482 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



much training and experience with the medium itseif. 

 To one always accustomed to the cultural environment, 

 all language forms of expression seem to carry a 

 parallel meaning. For instance, most verbs and nouns 

 do so; they are related directly with what they are in- 

 tended to express. But certain forms of expression do 

 not. A definite example of this in the scale is that ab- 

 surdity of the ten year group, "An engineer said that 

 the more cars he had on his train the faster he could 

 go". To our minds, trained or accustomed to the forms 

 of logical expression, this seems to connote a meaning 

 which is correlated with the words used to express it as 

 in the verb run with a definite act, or the noun house with 

 a definite object. But to the child from a foreign en- 

 vironment this is not the case. Often have I seen the 

 puzzled expression when the child is asked to consider 

 the terms, "the more — the faster", to be cleared up in- 

 stantly when the examiner changes to the statement, 

 "The engineer said that when he wants his engine to go 

 faster he puts more cars on the train." Many of the 

 words used in the various tests as well as the vocabulary 

 test are common only in cultured environments. The child 

 from an illiterate home or a foreign language parochial 

 school does not know them. In analyzing a reaction to 

 any one of these tests the examiner needs to separate 

 the underlying fact of mental activity which the test may 

 bring out from the understanding of forms of expres- 

 sion used in the test. This kind of analysis and ad- 

 justment of the tests to suit conditions has not been 

 welcomed generally by authors of scales of mental abil- 

 ity. 



In meeting the criticism of the suitability of his vo- 

 cabulary test, Terman cited data from a number of Ital- 

 ian and Portugese children, with the following conclu- 

 sion : ' ' The fact that these children had learned another 

 language before learning English is reflected in their 

 inferior vocabulary scores for three or four years after 

 entering school. After that, however, the vocabulary 

 catches up with the mental age. After the mental age 

 of twelve years, these children are practically on a par 

 with their fellow pupils of the same mental age level who 



