THE METHOD OF AGE GRADATION 53 



which the examinee has been subjected up to the 

 moment of the testing. And it is just these external 

 influences that are different in the lower social 

 classes. Children of higher social status are much 

 more often in the company of adults, are stimulated 

 in manifold ways, are busy in play and amusements 

 with things that require thinking, acquire a totally 

 different vocabulary and a notable command of lan- 

 guage, and receive better school instruction ; all this 

 must bring it about that they meet the demands of 

 the tests better than children of the uncultured 

 classes. 



Presumably, each of these factors, internal and 

 external, endowment and environmental influences, 

 plays a role in the result ; but we shall have to wait 

 until very many, more extensive investigations have 

 been made before we can secure more exact knowl- 

 edge of the actual amount and range of influence 

 possessed by the one or the other of them. The way 

 to approach this problem is by special analysis of 

 the data: it will be necessary to find out in which 

 tests the superiority of the children of the cultured 

 classes is particularly evident and which tests are 



passed with equal facility by children of both classes. 



i 



The material for a preliminary comparison of this sort has been 

 drawn by Binet (36, p. 191) from the tables of Decroly and 

 Degand. In them it is very interesting to note that the special 

 superiority shown by better situated children is in those tests that 

 involve thinking in the true sense of the term apprehension, com- 

 parison, criticism, formation of concepts, synthesis, etc., though, 

 it must be admitted, most of them put a premium on linguistic 

 readiness. The tests here included are: description and explana- 

 tion of pictures, comparison of two objects, definition of abstract 

 terms, recognition of omissions in drawings, criticism of absurd 

 statements, arrangements of the five weights, naming 60 words in 

 three minutes. To these are to be added certain tests that ob- 



