The Relation of Continuous Association Scores to Mental Age of Adults
- Author:
James Hargan
Psychologist, Classification Clinic, Sing Sing Prison In giving the test of continuous association located by Terman on the ten year level1 it has seemed that instead of being used simply as an all or none test its scores should be developed into a scale for the prediction of higher mental ages. Wallin * has done some work along this line with mental defectives and epileptics, Pyle 3 has employed the test in a written form. It should be noted that this changes the test radically.
Experiments at Sing Sing Prison confirm the relation between scores on the continuous association test and mental age. Instead of employing the procedure of Terman, “Now, I want to see how many different words you can name in three minutes,” etc., the following directions are used. “Now I want to see how fast you can think. I want to see how long it will take you to think up one hundred different words. It doesn’t matter what they are, just any kind of words that come into your head like table, chair, river, fight, eat, cold and so on. The idea is speed. Already, begin.” For norms, see Hargan Scale below.
This change was made in order to improve the motivation of the test. With our subjects at least there is some tendency, when they are told that they will be given a test lasting three minutes, to drift along comfortably until the time has expired ; if they are told it will last until they say one hundred words even the most passive of them stirs himself to finish the task. Additional cooperation was secured by showing them during the first half minute that the examiner was taking down merely the number of words they uttered and not trying to tap their thoughts. Later his hand was moved so that they were unaware of the number of words attained. Repetitions were omitted wherever noticed by the examiner. 1 Terman, The Measurement of Intelligence, pp. 272?277. 2 J. E. W. Wallin, Experimental Studies of Mental Defectives. Ed. Psy. Mon. No. 7, Baltimore, 1912, pp. 155. 3 W. H. Pyle, The Examination of School Children. New York, 1913, pp. 70, especially 24-27.
It is not possible to take down the words verbatim even if advisable; the many attempts to do this have caused nndue neglect of this test. It is seldom that the words yielded seem to be of qualitative importance. Any striking tendencies may, however, be easily noted. The scoring is essentially that of Terman; the number of words are taken down in half minutes and the subject stopped at the end of three minutes. The correlation between number of words and Sing Sing mental age (measured by various group and individual tests as the case demands) is found to be:
Negro, all cases t .58 ? .05 71 cases Native born white applicants for parole .52 ? .06 71 cases Native born white admissions .54 ? .04 169 cases In validity this test seems to rank with the performance tests. These correlations are based only upon the cases achieving sixty words or more. Since we do not have many in Sing Sing below the mental age of ten it was felt that standardization upon the lower levels should be carried out elsewhere. Those who do not achieve at least sixty words upon the test here are simply marked as fail; a judgment is made as to whether this is due to mental defect, faulty cooperation, or emotional blocking. This test more than most others reflects psychic illness, and failure need not mean mental defect. Several scales were tried out based upon the regression equation, and the following tentative norms were adopted. Scales are given for each of the parts as well as the total in case a shorter, if less reliable, test is desired. According to our averages :
Sing Sing Terman
26% of total are given in the first half minute (28) 18% ” 11 11 ” ” 11 second ” 16% ” ” ” ” ” ” third ” 15% ” ” ” ” ” ” fourth ” 13% ” ” ” ” ” ” fifth ” 12% ” 11 li ” ” ” sixth ” (IB) (17) (14) (12) (ID
The figures in parentheses at the end are those obtained by Terman’s ten year olds for the same intervals and show substantial agreement. Hargan Scale For Predicting Mental Age from Continuous Association Scores Based upon 240 Adult Native-born White Cases 3 min. 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 2? min. 52 57 61 65 69 74 78 83 87 91 96 100 104 109 113 117 121 126 130 135 149 2 min. 45 49 53 56 60 64 68 71 75 79 83 86 90 94 98 101 105 109 113 116 121 1? min. 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78 81 84 87 90 93 96
T ^ -03 r .53 ? .03 r .51 ? .03 r .46 ? .03 r .42 ? .03 r .39 ? .04 1 min. 26 29 31 33 35 37 40 42 44 46 48 51 53 55 57 59 62 64 66 68 70 min. 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 25 26 27 29 30 31 33 34 35 36 38 39 40 42
Ihw r8/ 1 “LanSuaSe forms are the short hand of thought; and ineffective f lan?uage’ thinkinS is vague, clumsy, shorted?1 a ‘ VaSU6 mental C?ntent entails language not V 1 agam “Success in {t (continuous association) does ularv 1? ^ suppose, depend solely upon the size of the vocabthan 9 nnn 611 ^ear ?lds ordinarily know the meaning of more 5 000 ‘ W0 ‘ and years the vocabulary usually exceeds to na :?r S’ i?r eighty times as many as the subject is expected (1) ‘^ln tlree minutes. The main factors in success are two pnmTvf10 n6SSand vanety of previously made associations with state themsel S’ ^ ^ readiness of these associations to reinverbal elTr Sf6at outcry in some quarters against the excessive a oonfnci menc m present day intelligence tests. This seems to me should 1 t+ernJS’ Tllat which is frequently decried as verbal upon them doV 7 + CaUed “bookish” or “academic.” Success training A J lmpfy verbalistic intelligence but rather school ? s arp distinction should be made between “written verbalistic” and ‘4 oral verbalistic” as they imply very different capacities. Too much has undoubtedly been made of the first in the construction of intelligence tests to the exaltation of the bookworm ; too little has been made of the second despite the importance of these functions in the adjustments of everyday life. This test is possibly the only one in the field. The ability to get along well with people seems to the practical mind an important part of general intelligence; this implies a trained tongue, the degree of which continuous association attempts to measure.
This test is valuable in that it is relatively independent of school training, and measures something which is developed by the contacts in demands of everyday life. It does not produce the awkwardness which paper and pencil tests arouse in those non-clerical types who have been long away from school. It is convenient for the psychometrist in that he need not carry about any cumbersome testing material and may readily memorize the norms. It is useful in connection with other tests in showing tendencies to introversionextroversion. Those who are comparatively high in this test are probably extrovert, of good social intelligence, and incline towards such occupations as salesmanship and dealing with people. In Sing Sing we find that swindlers and confidence men while falling very low in other tests rate high in this one. Those who are comparatively low are probably more introverted, not so well adjusted to people, and do better in more solitary occupation. According to the diagnoses of the psychiatrists of Sing Sing Prison 62 per cent of all admissions are “normal.” A study of 165 cases who received a score of below 70 in the Continuous Association Test shows only 28 per cent “normal.” It seems, therefore, that anyone who fails this test should be regarded with suspicion.
Appreciation is expressed to Dr V. C. Branham, Assistant Commissioner of Correction, to Dr A. T. Baker, Director of the Classification Clinic, and to Warden Lewis E. Lawes of Sing Sing Prison for their encouragement of research and to Erwin Jarmel for clerical assistance.
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