Alternative Test 2: Repeating Twenty To Twenty-two Syllables

The sentences for this year are:--



(a) "_The apple tree makes a cool, pleasant shade on the ground

where the children are playing._"

(b) "_It is nearly half-past one o'clock; the house is very

quiet and the cat has gone to sleep._"

(c) "_In summer the days are very warm and fine; in winter it

snows and I am cold._"



PROCEDURE and SCORING exactly as in VI, .



REMARKS. It is interesting to note that five years of mental growth are

required to pass from the ability to repeat sixteen or eighteen

syllables (year VI) to the ability to repeat twenty or twenty-two

syllables. Similarly in memory for digits. Five digits are almost as

easy at year VII as six at year X. Two explanations are available: (1)

The increased difficulty may be accounted for by a relatively slow

growth of memory power after the age of 6 or 7 years; or (2) the

increase in difficulty may be real, expressing an inner law as to the

behavior of the memory span in dealing with material of increasing

length. Both factors are probably involved.



This is another of the Stanford additions to the scale. Average children

of 10 years ordinarily pass it, but older, retarded children of 10-year

mental age make a poorer showing. In the case of mentally retarded

adults, especially, the verbal memory is less exact than that of school

children of the same mental age.