The Binet scale in its various forms provides only part of the objective
evidence as to the mental inferiority of delinquents, although it
affords the best means at present of interpreting the borderline of
deficiency. Among the other investigations in which psychological tests
have been tried with delinquents in comparison with normal subjects, the
recent study of the Mentality of the Criminal Women by Weidensall is the
most important so far as estimating the frequency of deficiency is
concerned (_60_). It affords an admirable check upon our conclusions
from the Binet examinations, since she gives in detail the results with
a random group of 88 women inmates of the Bedford (N. Y.) Reformatory,
which is quite comparable with the group of 200 which she tested with
the Binet scale, and which we have already considered.
For our purpose, the most important comparisons are those between the
group of women in the reformatory and the group of 15-year-old
Cincinnati working girls tested by Woolley with the same tests.
Weidensall's Table 92 shows for three tests the percentages of the
Bedford women who tested below the lowest 1% of these girls. For the
opposites test, 20% were below this borderline; for a test on the
completion of sentences, 12%; for the memory span for digits, 29%. She
also shows that 17% of the delinquent group were poorer than any of the
working girls and 30.7% as poor as the poorest 5.7% of these working
girls, when their mentality is measured by the number of the tests in
which their ability is at or above that of the median working girl of
fifteen. This 30.7% is probably most nearly comparable in ability with
the lowest 0.5% of the general population.
Kelley's monograph on Mental Aspects of Delinquency, to which reference
was made in the last chapter, gives the results with boys in the Texas
Juvenile Training School for the completion test and his own
construction test, as well as for a number of physical measurements,
sensory and motor tests. He has used various data from which to provide
norms for comparison. In connection with the Psychopathic Institute at
the Chicago Juvenile Court, Healy and Fernald (_125_) have published an
elaborate series of tests with suggestions as to how they may be
employed for analyzing a child's mental ability and estimating his
mental capacity. Schmidt has partially standardized these tests (_178_).
Guy G. Fernald (_15_) tried out a dozen different tests and recommends
seven of them for testing delinquents who are of adolescent age or
older. Haines has sought the diagnostic value with girl delinquents of a
dozen tests including Fernald's test of moral judgment. Weidensall
(_218_), Smedley (_51_), Rowland (_49_), Porteus (_45_), and Whipple and
Fraser (_220_, p. 663), have published results with certain tests tried
with delinquents. With none of these tests can we adequately define the
borderline of feeble-minded intellects.
There is no series of tests which has been employed outside the field of
delinquency which diagnoses the borderline cases objectively so well as
the Binet scale. The tests of Weyandt (_219_), Rossolimo (_175_),
Rybakow (_176_), and Knox (_134_) are without definable limits based on
unselected groups. Those employed by Dr. Norsworthy, while
scientifically better scored for describing the borderline, were not
arranged with this in view (_160_). Carpenter has published norms
obtained with Squire's tests on 50 pupils of each age from 7 to 14.
Single tests like the form board (_87_), Knox's cube test (_134_), the
substitution test (_1_), and the A test (_160_) have been tried with
delinquent or feeble-minded groups as well as with normal people. Under
the direction of the New York Board of Charities an excellent beginning
has been made in determining norms for eleven different tests (_158_).
Stenquist, Thorndike and Trabue (_54_) have furnished developmental
norms for several tests. Gilbert (_108_) and Smedley (_51_) at an
earlier date provided age norms and deviations for certain tests. Mrs.
Woolley has provided the percentile distribution for a series of mental
and physical tests with 14-and 15-year-old children leaving the public
schools to go to work (_222_) (_223_). In England a goodly number of
different tests have been tried out on small groups or on children of
particular ages (_84_) (_63_) (_224_). Pyle has obtained norms and
variations with a series of group tests. It approaches nearest to the
Binet as a developmental scale for the immature, but these tests have
not been tried as individual tests and so could hardly be used safely
for individual diagnosis. A graphic summary of the developmental curves
for most of these tests on children will be found in Chapter XIII.
In no case do we find any tests except the Binet scales which have
reached a stage of practical usefulness for the diagnosis of deficiency
except as supplementary aids for checking the Binet indication with
children of particular ages. The emphasis has almost universally been
placed on determining the central tendencies of children of different
ages and not on the lower limits of the distributions. Considering
mental tests apart from the Binet scale, in all the extended literature
which has been brought together in books like Whipple's Manual of Mental
Tests (_220_), one may seek in vain for tests which have reached the
position of defining the limits of serious mental deficiency. This
indicates, of course, the difficulty as well as the newness of the
problem, although the quantity of work that is being done shows the
great interest aroused. From all of this mass of research on mental
tests one may gather much that is useful in analyzing the character of a
mental defect. Many of the tests admirably aid in elaborating the
subjective impression of the examiner. The failure to do this
systematically has been one of the main criticisms raised against the
Binet scale. This and the incorrectness of the borderline described in
the published scale seem to be the main objections made by Miss Schmidt
to the Binet Method. She voiced the objection of the Juvenile
Psychopathic Institute in Chicago to the tests as follows: “It has been
the experience of the writer, and it may be added of all others who have
worked in this laboratory, where practical results are demanded, that
the Binet tests cannot furnish an adequate means through which to come
to conclusions for the disposition, classification, or treatment of the
cases which come for diagnosis” (_179_).
