Samuel C. Kohs

“ A cursory examination of the demands made upon the mental operations of the person tested with the block-designs will clearly reveal that attention, adaptation and auto-criticism are all involved in the successful accomplishment of each task. ”

“ 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. ”

“ That point in the graded series of designs at which a child will begin failing to achieve further success, will be a rough measure of the development of his ability to attend, to adapt and to critically survey his general plan of performance and his ultimate accomplishment. In his discussion of the 'patience test' in the 1908 scale, and these words might as well apply to the block-design tests, Binet states: [3] "It is a game, but at the same time a work of the intelligence. ”

“ If 'intelligence' involves the following mental operations; analyzing, combining, comparing, deliberating, completing, discriminating, judging, criticising and deciding, then the block-design tests may, with justice, be said to call upon the functioning of intelligence and to that extent they are a measure of that mental capacity. ”

“ This can be remedied in the later standardization of the test material. One set of the blocks will last through the examination of from four to five hundred children without showing much wear and tear. After that the cubes can be repainted without difficulty.
It is interesting to watch the response of children and even adults when they are given colored cubes to handle. There is no doubt that an appeal exists which touches the roots of some very fundamental original tendencies. Of all the subjects tested, not one has manifested any absence of a desire to combine these cubes in some fashion. ”

“ The scoring of a performance is a very simple matter. This will be self-evident from the following examples:
Example one: Design number 7 successfully completed in 1 minute and 23 seconds and at the end of 9 moves. Score 7, for successful completion, less 2 points for excess time. Final score 5. Example two: Design number 10 successfully completed in 1 minute 48 seconds, and after 19 moves. Score 9, for successful completion. No deductions for excess time or excess moves. Final score, 9. Example three: Design number 16, successfully completed in 3 minutes 27 seconds, and after 48 moves. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It may be worth remarking that successful performance, speed and what may be termed accuracy are all combined in the final score. Successful performance receives greatest weight, speed next and accuracy next. The weight ratio as explained elsewhere in the monograph is roughly 4 : 2 : 1. This ratio has been empirically determined and was not derived by arm-chair philosophizing. The prevalent opinion, which was at one time shared by the writer, that speed and accuracy cannot be combined in one score, does not hold with the Block Design Tests. ”

“ Take all the blocks out of the box and place on the table so that the single-colored faces are all on the top side of the cubes. Have an equal number of reds, yellows, blues and whites. Point to a red-topped block and ask the child to point to all the blocks that have the same color on top. Do the same for the other three colors. If the child can distinguish the colors, proceed with the test at (Section B) . ”

“ The writer maintains that feeblemindedness is not an arbitrary statistical designation, but is rather a clearly demarked physiological entity quite distinct from normality, statistical-psychologists notwithstanding. ”

“ Correlations between Mental Ages, Intelligence Quotients and Teachers' Estimates of Intelligence
In order to understand and to justly evaluate the relations about to be presented, the Binet results will be mentioned to serve as a standard of comparison.
1. The correlation [4] between Binet age and life age is + .80 (P.E. ± .01) (291 public school cases) . 2. The correlation between block-design age and life age is + .66 (P.E. ± .02) (291 public school cases) . 3. The correlation between Binet age and block-design age is + .82 (P.E. ± .01) (366 cases) . The table is herewith presented:
4. ”