RECORDS OF MEETINGS 281 



During the period October, 1912, to April, 1913, 103 of the 120 boys 

 which the school normally accommodates were tested by the 1911 Revised 

 Binet-Simon Scale, with the following results : 10 per cent were of nor- 

 mal intelligence, 70 per cent were from one to four years backward, and 

 20 per cent were distinctly feeble-minded, being from four to six years 

 behind. The average chronological age was thirteen years and ten 

 months, and the average age retardation per pupil was two and one-half 

 years. 



These results reinforce the conclusion of others who have used the 

 Binet-Simon Tests on incorrigibles, that mental deficiency is at least an 

 accompaniment and possibly a cause of incorrigibility. 



Dr. Williamson experimentally tested 31 males and 69 females — in 

 all, 100 subjects. "The ^memory span' is the largest amount of any given 

 material which can always be correctly reproduced immediately after one 

 presentation." ^ The writer has hoped to throw some light on individual 

 and sex differences in immediate memory span. 



The materials used were letters (consonants) and figures of one place. 

 The subjects were told what constituted the immediate memory span, 

 and informed that the presentations would be of a gradually expanding 

 series. From time to time, the number of elements in any given "series- 

 presentation" was mentioned by the experimenter. To avoid rhythm, 

 letters and figures were pronounced in a loud tone of voice, to the beats 

 of a metronome — one a second. The subjects listened until the comple- 

 tion of the reading of any one series, and then immediately wrote down, 

 in the proper order, what they had heard. Another set was then pre- 

 sented. The test began with a series of six letters, then one of seven was 

 pronounced, one of eight, and finally a series of nine letters. Next an- 

 other series of six letters was read, then one of seven, one of eight, and 

 again one of nine. Subjects recorded after each "set-presentation." Hav- 

 ing completed the eight sets of letters, the eight series of figures were 

 given in exactly the same manner. Credit was given for series correctly 

 reproduced in the proper order. Each individual was credited with the 

 highest number of letters or figures that he reproduced correctly every 

 time that many were given him. This was taken as his Immediate Mem- 

 ory Span. 



With increase in series length, passing from six-series to nine-series, 

 there is a steady increase in the average number of mistakes per indi- 

 vidual, and in the average deviation (excepting in the nine-series, where 

 the A.D. is less than in the eight-series). This is practically the case, 

 when (on a per cent basis) we consider the sexes separately. With series 



1 Ladd and Woodworth, "Physiological Psychology," page 574. 



