Mentimeter

“ The Mentimeter here provided is intended to measure the complexity and length of a sentence which an individual can repeat correctly after having heard it only once. The reliability of this test is not very well determined and its field of usefulness is almost as indefinite. It will be interesting in social groups as a recreation and will be useful to the teacher in comparing her pupils, but it is doubtful if it can be employed in industrial work with any large group of employees. ”

“ The stencil for scoring this test is less convenient than those furnished with the majority of the Mentimeter tests. The reason for this is the very great possibility of new variations appearing, even after long experience in scoring the test. When more than one blank appears in a single sentence the question as to whether or not a certain word is proper for one of the later blanks depends entirely upon what choice was made in the first blank. ”

“ The surveyor, for example, who measures the area of a field makes very little impression upon the soil over which he passes. A physician who measures the weight of an infant does not thereby increase that weight or diminish it. In the same way the psychologist who applies a Mentimeter test to a filing clerk, does not by that act increase the efficiency of that clerk. Measurements, of themselves, are of no value. ”

“ Of such a nature were the Army Beta tests, already referred to, and there will be found in the Mentimeter tests presented in this volume a considerable number of forms that fall into this class of tests. To the person accustomed to dealing chiefly with words and ideas, it is not always readily apparent that proof of a high degree of intelligence can be obtained by means of tests which do not employ these familiar symbols. ”

“ The present form of the test is a lengthening of the form used in the Army Alpha series. Twenty-four elements are contained in the Mentimeter form, while only sixteen elements were used in the Army form. Another advantage of the present form over the military edition is the more definite attempt at arrangement of the elements in the test according to their difficulty. Having the series graduated in difficulty, from easy to hard, is a distinct advantage, particularly with young or dull persons, who quickly stop trying unless their first efforts are successful. ”

“ An effort has been made to graduate the difficulty of the questions asked in the Mentimeter form of this test, in order to obtain as much additional merit as possible in the measurement of intellectual capacity. This test will be useful in almost any educational or industrial organization. It is probable, however, that its usefulness in school will not be as great as in life outside of the schools. ”

“ Perfect negative correlation is as infrequent as perfect positive correlation.
The coefficient found between the teacher’s estimates of intelligence and the results of educational measurements, .51, indicates a really useful degree of coördination. Unless a Mentimeter test shows a coefficient of coordination of .25 or more with the production records (or other reliable measure of true ability) , it may be considered as having little value in helping to select and differentiate men for that particular line of work. ”

“ Sets of tests, selected because they have been found accurate in classifying soldiers or school children for instruction, may not be of maximum usefulness in classifying machinists or business 99managers. The Mentimeter tests offer a wide variety, from which it is proposed that only those shall be used which have actually proved useful in classifying candidates for the particular task concerned. There is no reason to believe that exactly the same type of intelligence is required in all positions. ”

“ It is recommended also that calculating tables or a slide rule be used to calculate the percentages called for in the final column of the distribution tables. Such aids are very desirable because of their contribution to the accuracy of results and to economy of time.
Assuming now that the reader has a fairly clear idea of how to administer and record the results of the Mentimeter tests, the next question to be answered is: “What shall be done about these test records?” Measurement in any field does not change to any appreciable degree the material which has been measured. ”

“ Except by chance one would not obtain exactly the same score a second time in taking a Mentimeter test, or any other test of mental ability. Being for the most part constructed on the “increasing difficulty” plan, however, the Mentimeters will prove much less influenced by recency of drill and nearness to the lunch hour 92than will most other tests, especially less than those speed tests which measure how many simple tasks one can do within a given time limit. The Mentimeter ideal is to test power rather than speed. ”

“ In order to assist readers who have no statistical training in the evaluation for their special purposes of any particular Mentimeter test, a few pages will be devoted to an elementary statement of how to try out scientifically the relationship between a test, on the one hand, and demonstrated ability in any special line of endeavour, on the other. It may be stated here again that not all traits of mind are important in every task that must be done in life. ”

“ For this reason, among others, no single test can be expected to yield definite and complete information 41as to any particular individual’s mental capacity or ability, whether gauged by the universal standard or by group comparison. It has, therefore, been necessary to establish, as preliminary to the preparation of the Mentimeter tests, a variety of standards, and to prepare a considerable number of tests under each of these standards, all or most of which must be used in each instance if anything approaching scientific accuracy is to be reflected in the resulting scores. ”

“ This Mentimeter is composed of two parts, one of them measuring the difficulty of the addition problems which a candidate can solve, and being therefore a fairly good test of intelligence, the other measuring the speed at which one can add fairly easy problems and therefore having less relations to intellectual ability.
Teachers in school furnish the children with certain information and knowledge or guide their pupils to the sources from which this information and knowledge may be obtained. ”

“ It is probable that dull people will succeed very much better in this test if it is given as a test for foreigners, using the special blackboard. The examiner could, in that case, draw a line with chalk to show what is expected. The printed 149directions on the test blank have been made as simple as possible, but they are not wholly satisfactory for the lower ranges of intelligence.
The scoring of this test is somewhat more difficult than for the majority of the other Mentimeter tests. It is intended that one point of credit shall be given for each large figure properly divided. ”

