376 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— J. 



Mr. D. Kennedy-Fraser. — The Use of the Elements of School Instruction 

 in Psychological Investigation. 

 A scheme is being devised whereby the elements of number work and reading may 

 be used in making psychological investigations under school conditions and for 

 diagnosing specific school disabilities. A series of tests is being formed in which both 

 the stimulus and the response involve either number or reading elements in such a 

 way as to discover any peculiar difficulties in forming associations between different 

 sensory categories. Illustrations from the results so far obtained indicate some 

 hitherto unsuspected sources of difficulty in the learning of number and reading and 

 point to some probably fruitful lines of further psychological and educational research. 

 This method may also form the basis of a number or reading ' profile ' for beginners 

 or those who are experiencing difficulty in acquiring these forms of skill. 



Miss M. M. MacTaggart. — Some Causes of Backwardness. 



This paper is based on the results of an examination of backward children of 

 ages eleven to twelve (the Scottish Qualifying Stage). The aim of the investigation 

 was to find the percentage of pupils whose retardation in school work was the result 

 of unsuitability of curriculum rather than of low intelligence. 



The procedure was to find the Mental Age, Intelligence Quotient, Educational 

 Age, and Accomplishment Quotient of each retarded pupil. The accomplishment 

 quotient, which is the ratio of the educational age to the mental age, ought to be 100 

 if the child is working up to his innate ability. It was considered satisfactory if it 

 was over 95. 



Fifty-eight per cent, of the backward children had accomplishment quotients of 

 95 or more ; they were, therefore, working at or above their innate ability. Their 

 scholastic performance, hi spite of this, was distinctly inferior to that of normal 

 children of the same age. The cause of their backwardness was, therefore, low 

 intelligence. 



Of the remainder 8 per cent, were backward for other reasons, e.g. weakness in a 

 specific subject, poor home circumstances, bad health. The remaining 34 per cent, 

 were mainly of normal intelligence or only slightly retarded ; some were even of 

 superior intelligence. To find whether their weak educational ability was compen- 

 sated by non-scholastic ability and out-of-school interests, they were examined by 

 three sets of non-scholastic tests specially constructed for this purpose — technical 

 information tests, picture tests, and a practical test. The performance of 27 per cent, 

 of them in at least one of the special tests was superior to their educational per- 

 formance : while they did not respond to the ordinary school curriculum, they were 

 keeidy interested in practical, technical, and mechanical subjects. The cause of 

 their retardation in school was apparently unsuitability of curriculum. 



Mr. H. Lowery. — The Musical Ability of School Children. 



Music appears to be, par excellence, that subject in which tests of native abdity 

 should be most successful, since the possession of musical gifts is usually regarded as 

 a special endowment. 



It is desirable that tests of musical ability should draw upon music for their 

 material, and, in the framing of such tests, it i3 important to distinguish between the 

 technical and interpretative sides of musical performance. 



The test of ' musical memory ' now presented consists of fifty examples made up 

 from variations of ten musical themes in ways suggested by the compositions of the 

 classical composers, together with musical phrases having no connection with these 

 themes. Judgments are to be given as to whether or not the examples in the test 

 seem to the subjects to be founded on the ten original themes. 



The following distribution was obtained with thirty-six girls (twelve to fourteen 

 years of age) : — 



Number having 80% to 100% correct (highest mark 90%) . . 2 



70% „ 79% 

 60% „ 69% 

 50% „ 59% 

 less than 50% correct (lowest mark 48%) 



9 

 17 



7 

 1 



36 



