Psychology : $b A study of mental lifeWoodworth, Robert Sessions
Science
Psychology : $b A study of mental life
Woodworth, Robert Sessions
Psychology
Many group tests are now in use, and among them some performance
tests. In the latter, pictures are often employed; sometimes the
subject has to complete the picture by drawing in a missing part,
sometimes he has to cancel from the picture a part that is
superfluous. He may have to draw a pencil line indicating the shortest
path through a maze, or he may have to continue a series of marks
which starts off according to a definite plan. The problems set him
under each class range from very easy to fairly difficult.
{278}
Some Results of the Intelligence Tests
The principal fact discovered by use of standardized intelligence
tests is that the tests serve very well the purpose for which they
were intended. In expert hands they actually give a fairly reliable
measure of the individual's intelligence. They have located the
trouble in the case of many a backward school child, whose
intelligence was too low to enable him to derive much benefit from the
regular school curriculum. His schooling needed to be adjusted to his
intelligence so as to prepare him to do what he was constitutionally
able to do.
On the other hand, it sometimes happens that a child who is
mischievous and inattentive in school, and whose school work is rather
poor, tests high in intelligence, the trouble with him being that the
work set him is below his mental level and therefore unstimulating.
Such children do better when given more advanced work. The
intelligence tests are proving of great service in detecting boys and
girls of superior intelligence who have been dragging along, forming
lazy habits of work, and not preparing for the kind of service that
their intelligence should enable them to give.
Some results obtained by the "Alpha test" are given in the following
table, and in the diagram which restates the facts of the table in
graphic form. The Alpha test included 212 questions in all, and a
correct answer to any question netted the subject one point. The
maximum score was thus 212 points, a mark which could only be obtained
by a combination of perfect accuracy and very rapid work (since only a
limited time was allowed for each page of the test). Very seldom does
even a very bright individual score over 200 points. The table shows
the approximate per cent, of individuals scoring between certain
limits; thus, {279} of men drafted into the Army, approximately 8 per
cent. scored below 15 points, 12 per cent. scored from 16 to 29
points, etc. Of college freshmen, practically none score below 76
points, 1 per cent. score from 76 to 89 points, etc.
Per cent. of Per cent. of
drafted men college freshmen
making these making these
Scores Scores
Scores
0-14 points 3 0
15-29 12 0
30-44 15 0
45-59 16 0
60-74 13 0
75-89 11 1
90-104 9 4
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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