Part 19 (1/2)

REMARKS It is interesting to follow the child's acquisitions of language distinctions relating to spacial orientation Other distinctions of this type are those between up and down, above and below, near and far, before and behind, etc As Bobertag has pointed out, the child first masters such distinctions as up and down, above and below, before and behind, etc, and arrives at a knowledge of right and left rather tardily

How ht and left as compared with up and down? At least four theoriesdepends on the frequency hich children have occasion to make the respective distinctions (2) It may be explained on the supposition that kinaesthetic sensations are more prominently involved in distinctions of up and down than in distinctions of right and left It is certainly true that, in distinguishi+ng the two sides of a thing, less bodily movement is ordinarily required than in distinctions of its upper and lower aspects The former demands only a shi+ft of the eyes, the latter often requires an upward or doard movement of the head (3) It may be due to the fact that the appearance of an object is more affected by differences in vertical orientation than by those of horizontal orientation We see an object now from one side, now from the other, and the two aspects easily blend, while the two aspects corresponding to above and below are not viewed in such rapid succession and so remain much more distinct from one another in the child's uage The child undoubtedly hears the words _up_ and _down_ ht_ and _left_, and thus learns theirearlier Horizontal distinctions are commonly made in such ter, while in the case of vertical distinctions the words _up_ and _down_ are used constantly This last explanation is a very plausible one, but it is very probable that other factors are also involved

The distinction between right and left has a certain inherent and more or less mysterious difficulty To convince one's self of this it is only necessary to try a little experiment on the first fifty persons one chances toto ask you a question and I want you to answer it as quickly as you can” Then ask: ”Which is your right hand?” About forty persons out of fifty will answer correctly without a second's hesitation, several will require two or three seconds to respond, while a few, possibly four or five per cent, will grow confused and perhaps be unable to respond for five or ten seconds Soent adults cannot possibly tell which is the right or left hand without first searching for a scar or so mark which is known to be on a particular hand

Others resort to incipient , and since, of course, every one knohich hand he writes with, the writing ive the desired clue One bright little girl of 8 years responded by trying to wink first one eye and then the other

Asked why she did this, she said she knew she could wink her left eye, but not her right! One who is resourceful enough to adopt such an ingenious ent than the one who is able to respond by a direct instead of an intermediate association

It see difficulty in distinguishi+ng up and down The writer has questioned several hundred without finding a single instance, whereas a great many have to euish right and left It is the ”p's and q's” that children must be told to mind; not the ”p's and b's” The former is a horizontal, the latter a vertical distinction

Considering the difficulty which norht and left, is it fair to use this test as a ence? We may answer in the affir momentary uncertainty, are invariably able to make the distinction, if not by direct association, then by an interard only the correctness of the response Subjects who are belowthey have lived, seldom pass the test

This test found a place in year VI of Binet's 1908 scale, but was shi+fted to year VII in the 1911 revision The Stanford statistics, and all other available data, with the exception of Bobertag's, justify its retention in year VI It is possible that the children of different nations do not have equal opportunity and stiht and left, but the data show that as far as Aht to expect this knowledge in children of 6 years

VI, 2 FINDING OMISSIONS IN PICTURES

PROCEDURE Show the pictures to the child one at a time in the order in which they are lettered, _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_ When the first picture is shown (that with the eye lacking), say: ”_There is so with this face It is not all there Part of it is left out Look carefully and tell ives an irrelevant answer; as, ”The feet are gone,” ”The stomach is not there,” etc These statements are true, but they do not satisfy the require about the face

Look again and tell me what is left out of the face_” If the correct response does not folloe point to the place where the eye should be and say: ”_See, the eye is gone_” When picture _b_ is shoe say merely: ”_What is left out of this face?_” Likeith picture _c_

For picture _d_ we say: ”_What is left out of this picture?_” No help of any kind is given unless (if necessary) with the first picture With the others we confine ourselves to the single question, and the answer should be given promptly, say within twenty to twenty-five seconds

SCORING Passed if the omission is correctly pointed out in _three out of four_ of the pictures Certain minor errors we may overlook, such as ”eyes” instead of ”eye” for the first picture; ”nose and one ear”

instead of merely ”nose” for the third; ”hands” instead of ”ar, however, count as failure: ”The other eye,” or ”The other ear” for the first or third; ”The ears”

for the fourth, etc

REMARKS The test is one of the two or three dozen forms of the so-called ”coiven parts of a whole theparts are to be found The whole to be coroup of pictures, an object, or in fact aliven and only the arrangement or order is to be found, as in the test with dissected sentences

Further discussion of the completion test will be found in connection with test 4, year XII For the present ill only observe that notwithstanding a certain si the tests of this type, they do not all call into play the same uage coherence, visual perception of form, the association of abstract ideas, etc To pass Binet's test with mutilated pictures requires, (1) that the parts of the picture be perceived as constituting a whole; and (2) that the idea of a human face or form be so easily and so clearly reproducible that it may act, even before it comes fully into consciousness, as a model or pattern, for the criticiser the child, the less adequate, in this sense, is his perceptual fa a series of ”absurd pictures,” the writer has found that nor in a picture which shows a cat with two legs or a hen with four legs Such children would, of course, never mistake a cat for a hen Their trouble lies in the inability to call up in clear form a ”free idea” of a cat or a hen for comparison with the perceptual presentation offered by the picture Middle-grade ie have much the sa mutilations or absurdities in pictures of familiar objects

Binet first placed this test in year VII, changing it to year VIII in the 1911 revision In other revisions it has been retained in year VII, although all the available statistics except Bobertag's warrant its location in year VI

VI, 3 COUNTING THIRTEEN PENNIES

PROCEDURE The procedure is the sa four pennies (year IV, test 3) If the first response contains only a , failure to tally with the finger, etc, a second trial is given

SCORING The test is passed if there is _one success in two trials_

Success requires that the counting should tally with the pointing It is not sufficient , for unless the child points and counts aloud we cannot be sure that his correct answer may not be the joint result of two errors in opposite directions and equal; for example, if one penny were skipped and another were counted twice the total result would still be correct, but the performance would not satisfy the requirements

REMARKS Does success in this test depend upon intelligence or upon schooling? The answer is, intelligence mainly There are possibly a few normal 6-year-old children who could not pass the test for lack of instruction, but children of this age usually have enough spontaneous interest in nu as far as 13 without fore of 7 years is a suspicious sign unless the child's environment has been extraordinarily unfavorable On the other hand, feeble-reat deal of instruction before they acquire the ability to count 13, and many of them are hardly able to learn it at all So inal endowinally placed this test in year VII, but moved it to year VI in 1911 All the statistics, without exception, show that this change was justified Bobertag says that nearly all 7-year-olds who are not feeble-ree

VI, 4 COMPREHENSION, SECOND DEGREE

PROCEDURE The questions used in this year are:--

(a) ”_What's the thing to do if it is raining when you start to school?_”

(b) ”_What's the thing to do if you find that your house is on fire?_”