THE METHOD OF AGE GRADATION 89 



year old child four years. He found that when 

 children of a single mental level were considered, 

 some tests show a clear increase in capacity with in- 

 crease in chronological age, others no alteration, 

 while yet others an actual decrease. Tests of the 

 first sort, those that have an ' age-increase,' are 

 doubtless tests that have least to do with intelli- 

 gence, because, given the same intelligence, they are 

 nevertheless better done by the older children. On 

 the contrary, the other tests plainly stand in correla- 

 tion with intelligence, more particularly the tests in 

 which the older children actually turn out poorer. 

 The following are the results : 



Decided increase with age is shown in copying, writing from 

 dictation, the recall of two items of a story, naming the days of 

 the week. 



"The tests accompanied by strong increase with age relate, then, 

 almost exclusively to matters of information, particularly of 

 school-information, the assimilation of which depends on the ex- 

 tent of instruction. Where only a slight increase is to be detected, 

 information also plays a role in some of the tests (five coins, 

 knowing age), but for the most part the tests are such that not 

 only practise, but also the natural increase of efficiency will im- 

 prove the results, e. g., execution of three orders, counting back- 

 wards, repeating 16 syllables. In all of these the increase with 

 age is slight. No increase at all is present with tests that demand 

 ability to judge and to combine or with such as put severe de- 

 mands upon apprehension comparison, problem-questions, noting 

 omissions, repeating five digits" (44, p. 453). 



To this last category probably belong also: recall of six details 

 of a story, arrangement of the five weights, explanation of a pic- 

 ture, making change, though the figures are too small in these cases 

 to permit positive conclusions. 



When we compare with each other these different 

 lists obtained in different ways, we note, it is true, 

 deviations in many details, yet, taken as a whole, the 

 same tests keep cropping up as the ones in which 

 defective intelligence is laid bare, unconcealed and 



