Abstract
ALL who have had experience of the Binet-Simon scale, or are acquainted with the literature of the subject, must have felt the difficulties which this valuable little book is intended to counter. The use of any series of mental tests depends so much upon delicate handling in the first place, and upon intelligent interpretation in the second, that the comparison of one set of results with another, even when taken in the gross, is always suspect. The difficulty still exists although the comparison concerns the work of the same inquirer. When we come to the pronouncement on the mentality of a particular child, the chances of error are enormously increased. A physical measurement may be repeated. Accuracy demands that it should be, perhaps many times. Repetition in the case of the Binet-Simon scale is out of the question. The importance of standardising both the way it is used and the interpretation of results cannot, therefore, be exaggerated.
Standard Method of Testing Juvenile Mentality by the Binet-Simon Scale, with the Original Questions, Pictures, and Drawings.
By N. J. Melville. With an introduction by Dr. W. Healy. Pp. xi + 142. (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1917.) Price 8s. 6d. net.
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Standard Method of Testing Juvenile Mentality by the Binet-Simon Scale, with the Original Questions, Pictures, and Drawings . Nature 100, 103 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/100103a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/100103a0