16 PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS OP TESTING INTELLIGENCE 



ability may be reduced in the last analysis to an act 

 of 'combining' i. e., to a process of synthetizing con- 

 scious contents that previously had been present 

 separately ; accordingly, he invented that method in 

 which the subject of the test is to supply the correct 

 connections between the separated parts of a text in 

 which gaps have been introduced. 



This principle of combination or completion has 

 been used by many other investigators as a basis 

 for various forms of test. 



Thus, Ries (78) used two tests to measure the ability to bring 

 two terms into a logical relation: A: Pairs of words were pre- 

 sented that had a logical connection, e. g., fire-smoke, flood-need; 

 then a test was made whether the naming of the first member of 

 the pair reinstated the second by dint of the logical connection. 

 B. Single words were given to which such w r ords were to be ad- 

 joined as would form a causally connected pair. A similar method 

 is that of Winteler in which a term is to be named that is super- 

 ordinate, sub-ordinate or co-ordinate to the word given. 



The combination test of Masselon in which a meaningful sen- 

 tence is to be made from three given words has been extensively 

 used. Recently, Meuniann (16) has elaborated this method in a 

 special fashion ; he presents words so chosen that they can be 

 joined in a sentence either in a banal and logically rather crude 

 way or in a logically pertinent way, c. g., ass, bloivs; poor solution 

 "The ass receives blows." Good solution "The lazy ass receives 

 blows." The tendency toward the former or the latter rendition 

 is taken as an index of intelligence. 



Heilbronner's picture- test (8, 27) examines ability to complete 

 in the sphere of vision: the outline of an object is shown on a 

 series of small cards and in such a way that there is a pro- 

 gressive development from an initial very fragmentary outline by 

 successively more detailed stages up to a complete picture of the 

 object. The idea is to find out at what stage of incomplete delinea- 

 tion the object can be recognized. 



To this class of tests belongs also the fitting together of cut up 

 pictures (method of the Russian alienists, Bernstein and Rosso- 

 limo). 



Other psychologists, however, have considered 

 other and quite different mental functions to be the 

 touch-stone of intelligence. 



