Part 26 (1/2)

25. _Southern._ If the answer is ”Southern States,” or ”Southern California,” say: ”_Yes; but what does 'southern'

mean?_” Do not credit unless explanation is forthcoming.

26. _Noticeable._ ”You notice a thing.” (Full credit.)

29. _Civil._ ”Civil War.” (Failure unless explained.) ”It means to be nice.” (Full credit.)

30. _Treasury._ Give half credit for definitions like ”Valuables,”

”Lots of money,” etc.; i.e., if the word is confused with _treasure._

32. _Ramble._ ”To go about fast.” (Half credit.)

38. _Nerve._ Half credit if the slang use is defined, ”You've got nerve,” etc.

41. _Majesty._ ”What you say to a king.” (Full credit.)

45. _Sportive._ ”To like sports.” (Half credit.) ”Playful” or ”happy.” (Full credit.)

46. _Hysterics._ ”You laugh and cry at the same time.” ”A kind of sickness.” ”A kind of fit.” (All full credit.)

48. _Repose._ ”You pose again.” (Failure.)

52. _Coinage._ ”A place where they make money.” (Half credit.)

56. _Dilapidated._ ”Something that's very old.” (Half credit.)

58. _Conscientious._ ”You're careful how you do your work.” (Full credit.)

60. _Artless._ ”No art.” (Failure unless correctly explained.)

61. _Priceless._ ”It has no price.” (Failure.)

66. _Promontory._ ”Something prominent.” (Failure unless child can explain what it refers to.)

68. _Milksop._ ”You sop up milk.” (Failure.)

73. _Harpy._ ”A kind of bird.” (Full credit.)

80. _Exaltation._ ”You feel good.” (Full credit.)

85. _Retroactive._ ”Acting backward.” (Full credit.)

92. _Theosophy._ ”A religion.” (Full credit.)

It is seen from the above examples that a very liberal standard has been used. Leniency in judging definitions is necessary because the child's power of expression lags farther behind his understanding than is true of adults, and also because for the young subject the word has a relatively less unitary existence.

REMARKS. Our vocabulary test was derived by selecting the last word of every sixth column in a dictionary containing approximately 18,000 words, presumably the 18,000 most common words in the language.

The test is based on the a.s.sumption that 100 words selected according to some arbitrary rule will be a large enough sampling to afford a fairly reliable index of a subject's entire vocabulary. Rather extensive experimentation with this list and others chosen in a similar manner has proved that the a.s.sumption is justified. Tests of the same 75 individuals with five different vocabulary tests of this type showed that the average difference between two tests of the same person was less than 5 per cent. This means that any one of the five tests used is reliable enough for all practical purposes. It is of no special importance that a given child's vocabulary is 8000 rather than 7600; the significance lies in the fact that it is approximately 8000 and not 4000, 12,000, or some other widely different number.

It may seem to the reader almost incredible that so small a sampling of words would give a reliable index of an individual's vocabulary. That it does so is due to the operation of the ordinary laws of chance. It is a.n.a.logous to predicting the results of an election when only a small proportion of the ballots have been counted. It is known that a ballot box contains 600 votes, and if when only 30 have been counted it is found that they are divided between two candidates in the proportion of 20 and 10, it is safe to predict that a complete count will give the two candidates approximately 400 and 200 respectively.[61] In 1914 about 1,000,000 votes were cast for governor in California, and when only 10,000 votes had been counted, or a hundredth of all, it was announced and conceded that Governor Johnson had been reelected by the 150,000 plurality. The completed count gave him 188,505 plurality. The error was less than 4 per cent of the total vote.