III. Estimation and Testing of Finer Gradations of 

 Intelligence 



(With the aid of the method of ranks) 



1. The Problem 



The different degrees of intelligence that are re- 

 vealed by the Binet method are relatively gross: 

 within any one of its age-levels there are possible 

 other and very much finer gradations that escape 

 detection by its tests. Yet these very differences are 

 often enough just the ones of consequence, particu- 

 larly whenever we are dealing with the members or 

 a relatively homogeneous group. If, for instance, 

 we are comparing the pupils of a school grade that 

 are of approximately the same age and of corre- 

 sponding school training, these pupils fall mostly 

 into the same mental level according to the Binet- 

 Simon tests, yet they occupy a finely graded scale of 

 ranks within this level. Hence, the question what 

 place a pupil occupies among those of his age or of 

 his class in respect to intelligence must be answered 

 by other methods that seek to establish a rank-order 

 of the individuals concerned. 



Bank-orders of the pupils of a class can be estab- 

 lished in quite different ways. In the first place 

 there is the school or pedagogical rank-order that is 

 based on school performances. Thus we number the 

 pupils according to the outcome of a school exercise : 



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