Perhaps they could be included under memory, and
use
will put them under a separate heading. Of those there are There are seven which may be said to test intelligence only in the sense in which we use it, that is the ability to solve what for the individual is a new problem. Such tests as the fifth test under
but
we
five.
Table Memory Span III III IV IV VI VII VII IX X X
6 al 6 al 6 3 al 2 4 al 1 al 2 6 XII XIV al 5 XVI XVI all XVIII 3 XVIII 4 XVIII 5
of the
Discrimination Imagination
Memory III III III III III IV V V V V VI VI VI VI VII VII VII VIII VIII VIII VIII IX IX IX IX IX X X X XII XII XII XII XIV XIV XIV
XVI XVI XVI
XVIII
1 2 3 4 5 3 2 4 6 al 1 3 5 al 1 2 al 2 5 6 al 1 3 5 al al 1 4 6 1 2 4 7 1 3 5 1 2 al 1
Tests Under Each Heading.
IV IV V V VI VII VIII IX
IX XII
1 2 1 3 2 5 4 2 6 8
XIII XII XII XIV
XVIII
1 3 5 6 2
Intelligence V
X XIV XIV
XVI XVI
XVIII
5 al 3 2 4 4 6 6
Comprehension IV VI
VIII X X
5 4 3 2 5
Motor IV VII VII
VIII X
4 4 6 al2 3
1
1
1 2
2
Aboye all other abilities this series tests the ability to understand and use language. There are only right in th? ninety that do not depend primarily on language ability. They are IV, 2; IV 4; V, 1; V, 5; VII, 4; VII, 6; X, 3 and X, 3d alternative.
tests
THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE. the fourth year
seem to
be in
a
special
series
by themselves.
25
They
If the child has already learned by may not test memory. do then the to they come under memory; if the thing experience may
or
child has not had the experience so that he has learned the reaction, then they would test judgment. They would constitute then the same sort of a test as the hypothetical questions we are asked to answer all the time. These we will put in a separate class called There are five of them. There are five tests left comprehension. and these I put under a separate heading which I call motor. These are most
categories
indicate the
involved in the
competencies which it seems to me performance of the test or which are most Considering that the tests which I include
brought out by the test. in the forty-one under memory are for the most part based upon acquired information, that the information is usually acquired in the school, that some of the tests under the head of discrimination involve discriminations which the children are taught to make in the kindergarten and lower grades, that of the comprehension tests some at least are learned in school by most of the children or through their contact with the school, taking the memory span tests in their different forms as the tests which bring out the competency which is at the basis of all intellectual development, there is no question that these tests are or ought to be a very good index of the attained level of intellectual life. or
I.
That is to say, the score, whether in terms of M. A.
point, is a rating of performance level on the intellectual scale. Now I believe, and I have tried to show above, that that is really what Binet had in mind when he started with a definite problem of the school administration, that is, the grading of these children not on the basis of definite examinations or tests of specific subjects but on the ability to understand and use language. The tests were then and always have been not tests of congenital competencies nor of efficiencies but rather of proficiencies, and in the form in which Terman has cast them they have become still more tests of performance levels on the intellectual scale, because the competencies which are involved in school work are the competencies which are involved in the performance of these tests. On the other hand for the trained psychologist these competencies may be analyzed out of, or estimated from the performance of, these tests, but in the grouping of the tests and in the method of scoring them they are concealed and lost sight of. Q.
or
Neither the Terman tests nor any other form of the Binet tests when administered and scored by the standard method can show the
abilities
or
disabilities of the individual child.
school systems and clinics where these tests
It is true that in most used the examiner
are
26
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
is directed to record carefully and accurately the response of the child and the method of procedure in all tests, and the experienced examiner can often tell from these notes the way in which the child responded. But such notes, no matter how carefully recorded, cannot give the picture of the child that it is necessary to have in order to determine the capabilities or the acquired competencies. The meaning of the Binet score then is a performance level on the intellectual scale. This is one element useful in giving a diagnosis of the child's mental ability. It may be obtained without the use of a Binet test, and in many cases in much less time than it takes to However it is obtained it is only one give the Binet test properly.
fact,
and
no
diagnosis
is valid which is made upon it alone.
Humpstone, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania.
