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Indiana University Studies 



grade children took less time and scored equal or better than this 

 slow group. 



A question impossible to answer from these figures is, what 

 would have been the effect on the quality of work of any group if 

 their rate of work had been changed? Would the slow ones have 

 done better if they had been speeded up, or would they have been 

 less accurate? Would the rapid workers have done better if they 

 had taken more time or would they have done about the same? 

 From the teaching point of view these questions are highly import- 

 ant, for it is in changing the requirements of speed that the teacher 

 can most easily influence the child's routine work. 



What is the reason some persons require a longer time than 

 others for a given task? One explanation is that it is a matter of 

 temperament. Individuals are geared to go at a definite rate, some 

 slow and some fast. A more potent reason is probably the dis- 

 traction of attention, the crowding in of extraneous impulses 

 that interrupt the main impulses and render them ineffective. 



Age and Efficiency 



That mere increase in age does not serve to develop a vocab- 

 ulary is evident from the age-score study of the fourth, sixth, and 

 eighth grade children. The entire distribution for these grades 

 is shown in Table 11. Fourth grade children range in age from 

 7 J years to 16 years; the limits for eighth grade children are 11 

 and 18 — a range of 9 years in the first group, and of 7 years in the 

 latter. Sixth grade children are intermediate. Table 11 gives 

 the scores for each half grade of the normal, accelerated, and re- 

 tarded children. From this it is seen that the youngest children 

 are in every case, except 4B, shghtly superior to the oldest group 

 of the same grade. Scarcely ever do they fall below those of 

 normal age. On the other hand, the children who are retarded 

 are inferior to both the normal and accelerated groups. Thus 

 much evidence that rapid promotion does not militate against 

 efficiency in visual vocabulary. 



