Test I. BINET-SIMON.

The Binet-Simon Tests were put to the children along the lines described in Mr Burt's book, Mental and Scholastic Tests. An endeavour was made to adhere to the general instructions, and to the specific directions for each test, as closely as possible. The limitations in some of the tests are undoubtedly more precise than in those in general use, with the result that, although more accurate comparisons are possible between one child and another, or between the responses of the same child at different times, the mental ages work out rather lower than would be obtained by most observers.

Among the 150 children tested in this investigation, the median mental ratio for boys is 71, and for girls 65.

The order of difficulty of the various tests was not quite the same as the standard order. Following Mr Burt's lines (Mental and Scholastic Tests, p. 143), a new order for epileptics was drawn up. The difference in position occupied by the individual tests in this order, as compared with the standard, were then indicated by figures, + 2 indicating that the last had moved up two places in the scale and was relatively harder for epileptics, 3 indicating that it had moved down three places and was relatively easier. Owing, however, to the small number of children in the younger age groups, the negative results obtained in the tests for ages up to and including age 6 (tests 1-31) were so few, that any new positions assigned to those tests were unlikely to be accurate. When they have been deleted, the following table shows the differences in the order of difficulty for normal and epileptic children:

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Tests which epileptics find relatively harder include those where immediate memory is concerned (41, 52, 59), where written language is especially involved (35, 36), where there are difficult abstract questions

to be solved, calling for concentration and reasoning (50, 49, 58), and finally where the use of coins as in everyday life is tested (33, 40). The comparative failure under the last head is no doubt partly because our children, in an institution, do not come into frequent contact with money, as children do in ordinary life.

At the other end of the test we discover that epileptics find it relatively easier to deal with easy questions, especially where the definition and differentiation of concrete objects are concerned (37, 45, 34). Their sense of form is not so impaired as that of most of their faculties; hence their relative success in the missing feature test (32), and also in their reproduction of two designs (48), even though, in the latter case, they are handicapped by deficient immediate memory. Older memories of things learned by rote (42) seem well established, while they appear resistent to suggestion (57), though it is, to say the least of it, a little doubtful how far this test is really a measure of suggestibility. The ability to face a new situation, and count backwards from 20 to 1 comes rather as a surprise.

These differences in the difficulty of the various tests for epileptics, as compared with normal children, approximate pretty closely to those found by Mr Burt among children attending the M.D. Special Schools.

Test II. REASONING.

The whole series of Burt's graded Reasoning Tests (Ballard's Mental Tests, p. 90) was applied. One mark was given for each test correctly answered, but fractions of marks were not awarded. Tests are provided for each year from 7 to 14, and if a child were successful in the whole series his mental age would be 15. There are seven tests for age 7, and each correct test was therefore counted, in the determination of the mental age, as one-seventh of a year. For each subsequent year there are six tests and each test was therefore counted as one-sixth of a year. The maximum mental age in this and all subsequent tests is 15-0, and therefore in estimating the mental ratio, the divisor (physical age) was taken as 15.0 for all children who had passed their fifteenth birthday.

Six boys and nine girls failed to give a correct response in any tests. Taking these into consideration the median mental ratio for boys is 76 and for girls 67.

Test III. PORTEUS MAZE TESTS.

These tests were given in accordance with the instructions in Burt's Mental and Scholastic Tests, pp. 242 et seq.

Two boys and ten girls failed to do even the simplest test for a child

of 3 years old, and for them therefore a mental ratio could not be determined. The median ratio for boys works out at 77, and for girls 71.

It has frequently been asserted that the Porteus tests are a fairer guide to "Social Efficiency" than any other intelligence tests. It has been pointed out that temperamental deficiencies and instabilities count for a good deal in the performance of these tests. Carelessness or impulsiveness prove a heavy handicap; while alertness, the ability to plan, and to profit by mistakes are qualities that are given scope to pull their full weight. The understanding or construction of written language is ruled out altogether, while the whole test can be successfully carried out without the necessity for the child to translate a single idea into speech.

