A VOCABULARY TEST 159 



stimuli are used, i. e., the words pronounced as the pupils look at 

 them. 



There is another cause of difference and also of inaccuracy. In the 

 auditory test unfamiliar words are often mistaken for familiar ones 

 having a similar sound, e. g., barque for bark, baron for barren, and 

 in the visual test similarity of appearance plays a similar part. A 

 striking case of this form of error was made by a third grade boy who 

 marked the word amaranth as known. I said to him, ' You don't 

 know that word, do you ? ' He said, ' Yes/ in a tone that implied 

 surprise that I should question it. I then said, ' What is the word ? ' 

 He replied, ' Arithmetic' Another boy for similar reasons, partly 

 visual and partly auditory, marked ' eschar ' as known and when ques- 

 tioned called it ' sister/ 



On the other hand, young children often do not mark words that 

 are perfectly familiar to them, because the sounds and forms without 

 any other stimuli of suggesting words or circumstances are not suf- 

 ficient to immediately arouse the sense of familiarity. One second 

 grade boy who marked only eighteen words in the test, when questioned, 

 showed by synonyms or definitions, or illustrations, that he knew the 

 meaning of thirty of the words. 



Individual habits of thinking or judging is probably the largest 

 factor in tending to make the marking of words an unreliable index 

 of the actual mental furniture of the subject of the test. Some mark 

 as known every word that arouses the feeling of familiarity, while 

 others mark as known only those for which they are confident they can 

 give a correct definition. The differences in this respect are, how- 

 ever, most shown in the doubtful marks while the plus mark usually 

 means the arousal of a specific idea by the word form. This idea may 

 be vague or distinct, narrow or broad, general or detailed, correct or 

 incorrect, but it is the idea usually aroused by the word. 



Upon defining a list of words to a class of normal students after 

 they had marked them, it was found that the errors in marking words 

 as known and unknown usually cancelled each other, so that the 

 number finally reported as known and unknown was for most members 

 of the class about the same as when they were first marked. 



Instruction as to what shall be the standard for deciding whether 

 a word is known, such as " Count as known all words that you would 

 not, as to their meaning, need to look up in a dictionary if you saw 

 them in a sentence," helps to render the marking more uniform. 

 Another and more accurate method of bringing about uniformity of 

 standard is to ask the pupils to define or put in sentences some of the 

 words, then to mark the rest according as they think themselves able 

 or unable to indicate their meaning. 



If students are asked to define a certain proportion of the words 