Of the origin and history of the Binet tests there is no need to write here, but to understand the significance of the results obtained by the use of the tests it is necessary to know something of their genesis. In 1904 Binet was appointed by the French Ministry of Public Instruction a member of a commission to take charge of the study of measurements for the insuring of the benefits of instruction for defective children. Of course the first problem that confronted the commission was the finding of a method of detecting the defective children. Out of their efforts to solve this problem came the method of testing and the series of tests which came to be known as the Binet-Simon scale. Binet published the story in a series of articles and books. These have been translated into English and put together into two books.1 In 1905 in his magazine, L'Annee Psycholojique, Binet published an article entitled "New Method for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals." Notice the title. He says "Intellectual Level." Intelligence is not mentioned in either the title of the article nor the statement of the problem. He says, "Our purpose is to be able to measure the intellectual capacity of a child who is brought to us in order to know whether he is normal or retarded.
We should therefore, study his condition at the time and only. We have nothing to do either with his past history or with his future; consequently we shall neglect his etiology, and we shall make 110 attempt to distinguish between acquired and congenital idiocy; for a stronger reason we shall set aside all consideration of pathological anatomy which might explain his intellectual deficiency." (Page 37.) that
Now if the followers of Binet had stuck to that we should have quarrel with their methods or with their tests. Then Binet goes on to distinguish the different kinds of subnormal children and the tests that he employed with them. "Here we shall limit ourselves to the measuring of their general intelligence. We shall determine their intellectual level, and, in order the better to appreciate this had
no
1 The Intelligence of the Feeble-minded, translated by Elizabeth S. Kite, 1916, The Training School, Vineland, New Jersey. The Development of Intelligence in Children, translated by Elizabeth S. Kite, 1916, The Training Sr.hool, Vineland, New Jersey. Thu quotations in this article are made from the latter.
(18)
THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE.
19
shall compare it with that of normal children of the same analogous level. The reservations previously made as conception of arrested development, will not prevent our finding great advantage in a methodical comparison between those of inferior and those of normal intelligence." (Page 39.) "The Psychological Method. The fundamental idea of this
level,
we
age or of an to the true
method is the establishment of what we shall call a measuring scale of intelligence. This scale is composed of a series of tests of increasing
difficulty, starting from the lowest intellectual level that can be observed, and ending with that of average normal intelligence. Each group in the series corresponds to a different mental level. This scale, properly speaking, does not permit the measure of the intelligence, because intellectual qualities are not superposable, and, therefore, cannot be measured as linear surfaces are measured, but are, on the contrary, a classification, a hierarchy among diverse intelligences; and for the necessities of practice this classification is equivalent to a measure. We shall, therefore, be able to know, after studying fr\vo individuals, if one rises above the other and to how many "
degrees,
if one rises above the average level of other individuals considered as normal, or if he remains below. Understanding the normal progress of intellectual development among normals, we shall be able to determine how many years such an individual is advanced retarded. In a word, we shall be able to determine to what of the scale idiocy, imbecility, and moronity correspond." 40 and 41.)
or
degrees (Pages
"Our purpose is to evaluate a level of intelligence. It is understood that we here separate natural intelligence and instruction. It is the intelligence alone that we seek to measure, by disregarding m so far as possible, the degree of instruction which the subject He should, indeed, be considered by the examiner as a complete ignoramus knowing neither how to read nor write. This necessity forces us to forego a great many exercises having a verbal, literary or scholastic character. These belong to a pedagogical examination. We believe that we have succeeded in completely disregarding the acquired information of the subject. We give him nothing to read, nothing to write, and submit him to no test in which he might succeed by means of rote learning. In fact we do not even notice his inability to read if a case occurs. It is simply the level of his natural intelligence that is taken into account." (Page 42.) Note particularly the statement just read. We must disregard the degree of instruction possessed by the subject. And yet we question him on the days of the week, the names of the months and to count forwards and backwards, etc. Are not these facts
possesses.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
20
instruction? He even contradicts the sentence that "we disbelieve that we take into account any acquired information." Some of the tests in the later revisions do ask him to read something and to write something. In my opinion this does not interfere with the purpose as expressed by Binet.
acquired through
My criticism of the Binet Test and the series is not against work, nor against the tests themselves, but against the use to which they have been put in the American adaptation. It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration, or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting one's self to circumstances. To judge well, to comprehend well, to reason well, these are the essential activities of intelligence. A person may be a moron or an imbecile if he is lacking in judgment; but with good judgment
Binet's "
he
can never
seem
of little
be either.
