A Point scale for measuring mental ability

Robert Mearns Yerkes

yan, 1915 · Warwick & York, Incorporated

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"We offer this report as a contribution to method of mental examining. In the fall of 1913 the writer proposed to Mr. J.W. Bridges the task of aiding him in constructing a measuring scale for intellectual ability which should consist of a single series of tests and in connection with which credit should be given according to the merit of the subject's response. The writer's proposal was forced by the conviction that the Binet Age- Scale, with its several groups of measurements and its 'all-or-none' method of giving credit, was yielding less satisfactory information than the interests of the Psychopathic Hospital demanded. From the first it was our intention to develop a better method rather than to attempt to modify the Binet Scale. Our interest was wholly constructive, and we have been critically destructive only in so far as progress seemed to demand destruction. Early in our work the idea of a universally applicable scale presented itself, and for a time we were strongly tempted to strive to achieve this ideal immediately instead of working toward it gradually. The Point Scale, for which results are now to be presented, was avowedly a tentative and provisional group of tests. It was ready for use early in 1914, and now, approximately a year later, we see clearly the possibility of abandoning it in favor of an obviously better scale. Immediately upon the completion of the preliminary preparations a staff of examiners was organized and systematic examining was undertaken in the public schools of Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as in the Psychopathic Hospital; approximately 1,000 examinations were completed. Our scale is in no sense a finished product. It was originally developed as a pre-adolescent scale, with the expectation that, should it prove valuable, a second scale would be developed for use with adolescents and adults. We have, as this volume will make clear, found reason to change our plan and to attempt the development of a universally applicable scale which shall replace both our preliminary pre-adolescent and our proposed post-adolescent scales"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).