40 PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS OF TESTING INTELLIGENCE 



Yet, even with these methods, qualitative differ- 

 ences in the area of irregularity are not touched, 

 and for this reason it will be necessary in many cases 

 to enter into a detailed analysis of the testing as well 

 as to state the two resultant values (mental age and 

 range of irregularity). It will often be distinctly 

 worth while to determine in which tests there was 

 special difficulty, in which special success. More- 

 over, the value of observing the child during the test- 

 ing must not be underestimated, for in many of the 

 tests there are ways of setting about the task that 

 may be of great interest (and for medical or peda- 

 gogical judgment of the case, too), though these 

 things would not be evident in the mere plus or minus 

 set down for the outcome of the tests. We may al- 

 lude, in this connection, among other things, to the 

 kind of description given to the pictures, to the enu- 

 meration of the 60 words, as well as to the behavior 

 of the child when he arranges in order the five 

 weights of like appearance but unlike weight. In 

 this last it is not nearly so important whether the 

 child finally gets the order right as it is to observe 

 the child's manner of going to work whether and 

 how quickly he grasps the unaccustomed problem, 

 whether he compares just two weights each time, or 

 compares each weight with all the others when he 

 puts it in place, or what not. In these investigations 

 we should be warned, then, against the bare pursuit 

 of numerical values : computation of such values and 

 qualitative analysis must supplement one another, 

 though, naturally, now the former and now the latter 

 will receive special stress, according to the setting 

 of the problem. 



