A Test for Supermen 



43 



continue until eight or ten successive 

 words have been missed and to score 

 the remainder niiiins without giving 

 them." 



As to scoring, "credit a response in 

 full if it gives one correct meaning for a 

 word, regardless of whether that mean- 

 ing is the most common one, and re- 

 gardless of whether it is the original or 

 a derived meaning. Occasionally half 

 credit ma}^ be given, but this should 

 be avoided as far as possible. 



"To find the entire vocabulary (of 

 the individual who is being examined), 

 multiply the number of words known 

 by 180. Thus the child who defines 

 twenty words correctly has a vocabu- 

 lary of 20 X 180 = 3,600 words; fifty 

 correct definitions would mean a vocab- 

 ulary of 9,000 words, etc. The follow- 

 ing are the standards for different years, 

 as determined by the vocabulary 

 reached by 60% to 65% of the subjects 

 of the various mental levels : 



Words Vocabulary 



Eight years 



Ten years 



Twelve years. . . 

 Fourteen years . 

 Average adult. . 

 Superior adult. 



Although the form of the definition is 

 significant, it is not taken into con- 

 sideration in scoring. The test is in- 

 tended to explore the range of ideas 

 rather than the evolution of thought 

 forms. When it is evident that the 

 child has one fairly correct meaning for 

 a word, he is given full credit for it, 

 however poorly the definition may have 

 been stated. 



"While there is naturally some diffi- 

 culty now and then in deciding whether 

 a given definition is correct, this happens 

 much less frequently than one would ex- 

 pect. In order to get a definite idea of 

 the extent of error due to the individual 

 differences among examiners, we have 

 had the definitions of twenty-five sub- 

 jects graded independently by ten dif- 

 ferent persons. The results showed an 

 average difference below three in the 

 number of definitions scored ph{s. Since 

 these subjects attempted on an average 



about sixty words, the average number 

 of doubtful definitions per subject was 

 below 5% of the number attempted. 



"An idea of the degree of leniency to 

 be exercised may be had from the follow- 

 ing examples of definitions, which are 

 mostly low grade, but acceptable: 



1. Orange. "An orange is to eat." "It is 

 yellow and grows on a tree." 



2. Bonfire. "You burn it outdoors." "You 

 burn some leaves or things." "It's a big fire." 



3. Roar. "A lion roars." "You holler 

 loud." 



4. Gown. "To sleep in." "It's a nightie." 

 "It's a nice gown that ladies wear.'.' 



The test is particularly interesting 

 since it seems to give reasonably correct 

 measurement of the intelligence of adults, 

 and there are very few single tests which 

 can be easily applied, that give re- 

 liable results in such cases. There is, 

 Professor Terman finds, a well-marked 

 difference between the average adult 

 and the superior adult, although the 

 number of words in the vocabulary by 

 which they differ is only ten. A majority 

 of average adults can give sixty-five 

 words, but only one-third of them can 

 give seventy-five words — the test of the 

 superior adult. But of those whom ex- 

 tensive testing shows to be "superior 

 adults," 90% can pass the superior adult 

 test of seventy-five definitions. ' ' Ability 

 to pass the test is relatively independent 

 of the number of years the subject has 

 attended school, our business men show- 

 ing even a higher percentage of passes 

 than high-school pupils." 



While this test may be more reliable 

 than any other single test, it would be a 

 mistake to place too much dependence 

 on it. It is somewhat influenced by the 

 kind of training and education one has 

 had — although less so than would be ex- 

 pected. No single test, and no series of 

 tests, is an adequate measure of the 

 general intelligence. The trained ex- 

 aminer takes account of ever}^ clue he 

 can find, and it would be a disservice to 

 psychology to give the impression that 

 any tests are infallible, especially if 

 given by unskilled examiners or by auto- 

 examination. The most that is claimed 

 for the Binet tests, for example, may be 

 stated in Dr. TeiTnan's own words : 



"One who knows how to apply the 