Indeed the rest of the intellectual faculties in comparison with judgment." (Pages
importance
42 and
43.) Intelligence, level of intelligence, intellect, level of intellect, judgment, initiative, comprehension and adaptation are different Those terms are all used as equivalent in this article, terms used. and they are also used in the same article as elements which he has analyzed out of something else for which he uses the same term. In the next article which he calls: "Application of the New Methods to the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level Among Normal and Subnormal Children in Institutions and in the Primary Schools," he goes back to the use of the word in his first article, and it is clear that "Intellectual Level" is what is meant by all the terms. "Application of the New Methods of the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level Among Normal and Subnormal Children in Institutions and in the Primary Schools. The preceding article contains a strictly theoretical exposition of the methods of diagnosis which we have devised for recognizing and measuring intellectual inferiority. It remains to complete the preliminary work, to standardize it, to show how far these methods work out when applied to real facts. After the theory must come the proof. "The psychological examination of a subject lasts on an average forty minutes. We made in the beginning many useless tests with each child, because we were doing a work of investigation; we were groping; now that one knows what to look for, one can proceed more rapidly, and we believe that a half-hour will suffice to fix the state of the intellectual development of each child." (Page 91.) In the
use
of the tests certain concepts have been formed and
THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE.
21
in general use. Two of these concepts are fundamental. The first is the concept of the mental age. It is claimed that by the use of the Binet scale we arrive at a figure or a number which represents the mental age of the child. What is meant by Mental Age? If the term means an intellectual level it seems to be about what Binet intended provided it is taken in a rather broad sense. If we say "He has the intelligence level of about ten years," that is under-
are
standable and rather
acceptable; but considering the Mental Age mentality of a normal child of that age is quite another matter. Along with that goes the concept that feebleminded children represent stages in the development of normal children; that is to say an imbecile is like in mentality a normal child of a certain age, and the expression is used constantly to indicate the fact or to stand for the concept. This is the meaning given by
as
equivalent
to the
the foremost exponents of the Binet method in this country. It is not true that an idiot or an imbecile or even a moron has the mentality of a normal child of any age whatever. One boy, nineteen years of age, had been in school up to the age of fourteen and had then gone to work. He was the driver of an ash cart in a gang that went around the city streets. He earned something like ten dollars a week at that time which would be to about twenty now, but when I saw him he was in rags. I said to him: "Is that the only suit of clothes you have?" "Yes." "Why don't you get a decent suit of clothes?" I asked. "I have started to save to buy some," answered the boy. "How much have
equivalent
you saved?"
I questioned, and received the reply: "Seventy-five cents." The boy spent as he earned, in saloons and on prostitutes. He had had five years of experience in the life of a big city, sleeping under the cover of his ash cart or beneath the shelter of a dry goods box. Three of us tested him, giving him every advantage possible, and we found that he had a mental age score of a little less than nine and a half years. Does that represent the mentality of a normal child of nine and a half years? The diagnosis of feeble-minded children is made entirely on that concept by those who use the Binet scale and apply it strictly. The tests are arranged with that fundamental concept in view. No feeble-minded child ever gets a mental age above twelve. If the is twelve or over we do not have a feeble-minded child no matter what the age of the child may be. Three grades are made and the subject is classified under that grade which is indicated by his mental age. An idiot has a mental age of two or less. From two to seven or eight is classed the imbecile, and from eight to twelve the moron. There are three degrees in each grade and each
mentality
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
22
of those degrees has its own mental age.1 That is the classification which is most widely used in this country, based on the concept of mental age and the other concept which goes with it, that intelligence is a unit characteristic. In spite of the analysis which Binet started to make, it is specifically taught in the use of the one
Binet tests that
intelligence is a unit characteristic. Therefore, feeble-mindedness is also a unit characteristic. Such studies as have been made of families, with a view of arriving at the etiology, all point to the fact that the mental aberrations that are present in those children whom we call feeble-minded are different, not only in different localities and in different families, but also in the same family.