Now it is generally conceded that pure intelligence tests are of less value in estimating the social value of epileptics, than of other groups, because it is in virtue of his temperamental deficiencies and abnormalities rather than of his intellectual failure, that the epileptic finds it so difficult to take his place in society. If this is so, we should expect that this series of tests would be of especial value with epileptic children. An attempt was therefore made to compare the "social efficiency" value of Binet's tests, Burt's reasoning tests, and the Porteus maze tests. It was considered that the best judges of the social efficiency of the children would be those members of the staff who actually live with them for the longest number of hours each day. They see the children at their meals, at play, at domestic duties in the home; and cannot but notice how they behave when under discipline, and also when they imagine themselves to be free from observation and restraint. In almost all the cases, the opportunity for observation has lasted for not less than several months; in many of them it has been prolonged over years. Accordingly the following question was put to the sister in charge of the home in which each child lived:

Supposing this child never had any more fits and continued to attend school, into which of the following groups would he fall at the age of 16? A. Able to earn his own living under ordinary conditions, and manage his own affairs.

B. Not so good as A, but able to live outside an Institution, and make a fair contribution, under favourable conditions, to his own support. C. Requiring Institutional treatment; but could do useful work in an Institution.

D. Requiring permanent Institutional treatment, and unable to render any useful service.

[In answering this question, no account to be taken of physical defects, e.g. paralysis.]

As an outcome of these questions, the 150 children were divided into four grades of social efficiency with an accuracy, I believe, that is unlikely to be surpassed by any series of tests. Errors of temperament, whether slight or grave, defects of intelligence, and variability, whether of emotion or intellect, will of necessity have had their place in determining the class to which each child is assigned.

The median mental ratio of the children in each group was then determined for the Binet tests, the reasoning tests and the maze tests, and also the mean deviation from the median figure in each case. If the sisters' grouping is assumed correct, the criteria of accuracy for the three sets of tests will be (1) the orderly progression downwards of the median figures of the four groups, and (2) small and approximately constant figures denoting the mean deviations. Of these two criteria the latter is much the more important.

The results, which are striking, are shown in the following table:

It seems quite clear that the Binet tests are easily the most effective of the three in determining social efficiency, and that the Porteus maze tests are not so reliable even as the reasoning tests.

The classification by the sisters is least likely to be accurate in the case of the younger children, and, as a matter of fact, it is among them that the greatest deviations from the mean mental ratios occur. This becomes evident in the following table, from which the 45 children under twelve have been eliminated: the general conclusion, however, remaining unaltered:

These figures seem to shew, without any doubt, that the maze tests are not nearly so reliable as the Binet tests in measuring social efficiency.

Med. Psych. IV

16

Test IV. READING AS A MECHANICAL ART.

(Ballard's Mental Tests, p. 135.)

In this test the child reads aloud, as fast as he can, a standard series of common words, starting with words of two letters, and going on to words of three, and then four letters. There is no connection between the words; the test being designed to measure the "bare mechanical art of reading" only. The result of the test is expressed in the number of words correctly read in a minute. Ballard gives separate norms for boys and girls at the ages of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 14 years. The average between the norms for the two sexes was taken as the standard figure for 61, 71, 81, 91, 101, 141 years respectively. A graph was then drawn so that a mental age for this particular test could be determined, corresponding to any particular number of words correctly read in one minute. The highest mental age obtainable was taken as 15.0 years (123 words). A child who correctly read this, or a larger number, was therefore given a mental age of 15.

Ten girls and twelve boys were unable to read, and consequently gave no mental ratios in this test. The median is 69 for all boys tested, and 70 for the girls. This is the only test in which the figure for girls is higher than that for boys, and it is interesting to note that Ballard also found, among normal children, that girls excelled in this test.

Test V. READING AS A MEANS OF ACQUIRING IDEAS.
(Ballard's Mental Tests, p. 147.)

A story is read silently for three minutes, and the identical story is then put before the child with a number of words left blank. The child has to fill in as many of the missing words as he can. The test, therefore, measures both understanding and memory.

Ballard gives norms for children for each year from 9 to 14. These were taken as for 91, 101, 11, etc., years, and a graph drawn with a maximum mental age of 15 (22 correct words). Unless a child obtained four correct words (mental age 9.0), he was not placed in this test; and it was found that 51 out of 99 boys and 30 out of 51 girls could have no mental ratios assigned to them, because they only got three or less of the missing words. In each case therefore the median figure fell among those for whom there was no mental ratio. A graph of the ratios obtained was then made, and the curve extended downwards so that the figures assigned to the fiftieth boy and twenty-sixth girl respectively could be found. Determined in this way, the median for boys is found to be 59, and for girls 58.