THE METHOD OF AGE GRADATION 87 



ford but an incomplete survey because Chotzen had 

 to deal almost entirely with feeble-minded children 

 of a single age-group (8 to 9 years). 



Chotzen gives us a whole series of computations 

 to show the worth of the different tests for the diag- 

 nosis of feeble-mindedness : the perusal of his diffi- 

 cult exposition will afford the reader a new idea of 

 the complications that arise when one really tries to 

 analyze the serial system of tests to the last details. 

 Because a repetition of investigations of this sort, 

 especially with feeble-minded children of more ad- 

 vanced ages is very much to be desired, we feel war- 

 ranted in introducing here a brief account of the 

 methods that Chotzen pursued in evaluating the 

 tests. 



The simplest thing is, of course, the direct com- 

 parison of feeble-minded with normal children of 

 the same age (using Bobertag's data). 



From such a comparison it appeared (44, p. 440) that the back- 

 wardness of the feeble-minded was least in the following tests: 

 telling forenoon from afternoon, defining in terms of use, knowing 

 own age, esthetic judgment, telling the number of the fingers, 

 describing a picture, counting 13 pennies; the backwardness was, 

 on the other hand, very pronounced in the following : memory-span 

 for 16 syllables and for 5 digits, making change (80 Pfennige for 

 1 Mark), counting backward from 20 to 0, definition by super- 

 ordinate terms, comparison of t\vo objects from memory, recall of 

 a short story, naming the months and arranging the five weights. 



With children of other ages these lists would pre- 

 sumably change. Thus the explanation of the pic- 

 ture which is demanded of older children would 

 doubtless bring out a decided difference between 

 normal and feeble-minded children, though the de- 

 scription of the picture which is demanded of the 

 younger children did not bring out such a difference, 

 according to Chotzen. 



