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its own proper hole as fast as possible, after having watched it done A second trial was allowed after a considerable interval.

once.

time taken was noted in seconds.

The

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a. A wooden box containing shot and weighing 100 gms. w taken as the standard and the child was told to fill a similar emp box with shot until the two boxes weighed alike. Two trials w made.

b. In the other part of this test the second box was filled w shot and the child was required to take out shot until the weight the two were equal. Here also two trials were given.

14. Semilogical memory.

dictations:

Tested by giving the following sim

a. I have one head, two eyes, two hands and ten fingers.

b. I sit in my seat. I read from a book. I write with a per

c. One and two are three. Three and four are seven.

six are more than ten.

d. In the morning I go to school. After school I play. I go to bed.

Five

At n

Each of the four dictations was read slowly once and after reading the child was required to write all he could remember.

15. The class tests numbered 5 and 6A were repeated with individual children, the differences in the administration being in this case there was no time limit and that each child receive necessary assistance as to the spelling of words, etc.

The tests were given in the School for the Feeble-Minde Waverley, Mass., the Institution for the Feeble-Minded at Lake Conn., and in the classes for defectives in one of the New public schools. The total number of children tested in any

was one hundred and fifty-seven, the majority being between eight and sixteen years of age.

The class tests were given to all the 'school cases' in the institutions save those in the kindergarten, that is, to all those children who were considered bright enough to gain any good from definite instruction and so were sent to the school of the institution. From among these 'school cases' the brightest children were selected and were given the individual tests as well. In the New York school practically all the children in the special classes took both sets of tests.

The tests were given in exactly the same way each time, written directions being memorized and repeated verbatim on each occasion of testing, thus eliminating possibilities of error in results due to differences in directions. Special care was given to this side of the work, as in a former test one class of children did half as well again as another class of equal grade because in the two classes there had been a slight difference in the giving out of the directions.

§7. Probable Sources of Error

ALTHOUGH all possible care was taken to eliminate the possibilities of error from the experiments (1) by selecting such tests as were not too far above the capabilities of the feeble-minded as to yield no result and yet not so far below the ability of normal children as to yield perfect scores, and (2) by having the conditions of the test as nearly alike in all cases as possible; yet there were several occurrences which may be sources of error and as such should be noted.

1. The a-t test did not always measure efficiency of perception in the defective children because of their inability to understand the directions. Out of 68 feeble-minded children, 28, or 41 per cent., misunderstood the directions and either marked the words containing either a or t, or marked the letters a and t. Among 159 normal children under twelve years of age only 13, or roughly 8 per cent., misunderstood. Of course the fact that the defective children failed to do the test as required tells us something about their general mentality and ability to understand simple directions, but as a test of efficiency of perception I consider it too subject to ambiguity to be of general service.

2. Because of physical deformities and lack of training many of the children wrote very slowly and laboriously and some could not write legibly at all, so that often the writing had to be done for them. In the tests for memory of words and the dictation, this fact offers a source of error, for the child who received assistance first had of course a very much greater chance of remembering more and

remembering correctly than the one reached second or third. This difficulty was partially obviated by the fact that we did not assist the same child first every time. As there were four sets of words in the memory test and four simple dictations we had the opportunity of scattering the help so that the result is as fair as possible.

3. Another source of error may rest in the difficulty that wa found in the 6th test in making the word 'opposite' clear to th children. In the class tests only the directions noted above wer given, but when the same test was given to the individual chi dren it was often found necessary to say, 'If he isn't sick, wha is he?' 'This is long, another might be what?' etc., in order to gai any understanding of the test. It might be claimed that this wa not fair, but as the same method was followed with all the childre tested, both normal and abnormal, the results are not vitiated. T test in this case was of the ability to appreciate relationships an control associates, not of ability to understand directions, and if t directions could be made clear by any means it was legitimate adopt those means. A comparison of the same test given in cla when no such assistance was given with the one given to the childr individually, proves that a great part of the deficiency in the fi was due to simply a lack of understanding of the directions.

4. In several instances the temperature as recorded is not relia (all such cases have, therefore, been marked with an asterisk). T probable error is due to the fact that those children in the case whom the doubt is felt, were mouth breathers and consequently w not able to keep their mouths closed during the two minutes of taking of the temperature. In one or two cases the children s ceeded much better when the temperature was again taken at close of the hour.

error.

So far as I am aware these are the only noteworthy sources No one of them is large enough to vitiate the results in way, but in these particulars the administration of the tests mi be improved.

§ 8. Actual Marks gained by the Defectives in the Different T

THE actual results from these tests, i. e., the marks gained each child in each measurement, are given in Tables I. to V. clusive. Figures in italics represent records of boys, and the ot represent girls. An 'F' in any record means that the indivi failed in the test owing to inability to understand the requirem

1

The tests were all graded by the same person, who followed a de standard for the correctness or incorrectness of the results of any measure The keys used may be seen in Section 19.

or for some other reason. An F may mean a blank paper, or it may mean that the whole thing was done incorrectly. For instance, in the a-t test any child who marked all the individual 'a's' and 't's' instead of the words containing the letters a and t was marked F. A few words of explanation will serve to make the tables clear.

Table I. The first column designates each individual by a number-each child retaining the same number throughout the tables, so that the dropping of a number means that that person did not take those tests. The second column states the individual's age in years and months. An interrogation point means that only the year and not the month of birth could be ascertained. The third column gives the height of the children in centimeters. The fourth column gives the weight—that of boys being given in kilograms and that of the girls in pounds. The fifth column gives the number of A's marked in sixty seconds in test la and the sixth column the number marked in the same time in test 1b. The seventh and eighth columns give the number of words containing a and t marked in two minutes in tests 2a and 26 respectively. No. 20's record reads: age 13 years 1 month, height 144 cm., weight 95.4 lbs. First A test marked 35, second A test marked 50, failed in both a-t tests.

Table II. The first column gives the number of each child. The second column gives the number of nouns marked correctly, and the third column the number of mistakes made in test 5. The fourth and sixth columns state the number of words remembered in tests 4a and 4b, and the fifth and seventh columns state the number of words put down as remembered which had not been read in those tests. The eighth and tenth, the ninth and eleventh columns show the same for tests 3a and 3b.

Table III. The first column-as before. The second column shows the number of words to which an 'opposite' was correctly written in test 6AI., and the third column the number of incorrect 'opposites' written in the same test. The fourth and fifth columns show the same results for test 6AII. number of correctly named particulars which were written after the class names in test 6C, and the seventh column the number incorrectly named. The eighth and ninth columns state the same results. for the part-whole test, number 6B.

The sixth column gives the

Table IV. The first column-as before. The second column states the pulse rate for one minute. The third and fourth columns respectively state the child's temperature in degrees and tenths of a degree, taken before and after an hour's mental work. The fifth and sixth columns state the number of seconds taken by the child in two trials in putting the blocks in their places in test 12. The last

four columns tell the number of shot too many or too few, as ind cated by the signs, put into the box in four successive trials in test 1 Table V. The first column-as before. The second and fourt columns indicate the number of units of amount covered in two tria with test 11. The third and fifth columns show the number ( touches made by the children in those trials. The sixth, sevent] eighth and ninth columns show the results of tests 6AI. and 5 whe repeated with the individual children and without a time limi The last four columns state the gradings received in the four dict: tions given in test 14.

Note.-Nos. 51, 80, 82 and 94 were considered to be moral idio and their records may be found at the end of each table. Thes records have not been used in my results, for as there is some di ference of opinion as to whether these idiots are intellectually & well as morally defective, it might be maintained that they are on different intellectual level from the rest of the defectives.

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