96 PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS OF TESTING INTELLIGENCE 



ear" fluctuate in rank-assignment only between the 6th and the 

 7th years, the "recognition of omissions in drawings" only between 

 the 7th and the 8th years, the test of "counting backward from 20" 

 only between the 8th and the 9th year, that of "naming the months" 

 only between the 9th and the 10th year. The "hard problem-ques- 

 tions" test is ranked by all these investigators save Goddard in 

 the 12th year, etc. 



It will be seen that these are for the most part 

 tests in which verbal formulation plays little or 

 no part. It is, indeed, quite natural that where the 

 problem and its answer are intimately connected 

 with verbal expression, national peculiarities must 

 make themselves evident; but it will be possible to 

 reduce this source of error if more heed is given in 

 the future to the transference of the tests from the 

 one language to the other in such a way as to fit as 

 exactly as possible the linguistic and cultural tone 

 of the second nation and thus secure equal difficulty 

 in the problems : the actual verbal translation that 

 has been used by many investigators has often failed 

 to meet this requirement. Thus, for instance, the 

 rather free adaptation of the method that Bobertag 

 made for Germany has yielded in many cases re- 

 sults in closer accord with those of Binet than have 

 the literal translations of the Americans. 



Finally, we shall have also to judge the value of a 

 test according as it does succeed in bringing plainly 

 to light differences in intelligence that are known 

 from other sources to exist. On this point Mile. 

 Descoeudres (46) has carried out a study of the 

 present Binet tests, though, to be sure, upon but a 

 limited number of children. She tested one "intelli- 

 gent" and one "unintelligent" child from each of the 

 six years of a boys' and of a girls' Volksschule: the 

 selection was determined by the teachers' estimates 





