but that this is accomplished with a fair degree of accuracy. On the other hand, one should bear in mind Stern's caution:[1] "Psychological tests must not be overestimated, as if they were complete and automatically operative measures of mind. At most, they are the psychographic minimum that gives us a first orientation concerning individuals about whom nothing else is known, and they are of service to complement and to render comparable and objectively gradable other observations—psychological, pedagogical, medical—not to replace these."
(F) SERVICEABILITY
In his 'Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale' (Warwick and York, 1917) Terman states (p. 150) that "to be widely serviceable a test should demand only the simplest material or apparatus, should require at most but a few minutes of time, and should lend itself well to uniformity of procedure in application and scoring." The writer has attempted to satisfy these demands in standardizing the block-design tests. Those who utilize the tests will find after a little practice that there can be but little variation in the findings of two examiners, and that the only chance for difference is in the recording of the number of moves made.
The special value of the block-design tests lies in the fact that valid results may be obtained independently of the 'language factor.' Neither deafness nor lack of language understanding should be disqualifications in the proper performance of the test. The block-designs may therefore be utilized in the study of racial differences, in determining the mental capacities of the deaf and of those suffering from various other language handicaps.
As regards the borderzone problem, although further investigation of this matter by the writer is now under way, it seems that this test will aid in a better differentiation of the group of cases falling in this category. The writer maintains that feeblemindedness is not an arbitrary statistical designation, but is rather a clearly demarked physiological entity
- ↑ 'The Psychological Methods of Testing Intelligence,' Warwick and York, 1914, p. 12.
