THE METHOD OF AGE GRADATION 51 



point to which Binet, unfortunately, does not refer. 

 Binet, himself, also induced some school directors 

 of his acquaintance to take up this question in 

 Paris. As a matter of fact, children in the superior 

 schools were not considered, and the attempt was 

 made merely to ascertain whether an influence of 

 social environment could be discerned within the 

 common schools. It is to be regretted that these 

 tests were carried out upon but an extraordinarily 

 small number of children. 



One investigation (p. 194) that was restricted to a single school 

 came to no result. In this study there were examined 54 children, 

 classified into four groups on the basis of social status. It may be 

 mere accident that relatively more advanced children were found 

 among the poorest than among the other groups ; but at any rate 

 there was no trace of any positive relationship between mental 

 age and social position. Probably, as Binet himself has already 

 pointed out, the social differences present in this study were too 

 small to affect the outcome. 



TABLE IV. 

 DISTRIBUTION OP TWO GROUPS OF 30 PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN EACH. 



f Retarded -> , Advanced x 



2 Years 1 Year At Age 1 Year 2 Years 



Poor Neighborhood. ... 1 11 13 4 1 



Good Neighborhood. ... 1 3 10 10 6 



On the other hand, a clear difference was revealed 

 when comparison was made of two public schools 

 (p. 198), one of which was situated in the poorest 

 quarter, the other in a relatively well-to-do neigh- 

 borhood of Paris. There were tested from each 

 school 30 children of corresponding ages, selected 

 without reference to their school performance. 

 Table IV shows how much more numerous were the 

 cases of retarded intelligence in the poorer school. 

 Binet figures the, average superiority in mental age 



