PROCEDURE. The words for this year are _balloon_, _tiger_, _football_, and _soldier_. Ask simply: "_What is a balloon?_" etc. If it appears that any of the words are not familiar to the child, substitution may be made from the following: _automobile_, _battle-ship_, _potato_, _store_. Make no comments on the responses until all the words have been given. In case of silence or hesitation in answering, the question may be repeated with a little encouragement; but supplementary questions are never in order. Ordinarily there is no difficulty in securing a response to the definition test of this year. The trouble comes in scoring the response. SCORING. The test is passed if two of the four words are defined in terms superior to use. "Superior to use" includes chiefly: (a) Definitions which describe the object or tell something of its nature (form, size, color, appearance, etc.); (b) definitions which give the substance or the materials or parts composing it; and (c) those which tell what class the object belongs to or what relation it bears to other classes of objects. It is possible to distinguish different grades of definitions in each of the above classes. A definition by description (type _a_) may be brief and partial, mentioning only one or two qualities or characteristics, or it may be relatively rich and complete. Likewise with definitions of type _b_. Classificatory definitions (type _c_) are of particularly uneven value, the lowest order being those which subsume the object to be defined under a remote class and give few if any characteristics to distinguish it from other members of the same class; as, for example, "A football is a thing you can have fun with," or, "A soldier is a person." The best classificatory definitions are those which subsume the object under the next higher class and give the more essential traits (perhaps a number of them) which distinguish the object from others of the class named; as, for example, "A tiger is a large animal like a cat; it lives in the jungle and eats men and other animals," or, "A soldier is a man who goes to war." These shades of distinction give interesting and valuable clues to the maturity and richness of the apperceptive processes, but for purposes of scoring it is necessary merely to decide whether the definition is given in terms superior to use. The following are samples of satisfactory definitions, those for each word being arranged roughly in the order of their value from excellent to barely passing:-- (a) _Balloon_ _Satisfactory._ "A balloon is a means of traveling through the air." "It is a kind of airship, made of cloth and filled with air so it can go up." "It is big and made of cloth. It has gas in it and carries people up in a basket that's fastened on to the bottom." "It is a thing you hold by a string and it goes up." "It is like a big bag with air in it." "It is a big thing that goes up."