SCORING. The test is pa.s.sed if _three of the five_ words are satisfactorily defined. The definition need not be strictly logical nor the language elegant. It is sufficient if the definition shows that the meaning of the word is known. Definitions which define by means of an ill.u.s.tration are acceptable. The following are samples of satisfactory and unsatisfactory responses:--

(a) _Pity_

_Satisfactory._ "To be sorry for some one." "To feel compa.s.sion." "To have sympathy for a person." "To feel bad for some one." "It means you help a person out and don't like to have him suffer." "To have a feeling for people when they are treated wrong." "If anybody gets hurt real bad you pity them."

"It's when you feel sorry for a tramp and give him something to eat." "If some one is in trouble and you know how it feels to be in that condition, you pity him." "You see something that's wrong and have your feeling aroused."

Of 130 correct responses, 85, or 65 per cent, defined _pity_ as "to feel sorry for some one," or words to that effect. Less than 10 per cent defined by means of ill.u.s.tration.

_Unsatisfactory._ "To think of the poor." "To be good to others." "To help." "It means sorrow." "Mercy." "To cheer people up." "It means 'What a pity!'" "To be ashamed." "To be sick or poor." "It's when you break something."

Apart from inability to reply, which accounts for nearly one fourth of the failures, there is no predominant type of unsatisfactory response.

(b) _Revenge_

_Satisfactory._ "To get even with some one." "To get back on him." "To do something to the one who has done something to you." "To hurt them back." "To pay it back," or "Do something back." "To do something mean in return." "To square up with a person." "When somebody slaps you, you slap back." "You kill a person if he does something to you."

The expression "to get even" was found in 42 per cent of 120 correct answers; "to pay it back," or "To do something back," in 20 per cent; "To get back on him," in 17 per cent. About 8 per cent were ill.u.s.trations.

_Unsatisfactory._ "To be mad." "You try to hurt them." "To fight." "You hate a person." "To kill them." "It means hateful."

"To try again." "To think evil of some one." "To hate some one who has done you wrong." "To let a person off." "To go away from something."

Inability to reply accounts for a little over 40 per cent of the failures.

(c) _Charity_

_Satisfactory._ "To give to the poor." "To help those who are needy." "It is charity if you are poor and somebody helps you."

"To give to somebody without pay."

Of 110 correct replies, 72 per cent were worded substantially like the first or second given above.

_Unsatisfactory._ "A person who helps the poor." "A place where poor people get food and things." "It is a good life." "To be happy." "To be poor." "Charity is being treated good." "It is to be charitable." "Charity is selling something that is not worth much." "It means to be good" or "to be kind."

When the last named response is given, we should say: "_Explain what you mean._" If this brings an amplification of the response to "It means to do things for the poor," or the equivalent, the score is _plus_. "Charity means love" is also _minus_ if the statement cannot be further explained and is merely rote memory of the pa.s.sage in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Simply "To help" or "To give" is unsatisfactory. Half of the failures are due to inability to reply.

(d) _Envy_

_Satisfactory._ "You envy some one who has something you want."

"It's the way you feel when you see some one with something nicer than you have." "It's when a poor girl sees a rich girl with nice dresses and things." "You hate some one because they've got something you want." "Jealousy" (satisfactory if subject can explain what _jealousy_ means; otherwise it is _minus_). "It's when you see a person better off than you are."

Nearly three fourths of the correct responses say in substance, "You envy a person who has something you want." Most of the others are concrete ill.u.s.trations.

_Unsatisfactory._ "To hate some one," or simply "To hate." "You don't like 'em." "Bad feeling toward any one." "To be a great man or woman." "Not to be nice to people." "What we do to our enemies."

Inability to respond accounts for 55 per cent of the failures.

(e) _Justice_

_Satisfactory._ "To give people what they deserve." "It means that everybody is treated the same way, whether he is rich or poor." "It's what you get when you go to court." "If one does something and gets punished, that's justice." "To do the square thing." "To give everybody his dues." "Let every one have what's coming to him." "To do the right thing by any one." "If two people do the same thing and they let one go without punishing, that is not justice."

Approximately 38 per cent of 102 correct responses referred to treating everybody the same way; 25 per cent to "doing the square thing", 12 per cent were concrete ill.u.s.trations; and 4 per cent were definitions of what justice is not.

