Part 36 (1/2)

Type (5), inability to respond.

REMARKS. The fable test, or the ”test of generalization,” as it may aptly be named, was used by the writer in a study of the intellectual processes of bright and dull boys in 1905,[71] and was further standardized by the writer and Mr. Childs in 1911.[72] It has proved its worth in a number of investigations. It has been necessary, however, to simplify the rather elaborate method of scoring which was proposed in 1911, not because of any logical fault of the method, but because of the difficulty in teaching examiners to use the system correctly. The method explained above is somewhat coa.r.s.er, but it has the advantage of being much easier to learn.

[71] ”Genius and Stupidity,” in _Pedagogical Seminary_, vol. xiii, pp. 307-73.

[72] ”A Tentative Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Measuring Scale of Intelligence,” _Journal of Educational Psychology_ (1912).

The generalization test presents for interpretation situations which are closely paralleled in the everyday social experience of human beings. It tests the subject's ability to understand motives underlying acts or att.i.tudes. It gives a clue to the status of the social consciousness.

This is highly important in the diagnosis of the upper range of mental defectiveness. The criterion of the subnormal's fitness for life outside an inst.i.tution is his ability to understand social relations and to adjust himself to them. Failure of a subnormal to meet this criterion may lead him to break common conventions, and to appear disrespectful, sulky, stubborn, or in some other way queer and exceptional. He is likely to be misunderstood, because he so easily misunderstands others.

The skein of human motives is too complex for his limited intelligence to untangle.

Ethnological studies have shown in an interesting way the social origin of the moral judgment. The rect.i.tude of the moral life, therefore, depends on the accuracy of the social judgment. It would be interesting to know what proportion of offenders have transgressed moral codes because of continued failure to grasp the essential lessons presented by human situations.

For the intelligent child even the common incidents of life carry an endless succession of lessons in right conduct. On the average school playground not an hour pa.s.ses without some happening which is fraught with a moral hint to those who have intelligence enough to generalize the situation. A boy plays unfairly and is barred from the game. One bullies his weaker companion and arouses the anger and scorn of all his fellows. Another vents his braggadocio and feels at once the withering scorn of those who listen. Laziness, selfishness, meanness, dishonesty, ingrat.i.tude, inconstancy, inordinate pride, and the countless other faults all have their social penalties. The child of normal intelligence sees the point, draws the appropriate lesson and (provided emotions and will are also normal) applies it more or less effectively as a guide to his own conduct. To the feeble-minded child, all but lacking in the power of abstraction and generalization, the situation conveys no such lesson. It is but a muddle of concrete events without general significance; or even if its meaning is vaguely apprehended, the powers of inhibition are insufficient to guarantee that right action will follow.

It is for this reason that the generalization test is so valuable in the mental examinations of delinquents. It presents a moral situation, imagined, to be sure, but none the less real to the individual of normal comprehension. It tells us quickly whether the subject tested is able to see beyond the incidents of the given situation and to grasp their wider relations--whether he is able to generalize the concrete.

The following responses made by feeble-minded delinquents from 16 to 21 years of age demonstrate sufficiently their inability to comprehend the moral situation:--

_Hercules and the Wagoner._ ”Teaches you to look where you are going.” ”Not to help any one who is stuck in the mud.” ”Not to whip oxen.” ”Teaches that Hercules was mean.” ”Teaches us to carry a stick along to pry the wheels out.”

_The Fox and the Crow._ ”Not to sing when eating.” ”To keep away from strangers.” ”To swallow it before you sing.” ”Not to be stingy.” ”Not to listen to evil.” ”The fox was wiser than the crow.” ”Not to be selfish with food.” ”Not to do two things at once.” ”To hang on to what you've got.”

_The Farmer and the Stork._ ”Teaches the stork to look where he steps.” ”Not to be cruel like the farmer.” ”Not to tell lies.”

”Not to b.u.t.t into other people's things.” ”To be kind to birds.”

”Teaches us how to get rid of troublesome people.” ”Never go with anything else.”

The following are the responses of an 18-year-old delinquent (intelligence level 10 years) to the five fables:--

_Maid and Eggs._ ”She was thinking about getting the dress and spilled the milk. Teaches selfishness.”

_Hercules and the Wagoner._ ”He wanted to help the oxen out.”

_Fox and Crow._ ”Guess that's where the fox got his name--'Old Foxy.' Don't teach us anything.”

_Farmer and Stork._ ”Try and help the stork out of the field.”

_Miller, Son, and Donkey._ ”They was all big fools and mean to the donkey.”

One does not require very profound psychological insight to see that a person of this degree of comprehension is not promising material for moral education. His weakness in the ability to generalize a moral situation is not due to lack of instruction, but is inherent in the nature of his mental processes, all of which have the infantile quality of average 9- or 10-year intelligence. Well-instructed normal children of 10 years ordinarily succeed no better. The ability to draw the correct lesson from a social situation is little developed below the mental level of 12 or 13 years.

The test is also valuable because it throws light on the subject's ability to appreciate the finer shades of meaning. The mentally r.e.t.a.r.ded often show marked inferiority in this respect. They sense, perhaps, in a general way the trend of the story, but they fail to comprehend much that to us seems clearly expressed. They do not get what is left for the reader to infer, because they are insensible to the thought fringes. It is these which give meaning to the fable. The dull subject may be able to image the objects and activities described, but taken in the rough such imagery gets him nowhere.

Finally, the test is almost free from the danger of coaching. The subject who has been given a number of fables along with twenty-five or thirty other tests can as a rule give only hazy and inaccurate testimony as to what he has been put through. Moreover, we have found that, even if a subject has previously heard a fable, that fact does not materially increase his chances of giving a correct interpretation. If the situation depicted in the fable is beyond the subject's power of comprehension even explicit instruction has little effect upon the quality of the response.

Incidentally, this observation raises the question whether the use of proverbs, mottoes, fables, poetry, etc., in the moral instruction of children may not often be futile because the material is not fitted to the child's power of comprehension. Much of the school's instruction in history and literature has a moral purpose, but there is reason to suspect that in this field schools often make precocious attempts in ”generalizing” exercises.

XII, 6. REPEATING FIVE DIGITS REVERSED