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
One of the most valuable measures of any individual or group of
individuals is the extent of the vocabulary found necessary for
communication and social activities. The Vocabulary test which is used
in connection with the Stanford Revision of the Binet test, and which is
quite similar to Mentimeter No. 14, has been shown to be unusually
reliable as a measure of general intelligence. The Reading-Vocabulary
test is probably not so widely usable as the Speaking-Vocabulary test,
but it can be applied as a group test and is therefore probably destined
to much more extensive usefulness than the individual test.
The Reading-Vocabulary test cannot, of course, be given to individuals
whose ability in reading is less than that ordinarily possessed by
third-grade public school children. The candidate must not only be able
to recognize the words that appear in the test and to know their
meanings, but he must also be able to classify them as belonging to a
particular group of objects. The method of the test requires the child
to make a check mark under the family name which would include the
particular word appearing on the vocabulary list. The instructions will
not be understood except by fairly intelligent persons, but for those
who can understand the instructions and who do their best on the test, a
very useful measure will be the result.
Although this test would seem at first glance to be particularly well
adapted to the selection of clerical workers, past experience has
convinced the writers that it is also useful in the selection of
organizers and directors of men as well as of organizers and directors
of thought. The relationship between the score in this test and the
general efficiency of an employee is unusually high.
Teachers will find the Reading Vocabulary a splendid index of the
advancement attained by new pupils coming into their rooms for the first
time or of the pupils who have been with them for some time. It is
useless to try to have pupils explain the meaning of magazine articles
or of selections from their geographies when they do not even understand
the words used in these discussions. It would be very much worth while
for a teacher, when she has employed this test, to compare the
difficulty of the words which cause the majority of her class to stumble
and fail with the difficulty of the words used in the ordinary
text-books of the school.
In any social group the classification of the forty words in this list
would be found rather interesting particularly when the errors made by
different members of the group were read aloud for the amusement of the
entire group. It should not be suggested, when the test is to be used in
this way, that there is any distinct relationship between achievement in
the test and achievement in life, else some of the group will be very
much disappointed in their scores.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account