Measuring Intelligence
- Author:
Lewis M.
Terman and Maud A. Merrill. Harrap & Co. 10/6.
The issue, 21 years after the first appearance of the Stanford Revision of the Binet Simon Scale, of a Revised Scale marks a further step in the gradual approach to more finely discriminated and more valid assessments of intelligence.
Ten years spent in further research and in the collection of data necessary for the restandardisation of scores, have preceded the publication of ” Measuring Intelligence ” by which title, the ” Guide to the Administration of the New Revision of the StanfordBinet Tests of Intelligence” is to be known.
The joint authors, Lewis M. Terman and Maud A. Merrill, state that they have been able to base the standardisation in the new book upon much larger and more representative populations than were available for the 1916 edition.
Two scales, known as Form L and Form M, are now published. They claim to differ in content, but to be equivalent in range, difficulty, reliability and validity; and at one and the same time, they are said to provide alternative material for re-testing and a safeguard against the influence of coaching. Each form of the New Revision contains 129 tests, instead of the 90 of the first Stanford Revision. At the lower levels, the tests are less verbal in character than formerly and make use of attractive performance material; at the upper levels, the dependence upon rote memory has been reduced, and two supplementary ” superior adult” tests have been added. The range of both the new scales is extended at both upper and lower levels so that it is possible now to obtain a measure of Mental Age between 2-22? years inclusive. The inclusion of tables to facilitate the calculation of I.Q.s between 30 and 170, within the limits of a chronological age range 2?-16? years, is a valuable addition to the New Revision. One tiling only is to be regretted with regard to this new volume. In spite of the fact that chapters are devoted to the development of standardisation of the tests and the statistical analysis of the scores, those extremely valuable chapters on ” The Uses of Intelligence” and ” Sources of Error in Judging Intelligence”, which preceded the description of the tests in the 1916 edition, have been omitted.
Until there has been sufficient opportunity to use these new Forms, it is of course impossible to assess critically the advantages of the new over the old revision.
Box of Test Material. Form L, 45/-. Form M, 45/’-. Printed Card Material only : Form L, 4/6. Form M, 4/6. Record Booklets, Form L, per 25, 7/6; Form M. do., 7/6. Harrap & Co.
The descriptive advertisement and the price of this material lead one to expect a quality vastly superior to that actually supplied. It remains to be seen whether or not the small objects for tests in the lower age-ranges will require the frequent replacement that mere inspection suggests. In the card material, the diagramatic drawings are clear, but those intended to be realistic are surprisingly bad. M.D.
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