The
same
is true of normal children.
the two fundamental concepts which underlie the general applications of the Binet-Simon Scale for intelligence, and they are both false. The mental age score is not the representation of the mentality of the child, because feeble-mindedness does not Those
are
indicate the arrested development at is intelligence a unit characteristic
some
stage, necessarily.
Nor
is feebletransmissible, mindedness a unit characteristic transmissible. There is a sense in which it is perfectly justifiable to arrive at a number which they call a mental age and to use it as an index. You can think of the nor
of the intellect and intelligence as the child grows older and older and develops. A child does not have a memory At the age of ten his memory span of six because he is ten years old.
development
span may cover six
digits or more. What is meant by a normal mental age of ten? Nobody knows. But we can have a general idea of the mental level of ten years. We are more and more convinced that these absolute general diagnoses do not give us the expression that we want. What we have to do is to analyze out of the performances and behavior of a child the specific competencies or in the last analysis the capabilities (congenital competencies) of the child, and then we have something to work on. The result of the Binet tests as expressed in some objective score?that is, the scoring of each test as right and wrong and the compilation of the results of those scores into a final score expressed as Mental Age, Intelligence Quotient or a rating on a Point Scale?does not help us at all in such No matter how excellent the Intelligence Quotients criteria for the differentiation of children in the grades prognosis of their intellectual development, the score alone derived from any of these arrangements of the tests in the series is
analysis.
an
may be or for a
as
absolutely 1
worthless for
diagnostic
purposes.
What does the I.
Q.
Of course the mental age must be considered with reference to the attained chronological age, and the twoand-three-year system is understood in this discussion.
THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE.
23
mean? Does it mean social competency? No. The M. A. or the I. Q. is no index of social competency. Under certain circumstances it may be an index of educational competency. They are using these tests very largely in the public schools for the purpose of educational differentiations, and in the right hands with the proper safeguards they are extremely valuable for that purpose because they can be administered and scored with a minimum of training and can be checked up and verified as occasion arises for such procedure. This usage agrees with the purpose as expressed by Binet. But the use of the
criteria for vocational guidance is a different matter There entirely. may be some vocations in which a high intellectual level is required where a Binet test would help in the selection, but I do not think of any at this time. scores as
What do these tests measure? A series of tests which applied and the results used in any field should be selected and
can
be
applied
show definite competencies or proficiencies necessary in that field. How can you give vocational guidance unless you know what competencies are required in a particular vocation and whether the person applying for the job has these competencies? What
so as to
girl that you would be willing to prognose competencies to make a successful stenoghaving rapher and typewriter? You can, however, use some tests in negative guidance very well. I have seen girls whom I had no hesitation in telling that they were wasting their time in studying stenography, for they will never get anywhere with it. Suppose we say that the Binet series tests the general ability to get on. Even this assumption has been proved false by the study of many individual cases. The Terman revision is undoubtedly the best form which we have today. We have tried to make an analysis of the Terman series and see what it is that is involved in the successful performance of each of these tests, and we have found that no test in the series involves any single competency; and very few tests definitely test one specific competency. The memory span tests come the nearest to it, but even in these are involved audition, vision, attention and imageability. The memory span test may be for simple discrete units, for complex units, for still more complex units or for a combination of units. In making a classification of the tests included in the series the first category we would have to have is memory span. In the whole series, including the alternate tests, there are ninety tests. Seventeen of these are memory span tests, using digits, sentences or ideas, and they all use auditory stimuli. Visual memory span is not tested at all, although some of the other tests involve some visual memory span. The next ability which seems to be tested by some of the
competencies will distinguish as
the
a
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
24
tests is memory. There is no attempt to distinguish between auditory or visual memory. Most of the memory tests involve chiefly verbal So the analysis can not and that may be largely motor. memory be very fine. We might the title of one category. But of what use is gory.
the term "general information" as Many of the tests can be put in this cateuse
general information if you can not recall it? Using memory in a broad sense and putting the general information tests with the others, we find that there are forty-one Of the tests which primarily tests which belong under that heading. test discrimination of some sort, like lifted weights and likenesses and unlikenesses, there are ten. There are some tests which primarily test imagination. Perhaps they could be included under memory, and
use
will put them under a separate heading. Of those there are There are seven which may be said to test intelligence only in the sense in which we use it, that is the ability to solve what for the individual is a new problem. Such tests as the fifth test under
but
we
five.
