Measure Your Mind: The Mentimeter and How to Use ItTrabue, Marion Rex
Science
Measure Your Mind: The Mentimeter and How to Use It
Trabue, Marion Rex
Educational tests and measurements; Intelligence tests; Psychological tests
In connection with these tests of ability in addition, a few additional
words should be said to make somewhat clearer the differences between
educational tests and tests of intelligence. There is, of course, no
sharp line to be drawn between these two types of tests. Mentimeter No.
10b may be classified very certainly as an educational test because it
involves primarily the element of speed in simple additions which is not
an accurate index of intellectual capacity but depends almost altogether
upon specific drill. Improvement in ability to make a score in
Mentimeter No. 10a will come much more slowly than in the case of the
speed test in addition. Before a child can make progress sufficient to
carry him from problem 5 to problem 6 in Mentimeter 10a, he must be
instructed in the mysteries of adding zero to the sum of two other
numbers. Before he can make progress from problem 6 to problem 7 he must
learn to put down the 2 under the right-hand column of figures and carry
the 1 to the next column and add it with the digits printed there. Each
additional problem that he solves involves some new elements of
arithmetic knowledge which can be learned only by careful study and one
at a time.
In the speed test a larger score does not indicate ability to do
anything more difficult or to understand anything more complicated, but
merely more rapid doing of the things which are already fully
understood. In the other test, however, a larger score indicates greater
comprehension of more difficult situations and therefore an intellectual
capacity which is of greater magnitude.
The primary purpose of the Mentimeter tests is to measure intellectual
capacity rather than school training. For this reason very few tests
which may be classified as primarily educational have been included.
Where they have been inserted, they have been arranged to measure the
ability of the person to do more difficult tasks rather than his ability
to do simple tasks more rapidly.
MENTIMETER NO. 11
MEMORY FOR NUMBERS
_Character of the Test._
This test is planned as an individual examination to be given to any
candidate who understands the English language. The test is borrowed
directly from the Binet series and was used as a group test in the first
form of the Alpha examination in the United States Army.
The usefulness of this test is probably limited to the selection of
candidates for very simple mechanical operations and to the
classification of pupils in the schoolroom. It might be employed as one
of a series of tests in the selection of telephone operators, but its
use in such a case is probably more obvious than practical.
_Directions for Giving the Test._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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