I have been reading H. H. Goddards 'Story of Deborah Kallikak' off Christopher Green's admirable 'Classics' website ( http://www.yorku.ca/dept/psych/classics ). I'd like to use it as a reading in my HistPsyc course but I'm having trouble understanding some of the test items -- particularly the 'revised' items that aren't described in Binet's 1905 "New Methods" (also on Classics site). Goddard's description of the tests is way too brief for somebody who knows so little about IQ testing as I do. The best thing would be to get hold of a copy of the 1908 and 1911 versions of the Binet, or complete descriptions of them, but I have not been able to do that. I thought maybe there's a (very, very old?) psychometrician and/or historian out there among the TIPSters who might help. Details (the hard part) below. -David ... Goddard tested in 1910 and 1911 (and wrote the book in 1912). I think he must have used Binet's 1908 revision at first [Paragraph I, below] and that by "the revised questions" [Paragraph II] he means items from the 1911 version. (If he means the original 1905 scale and the 1908 revision, instead, I can't at all account for some of the items that he used in Part I.) Here follow two paragraphs from Goddard's text, with interruptions in square brackets either giving description from Binet's 1905 paper or identifying the problem that I have with the text... Goddard's Paragraph I. By the Binet Scale this girl showed, in April, 1910, the mentality of a nine-year-old child with two points over; January, 1911, 9 years, 1 point; September, 1911, 9 years, 2 points; October, 1911, 9 years, 3 points. She answers correctly all of the questions up to age 7 except the repetition of five figures, where she transposes two of them. ["11./19. Repetition of Three /Five Figures... Looking the subject squarely in the eye, ... one pronounces figures that do not follow each other, as for instance 3, 0, 8 or 5, 9, 7." -Binet] She does not read the selection in the required time, nor does she remember what she reads. [??? "We give..." the person being tested "nothing to read, nothing to write...." -Binet] In counting the [value of?] stamps, her first answer was "ten cents," which she later corrected. [??? Not among the 1905 items.] Under age 9, none of her definitions are "better than by use" -- "Fork is to eat with," "Chair to sit on," etc. ["14. Verbal Definitions of Known Objects. Very young normal children of two or three years .. ordinarily reply in terms of use, 'A fork is to eat with.' " -Binet] She can sometimes arrange the weights in their proper order and at other times not. ["22. Five Weights to be Placed in Order... respectively 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 grams. " -Binet]. The same is true of putting the three words into a sentence. ["26. Synthesis of Three Words in One Sentence. Three words are proposed: Paris, river, fortune. It ... may be necessary to explain what a sentence is." -Binet] She does not know money. [??? Item not in 1905 test] Her definitions of abstract terms are very poor... ["30. Definitions of Abstract Terms. Without preliminaries, one asks 'What difference is there between esteem and affection?' ...'weariness and sadness?' " -Binet] nor can she put together the dissected sentences. [??? 'Make a sentence,' 'Repeat a sentence', and ' Verbal Gaps' (Fill in the blank) but no 'Dissected Sentences' in the 1905 paper.] She rhymes "storm" with "spring," and "milk" with "mill, afterwards using "bill," "will," "till." ["24. Exercise upon Rhymes. ...explain by means of examples. 'Do you understand? Very well, you must find all the rhymes you can' " ... for 'spring,' 'mill,' etc. -Binet] Goddard's Paragraph II. In the revised questions [1911 revision?], she does not draw the design which is Question 2 in age 10, [??? "18. Drawing a design from memory." (Binet, 1905), but I don't know what an "age 10" design might look like.] nor does she resist suggestion.... ["13. Suggestibility. When we ask the child to show us the thread, the cup, the thimble, we add, 'Show me the button.' ...there is no button." etc. -Binet] To the first part of Question 5, age 12, she answered, "A bird hanging from the limb, " and to the second part, "Some one was very sick." [??? I have no idea what these questions are.] ....................................................... =========================================================== David G. Likely, Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick Fredericton, N. B., E3B 5A3 Canada History of Psychology: http://www.unb.ca/web/psychology/likely/psyc4053.htm ===========================================================