Dr. Merrill of the Seattle court also seems unfriendly to the Binet
scale when he says: “Any system of tests by which _alone_[30] it is
attempted to classify the child as being of a given mental age involves
the fallacy of pseudo-exactness, and needs carefully to be avoided”
(_148_). Nobody would seriously urge that real exactness of definition
leads to confusion. It is just the looseness of definition of borderline
with the Binet Scale which has led to most of the mistakes with it.
Perhaps Dr. Merrill has not discovered that the scale works just as well
when used as a graded series of tests without the designation of mental
ages at all. The latter is merely a convenience. On the other hand, we
should agree when he says, that “no scale of tests can give a valid
measure of the child's intelligence unless supplemented by a
consideration of his history,” especially if he includes in the child's
history a medical diagnosis.
The objection that the Binet tests do not analyze the source of the
child's mental defect is of course important if one were considering
whether a better scale might not be devised. It is rather beside the
point, however, when one remembers that it is not the purpose of this
scale to determine the causes of deficiency, but only to say whether a
deficiency in general intelligence is present and to what degree. The
causes of the disturbance must then be determined by an expert.
Moreover, if one classifies the Binet tests as Meumann has done one may
often get valuable clues as to whether the deficiency is mainly in
information or in mental process. In seeking the causes of the
disturbance, the expert should not overlook the standardization of the
Rosanoff and Kent Association Test which has been available for
delinquent, feeble-minded and normal children (_174_). It is one of the
most important supplementary means for mental analysis which has yet
been standardized for practical use. The most complete tables on
children's reactions for this test have been published in a
_Psychological Monograph_ by Woodrow and Lowell.
The importance of more accurate psychological tests in studying mental
disturbance is well illustrated by comparing the results that may be
obtained with the Binet tests with the desultory, unstandardized tests
such as one finds in Dr. Schaefer's Allgemeine gerichtliche Psychiatrie
für Juristen, Mediziner, and Pädagogen (_177_), or Dr. Cimbal's
Taschenbuch (_91_) prepared for physicians and jurists. Suggestive as
these books are for disclosing different mental activities, they give no
means of evaluating the disclosures. They show the puerile stage in
diagnosis which had been reached before standardized tests were
available.
Among those who are engaged in practical clinical work for determining
mental development the Binet Scale has advocates who are quite as ardent
as critics we have noted. Goddard, Kuhlmann (_139_), Wallin (_213_), and
Towne (_201_), have all used it in the practical examination of hundreds
of cases and heartily commend its use in connection with delinquents, as
does Healy for the earlier ages (_27_, p. 80). On the other hand there
is a growing sentiment that the examinations should only be entrusted to
experts in mental development. It is felt that the physician who has not
had enough training in a psychological laboratory to understand the
snares of mental tests, and very few have had this opportunity, ought to
refer this question to a clinical psychologist as the best physicians
now do when such experts are available. Perhaps nobody is so well
equipped to judge a child's mental development without diagnostic tests
as his school teacher, although Terman has shown that the teacher's
judgment may be seriously at fault when he has not learned to dissociate
mental capacity from the age and size of the child (_196_). In an
editorial in the Journal of Criminology, Dr. Gault (_106_, p. 322)
expresses the opinion that “dissatisfaction with mental tests as a means
of diagnosis” is traceable to the fact “that what the lay mind
recognizes as palpable errors are often made by half-trained
'investigators,' 'research directors' and even by men and women whose
only qualification is that they have been trained for six weeks in a
psychological clinic.” Dr. Wallin demands that the tests should be used
for diagnosis only by the psychologist with clinical experience.
The American Psychological Association has cautioned against diagnosis
by those inadequately trained and adopted the following resolution at
its 1915 meeting:
“Whereas, psychological diagnosis requires thorough technical
training in all phases of mental testing, thorough acquaintance with
the facts of mental development and with the various degrees of
mental retardation.
“And whereas, there is evident tendency to appoint for this work
persons whose training in clinical psychology and acquaintance with
genetic and educational psychology are inadequate:
“Be it resolved, that this Association discourages the use of mental
tests for practical psychological diagnosis by individuals
psychologically unqualified for the work.”
Binet's suggestion as to the diagnosis of mental development seems to be
best. He says that “the selection of defectives calls for three
varieties of experience—that of teachers, of doctors, and of
psychologists” (_77_, p. 38). These three points of view may be combined
in a committee as in France, or the decision may rest with a specialist
in mental development whose judgment should only be given after he has
all the information which the medical, educational, and social diagnosis
can provide to supplement his test records and his evaluation of the
causes of the condition found.
Those who are considering the legal isolation of the feeble-minded,
especially defective delinquents, and superintendents who wish a safe
rule for transferring school children to special classes or schools for
the mentally retarded should keep a committee plan in mind. A legal
requirement embodying an examination by such a commission could easily
be framed. In my opinion the expert in mental development should be
required at least to have the equivalent of a year of graduate work with
his major time in testing. On the other hand very desirable information
as to children that require examination may be obtained by a teacher who
uses a mental scale intelligently. In the hands of an amateur it may
perform an analogous service to that of a vision chart in discovering
children who require expert examination of their eyes. The danger lies
in the novice not knowing his limitations. Few who have had experience
with tests can doubt, however, the much greater danger of inadequate
diagnosis of mental development on the part of physicians who give
opinions about mental deficiency without having had experience with test
scales.
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Footnote 30:
Italics mine.