ON MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FACTORS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION. 201 



three for an answer dealing with a three-year period, and four for one 

 who can at once say his age in, say, nine years. Similarly with the 

 days of the week. Four for an immediate response, three if prompting 

 is required such as not to-morrow but the day after. Most can only 

 answer the primary question, ' What day is to-day ? ' by the help of 

 prompting, as ' Is it Sunday ? ' An answer then gets one mark, but 

 by afterwards giving to-morrow and yesterday two can be obtained. 



Dr. Hogarth follows this test by asking, ' What is a cat? ' His 

 marking being — 



1. No response. If the child's confidence has been gained it is then probably 



defective. 



2. It's a kitten, it's a pussy, or it's a cat — One mark. 



3. What catches mice, &c. — Two marks. This is the average answer of a 



dull or backward child over seven, and of some of the less severe cases 

 of general mental deficiency. 



4. A cat has four legs, &c. — Three marks. The answer of an average child 



of seven to eight. 



5. A cat is an animal — Four marks. 



6. A cat is an animal with four legs and a fur coat — Five marks. 



Only bright intelligent children give such answers. Three, four, 

 and five marks on these scales show a considerable degree of intelli- 

 gence. 



The children with one and two marks are further asked ' Have you 

 a pussy-cat at home ? ' ' Have you ever seen a cat ? ' &c. Or to test 

 the number of ideas, ' What does a cat do? ' As a last resort, Dr. 

 Hogarth tries ' What would it do if you pulled its tail? ' He says this 

 always produces some such response as ' scratch ' or ' bite. ' 



For older children at the leaving stage similar methods can be used 

 with harder subjects, as steam-engine's, motors, &c, paying attention 

 to the boys' opportunities for knowledge. Still this test alone will not 

 suffice, for a boy may know some subject well and yet be unable to do 

 any form of school-work. It is not sufficient to test the intelligence 

 only without relation to school-work. 



In some cases the colour sense would be tested both as to the 

 power of naming simple colours and of matching simple colours. There 

 are a good many children who will match reasonably correctly and 

 yet make some extraordinary efforts at nomenclature. Generally, 

 however, a child of seven to eight years in the Elementary schools 

 should be able to name red, yellow, green, blue, brown, black, and 

 white, which are the ones employed. Some children up for the 

 examination may only know, say, red in addition to black and white. 

 All who respond at all to questions know black and white. Most of 

 the children who failed to give names of colours correctly match them 

 passably and do not make the classical errors in matching. If any- 

 thing, the tendency in naming seemed to be to put deep yellows with 

 red, and greens with blues, under either name. This is a phase passed 

 through in the infants' school some two or three years earlier with 

 the majority of normal children. 



The tests of educational acquirements or powers of production are, 

 with the present arrangements of schools and curricula, forced to play 

 an important part in the inquiry. Eoughly, these are confined to the 