“ The user of the Mentimeter tests will not, under ordinary circumstances, be satisfied with interpreting an individual’s score 102merely by indicating its direction from the median, mode or average of a group. ”

“ The simplest questions and answers that can be printed are too difficult for first- and second-grade school pupils to read and understand, while the most difficult questions and answers one could devise would not be general enough in their subject matter to be included in a “general intelligence” test. In other words, the range of ability that this test will measure is not so wide as that measured by some other Mentimeter tests, with the result that the speed of reading and of making judgments plays a larger part in determining the final score than it would in a perfect intelligence test. ”

“ For practical purposes with the Mentimeter tests, however, it is recommended (1) that the score made on each test be recorded, (2) that the median score of the standard group, with which each individual’s score is to be compared, be calculated, and (3) that the percentage of the standard group making lower scores than that individual’s score be used as an interpretation. For these simple interpretations, a table, such as that shown on page 102 for college graduates in the 105Analogies tests, practically completes the necessary calculations, [2] except for the calculation of the median score. ”

“ If the Mentimeter tests which follow can do no more than point out for employers and educators the limits to which those who are dependent upon them can go in the understanding and use of abstract ideas, they will thereby have contributed materially to the happiness and contentment of a weary world. ”

“ The group-examination method, which is employed by the majority of the Mentimeter tests, has been the greatest possible stimulus to the employment of intelligence examinations, because of the great saving of time which it affects over the method of individual examinations. ”

“ It is quite certain that the ability to trace through a printed maze with a pencil is not equal to the ability to walk through a specially constructed maze of steel, but it is as near the same problem as can be arranged on paper and printed in quantity.
The arrangement of mazes in this member of the Mentimeter family is such that the number of mazes successfully threaded is a distinct indication of the complexity of maze which the individual can successfully negotiate. The test is intended to measure the ability of any individual whether he can read or understand the English language or not. ”

“ Strange to say, a person may be very intelligent without being an expert speller or a person may be a fairly able speller without being keen intellectually. This Mentimeter is therefore not to be considered as reliable an index of intelligence as most of the others.
There are two methods by which one might determine the ability of any average individual in spelling. One might measure how difficult a word was necessary in order to cause failure or one might take words all of the same difficulty and measure what percentage of them were misspelled by the candidate. ”

“ Every effort has been made to conform to the soundest scientific principles, both in the preparation of the Mentimeter tests, around which the volume is largely written, and in the introductory and explanatory chapters, in which the principles of applied psychology, as they bear upon mental tests, are stated in popular language. ”

“ Superior, High Average, Average, Low Average, and Inferior. This classification is very rough and should not be wrongly interpreted. An individual who is tested with three or four or more of the Mentimeter tests should not be expected to receive the same classification in each test. In the Handwriting test, for example, a person might well be expected to make a rating of “Superior” in quality of writing while making only “Low Average” in speed of writing. The same person might well make a score on the test of Poetic Discrimination which would classify him as “Inferior.” ”

“ The reason it is difficult so to classify tests of mental ability is that the mind refuses to be cut up into different parts, each one responsible for a specific characteristic. No test can be solved by the use of one and only one group of intellectual faculties. The results obtained in any mental examination are the complex effects of an immense number of different characteristics. No attempt has therefore been made in the classification of the Mentimeters to say that one measures imagination, another measures attention, and another some other quality. ”

“ Publishers and editors have for many years insisted upon having intelligent compositors and type-setters. The printer’s pi is probably as comprehensive a test of intelligence as any in the Mentimeter series. In the Binet tests, one of the most interesting parts of the examination is where children are asked to take certain words and rearrange them to make a sentence. ”

“ TRADE TESTS OR TESTS OF SKILL While the determination of individual skill in the performance of a given operation is not, strictly speaking, a test of intelligence or of mental capacity, it has been established that the most accurate and speedy method of discovering the precise degree of skill possessed by any artisan is closely analogous to the scientific method of mental measurement. It has been found, moreover, that there is quite a close relation between an individual workman’s skill at his trade and the degree of mental capacity disclosed by the Mentimeter or similar scientific tests ”

“ It is possible to classify tests according to physical characteristics of the candidate examined, such as tests for infants, tests for children, and tests for adults, or tests for the blind and tests for the deaf. The first test in the Mentimeter series is for infants while the remainder of the tests are intended to measure older people. ”

“ Unless the child has the ability to interpret symbols and juggle ideas he is declared to be inferior and is forced out to learn for himself how to earn a living and to secure his rights.
The Mentimeter tests and other measures of intellectual abilities provide the means whereby pupils may be classified, at the very beginning of their education, according to the degree to which the formal academic training will be assimilated. These tests make it possible to select those who do not think abstractly but who require concrete objects or persons as the material for their mental activity. ”