Table Memory Span III III IV IV VI VII VII IX X X
6 al 6 al 6 3 al 2 4 al 1 al 2 6 XII XIV al 5 XVI XVI all XVIII 3 XVIII 4 XVIII 5
of the
Discrimination Imagination
Memory III III III III III IV V V V V VI VI VI VI VII VII VII VIII VIII VIII VIII IX IX IX IX IX X X X XII XII XII XII XIV XIV XIV
XVI XVI XVI
XVIII
1 2 3 4 5 3 2 4 6 al 1 3 5 al 1 2 al 2 5 6 al 1 3 5 al al 1 4 6 1 2 4 7 1 3 5 1 2 al 1
Tests Under Each Heading.
IV IV V V VI VII VIII IX
IX XII
1 2 1 3 2 5 4 2 6 8
XIII XII XII XIV
XVIII
1 3 5 6 2
Intelligence V
X XIV XIV
XVI XVI
XVIII
5 al 3 2 4 4 6 6
Comprehension IV VI
VIII X X
5 4 3 2 5
Motor IV VII VII
VIII X
4 4 6 al2 3
1
1
1 2
2
Aboye all other abilities this series tests the ability to understand and use language. There are only right in th? ninety that do not depend primarily on language ability. They are IV, 2; IV 4; V, 1; V, 5; VII, 4; VII, 6; X, 3 and X, 3d alternative.
tests
THE MEANING OF A BINET SCORE. the fourth year
seem to
be in
a
special
series
by themselves.
25
They
If the child has already learned by may not test memory. do then the to they come under memory; if the thing experience may
or
child has not had the experience so that he has learned the reaction, then they would test judgment. They would constitute then the same sort of a test as the hypothetical questions we are asked to answer all the time. These we will put in a separate class called There are five of them. There are five tests left comprehension. and these I put under a separate heading which I call motor. These are most
categories
indicate the
involved in the
competencies which it seems to me performance of the test or which are most Considering that the tests which I include
brought out by the test. in the forty-one under memory are for the most part based upon acquired information, that the information is usually acquired in the school, that some of the tests under the head of discrimination involve discriminations which the children are taught to make in the kindergarten and lower grades, that of the comprehension tests some at least are learned in school by most of the children or through their contact with the school, taking the memory span tests in their different forms as the tests which bring out the competency which is at the basis of all intellectual development, there is no question that these tests are or ought to be a very good index of the attained level of intellectual life. or
I.
That is to say, the score, whether in terms of M. A.
point, is a rating of performance level on the intellectual scale. Now I believe, and I have tried to show above, that that is really what Binet had in mind when he started with a definite problem of the school administration, that is, the grading of these children not on the basis of definite examinations or tests of specific subjects but on the ability to understand and use language. The tests were then and always have been not tests of congenital competencies nor of efficiencies but rather of proficiencies, and in the form in which Terman has cast them they have become still more tests of performance levels on the intellectual scale, because the competencies which are involved in school work are the competencies which are involved in the performance of these tests. On the other hand for the trained psychologist these competencies may be analyzed out of, or estimated from the performance of, these tests, but in the grouping of the tests and in the method of scoring them they are concealed and lost sight of. Q.
or
Neither the Terman tests nor any other form of the Binet tests when administered and scored by the standard method can show the
abilities
or
disabilities of the individual child.
school systems and clinics where these tests
It is true that in most used the examiner
are
26
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
is directed to record carefully and accurately the response of the child and the method of procedure in all tests, and the experienced examiner can often tell from these notes the way in which the child responded. But such notes, no matter how carefully recorded, cannot give the picture of the child that it is necessary to have in order to determine the capabilities or the acquired competencies. The meaning of the Binet score then is a performance level on the intellectual scale. This is one element useful in giving a diagnosis of the child's mental ability. It may be obtained without the use of a Binet test, and in many cases in much less time than it takes to However it is obtained it is only one give the Binet test properly.
fact,
and
no
diagnosis
is valid which is made upon it alone.
