A Brief Binet-Simon Scale
- Author:
Edgar A. Doll,
Assistant Psychologtst, the Training School at Vineland, N. J. {Concluded.) Ill
Although the brief scale was developed as an experimental method, it has seemed advisable to consider its actual practicability. As a critique of its practical value I have applied the first brief scale (table III) to 154 public school children in the first four primarygrades of a large school in Millville, N. J. I am indebted to Mr. Ira J. Steiner, principal of the school, and to his teachers for the opportunity of making these tests. The tests were made by Mr. Steiner and myself with the assistance of three members of the Research Staff of the Vineland Laboratory. The purpose was twofold, first to determine the value of the tests under practical working conditions, and second to test the validity of the method in the hands of an untrained examiner. Mr. Steiner had had some previous acquaintance with educational measurements, and also was familiar with the general nature of the B-S Scale, and had observed a number of examinations in which it was employed. I personally instructed Mr. Steiner in the procedures and scores employed in giving the brief scale tests. The instruction period consumed no more than fifteen minutes and was supplemented by only one brief conference on checking his results. With this minimum of instruction, unassisted by previous experience in giving the tests, Mr. Steiner was able to secure results which, upon close analysis, proved to be unquestionably as accurate as those obtained by myself and the research assistants. From this it would appear that a school-man of intelligence and some training in educational measurements, may acquire in less than a half hour’s instruction the technique required for applying the brief scale satisfactorily, if this has been preceded (or presumably supplemented) by some observation of actual examinations.
The children were examined under very satisfactory conditions in cloak-rooms and ends of corridors. All children present in the first four primary grades were tested. The children were for the most part from the homes of mill-workers of inferior social status. No exact data on social status and nationality were obtained; school grade was the only satisfactory criterion of the ability of the subjects. The examination times for the individual tests varied from five to ten minutes per subject.
The final data were analyzed by mental age distributions, I. Q. distribution, school grade, and life age, in various combinations. The data for each examiner were also analyzed for influences of personal equation, but no serious errors were found. The total I. Q. distribution proved to be as nearly symmetrical as could be expected from so small a number of subjects, but the mode was located at I. Q. 85 instead of I. Q. 100. The I. Q. distributions by school grades were skewed toward average intelligence in the first two grades, but toward inferior intelligence in the third and fourth grades. This is not surprising, for in a school selection of children coming from homes of inferior social status, which status is known to be associated “with inferior intelligence status, the children as a group would be, on the average, of inferior ability. It might also have been expected that the selective influence of the course of study would cull out the more seriously retarded in the third and fourth grades, whereas these retardates would not yet be so differentiated in the first two grades.
The position of the I. Q. mode at 85 instead of at 100 might be interpreted as indicating either that the scaled arrangement of the tests was too difficult, or that the subjects actually represented inferior levels of ability. All available evidence points toward the latter assumption, for in addition to the inferior social and pedagogical selection the school teachers and principal, from their experience with the children, felt that they were decidedly inferior to the average “run” of school children. This conclusion is amply supported by an analysis of the age-grade distribution of the children. Conversely, the validity of the arrangement of the tests is supported by the fact that individual children were able to demonstrate very superior intelligence, for of the 154 children one was of I. Q. 125, two of I. Q. 130, and two of I. Q. 135. All five of these children were under 7.5 years in life age, and all were advanced in school grade, though not so much as their intelligence levels warranted The simplest and most convincing demonstration of the validity ?f the brief scale with these children is made by comparing intelligence status with scholastic status, on the assumption that school grade is a fair measure of a child’s intelligence. This comparison by school grade is rather complicated in the absence of some index which permits the grouping of all the children in one classification. To overcome this difficulty I have used a pedagogical quotient, or P. Q., the ratio of the standard age for a grade to the actual age of a child in that grade. By means of this ratio one is able to eliminate one term in the statistical analysis, and is able to summate and graph a total distribution. In using the pedagogical quotient I have taken 6.5 years as the standard age for the first grade, 7.5 for the second, and