_Unsatisfactory._ "It means to have peace." "It is where they have court." "It's the Courthouse." "To be honest." "Where one is just" (_minus_, unless further explained). "To do right"

(_minus_, unless in explaining _right_ the subject gives a definition of _justice_).

It is very necessary, in case of such answers as "Justice is to do right," "To be just," etc., that the subject be urged to explain further what he means. "To do right" includes nearly 12 per cent of all answers, and is given by the very brightest children. Most of these are able, when urged, to complete the definition in a satisfactory manner.

REMARKS. The reader may be surprised that the ability to define common abstract words should develop so late. Most children who have had anything like ordinary home or school environment have doubtless heard all of these words countless times before the age of 12 years.

Nevertheless, the statistics from the test show unmistakably that before this age such words have but limited and vague meaning. Other vocabulary studies confirm this fact so completely that we may say there is hardly any trait in which 12- to 14-year intelligence more uniformly excels that of the 9- or 10-year level.

This is readily understandable when we consider the nature of abstract meanings and the intellectual processes by which we arrive at them.

Unlike such words as _tree_, _house_, etc., the ideas they contain are not the immediate result of perceptual processes, in which even childish intelligence is adept, but are a refined and secondary product of relationships between other ideas. They require the logical processes of comparison, abstraction, and generalization. One cannot see justice, for example, but one is often confronted with situations in which justice or injustice is an element; and given a certain degree of abstraction and generalization, out of such situations the idea of justice will gradually be evolved.

The formation and use of abstract ideas, of one kind or another, represent, _par excellence_, the "higher thought processes." It is not without significance that delinquents who test near the border-line of mental deficiency show such inferior ability in arriving at correct generalizations regarding matters of social and moral relationships. We cannot expect a mind of defective generalizing ability to form very definite or correct notions about justice, law, fairness, ownership rights, etc.; and if the ideas themselves are not fairly clear, the rules of conduct based upon them cannot make a very powerful appeal.[69]

[69] See also p. 298 _ff._

Binet used the words _charity_, _justice_, and _kindness_, and required two successes. In the 1911 revision he shifted the test from year XI to year XII, where it more nearly belongs. G.o.ddard also places it in year XII and uses Binet's words, translating _bonte_, however, as _goodness_ instead of _kindness_. Kuhlmann retains the test in year XI and adds _bravery_ and _revenge_, requiring three correct definitions out of five. Bobertag uses _pity_, _envy_, and _justice_, requires two correct definitions, and finds the test just hard enough for year XII.

After using the words _goodness_ and _kindness_ in two series of tests, we have discarded them as objectionable in that they give rise to so many doubtful definitions. Even intelligent children often say: "Goodness means to do something good," "Kindness means to be kind to some one," etc. These definitions in a circle occur less than half as often with _pity_, _revenge_, and _envy_, which are also superior to _charity_ and _justice_ in this respect.

The relative difficulty of our five words is indicated by the order in which we have listed them in the test (i.e., beginning with the easiest and ending with the hardest). On the standard of three correct definitions, these words fit very accurately in year XII.

XII, 3. THE BALL-AND-FIELD TEST (SUPERIOR PLAN)

PROCEDURE, as in year VIII, test 1.

SCORING. Score 3 (or superior plan) is required for pa.s.sing in year XII.[70]

[70] See scoring card.

XII, 4. DISSECTED SENTENCES

The following disarranged sentences are used:--

FOR THE STARTED AN WE COUNTRY EARLY AT HOUR

TO ASKED PAPER MY TEACHER CORRECT I MY

A DEFENDS DOG GOOD HIS BRAVELY MASTER

These should be printed in type like that used above. The Stanford record booklet contains the sentences in convenient form.

It is not permissible to subst.i.tute written words or printed script, as that would make the test harder. All the words should be printed in caps in order that no clue shall be given as to the first word in a sentence.

For a similar reason the period is omitted.

PROCEDURE. Say: "_Here is a sentence that has the words all mixed up so that they don't make any sense. If the words were changed around in the right order they would make a good sentence. Look carefully and see if you can tell me how the sentence ought to read._"