so on. Thus, a child ten years old in the second grade would have a P. Q. of ^| = .75. This P. Q. can be compared directly with the child’s I. Q., his intelligence quotient, the ratio of mental age to life age, as a measure of adequate school progress. Unless the ratio of a child’s P. Q. to his I. Q. is approximately unity, it is very likely that something is wrong with the school progress of that child, perhaps his attitude, perhaps poor teaching, perhaps the course of study, or what not. When P. Q. and I. Q. are not closely similar, at least some account should be taken of outside factors. Numerous objections may be raised against taking the pedagogical ratio here proposed as a measure of scholastic accomplishment and ability; illnesses, late entrance, language difficulties, many factors retard a child in school. But it was necessary to obtain some one reliable measure of school standing in order to avoid the difficulties of Table VIII.?Total Frequency Distribution of the P. Q.-I. Q. Relationship for 154 School Children. Median I. Q. =84, Median P. Q. =92. P. Q. ?I. Q. Correlation = .82 Q. 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 Total pQ * 50 55 1 i 60 1 1 2 65 1 1 2 70 3 1 1 5 75 1 4 2 7 80 3 1 1 5 85 4 11 5 6 3 29 90 3 1 3 2 5 1 15 95 2 4 11 3 5 1 26 100 2 5 3 3 3 1 2 19 105 1 2 6 3 3 1 16 110 2 2 1 3 2 10 H5 12 2 1 1 2 1 10 120 113 1 6 ~125~ 1 1 Total 1 0 2 6 17 16 17 25 20 15 11 8 8 2 1 1 2 2 154 A BRIEF BINET-SIMON SCALE. 257 unwieldy tabulations of data. This purpose the P. Q. serves, and it is beyond the present argument to enter into a discussion of its merits and disadvantages. The ratio of years in school to grade achieved is not so good for this purpose as the ratio suggested. Table VIII shows the total I. Q. ? P. Q. distribution of the 154 Millville school children. The Pearson r = .82, which is sufficiently high to demonstrate the practical validity of the brief scale ratings. It is probable that the I. Q. term is more reliable than the P. Q. term as a measure of intelligence, and that if the P. Q. were a more reliable estimate of intelligence the correlation would have been materially increased. It is obvious from the table that superiority of I. Q. is not accompanied by commensurate superiority of P. Q., which indicates, as Terman has well expressed it, that the (intellectually) bright children are (relatively) retarded scholastically. The P. Q. mode, however, is at 90, whereas the I. Q. mode is at 85, so it appears that the average and dull children are scholastically advanced in relation to their intelligence.
From the foregoing it is not too much to hope that this study has indicated a profitable field of research and has developed a reliable ready-to-hand measuring scale for rapid mental testing. Without doubt, it is possible for psychology, by following the implications of these results, to make mental tests available for everyday uses and needs, by eliminating the prohibitive costs of time and expertness now required for reliable mental testing. If we can make these laboratory methods over into tools of everyday life we shall indeed realize the aim of making psychology indispensable to all branches of social science.
APPENDIX. Table IX.?Frequency Distribution, Showing Correlation Between Mental Ages by the Complete (Goddard) Binet-Simon Scale and by the First Brief Scale, for Normal Subjects. Brief scale ages Complete scale ages 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.8 7.0 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 8.0 8.2 8.4 8.6 8.8 9.0 9.2 9.4 10.0 10.2 10.4 10.6 10.8 Total. 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 9.0 9.5 10.0
Table X.?Frequency Distribution, Showing Correlation Between Mental Ages by the Complete (Goddard) Binet-Simon Scale and by the Second Brief Scale, for Normal Subjects. Brief scale ages 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0 Total Complete scab ages 5.0 1 5.2 1 5.4 1 1 5.6 2 5.8 1 6.0 2 6.2 1 6.4 14 1 6.6 4 6.8 1 7.0 12 3 7.2 113 7.4 2 7.6 1 1 7.8 2 8.0 8.2 8.4 8.6 9.0 9.2 9.4 9.6 9.8 10.0 10.2 10.4 10.6 8 2 5 2 9 1 3 1 3 1 0 4 1 6 2 2 4 0 4 1 5 1 1 2 2 1 2 3 4 Total 6 4 10 8 10 260 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. Table XI.?Frequency Distribution, Showing Correlation Between Mental Ages by the Complete (Goddard) Binet-Simon Scale and by the First Brief Scale, for Feebleminded Subjects. Brief scale ages “>V> >??-. Complete scale ages 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.8 7.0 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 8.0 8.2 8.4 9.0 9.2 9.4 9.6 9.8 10.0 10.2 10.4 10.6 10.8 Total… 4.0 4.5 5.0 23 5.5 12 6.0 6.5 20 7.0 26 7.5 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0
Table XII.?Frequency Distribution, Showing Correlation Between Mental Ages by the Complete (Goddard) Binet-Simon Scale and by the Second Brief Scale, for Feebleminded Subjects. Brief scale ages 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 Complete scale ages 5.0 5.2 … 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.8 7.0 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 8.0 8.2 8.4 8.6 8.8 9.0 9.2 9.4 9.6 9.8 10.0 10.2 10.4 10.6 10.8 Total 26 21 9.0 9.5 10.0 21 16 Total 7 10 4 4 6 11 6 8 4 6 4 12 10 8 5 5 12 10 8 3 6 8 2 2 3 5 7 2 10 1 189
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