抄録
In Formboard Tests the relative superiority of the intelligence or construetive ability of the examinee has hitherto been noted and decided solely according to the speed evinced in completing the trial. This method, though simple, has several inevitable drawbacks.
The psychological value of the tests, in point of fact, which aims at ascertaining if possible, the quality of the intelligence of the examinee, resides in a visible result showing the reasoning power and the care of the subject excrcised by him in his effort to construct a prescribed form by putting together the given pieces. If, however, the result can also be achieved by mere chance or trial and error method, the attenlpt to test the quality of intelligence will have no meaning at all. Some of the differences between the obtained at the same speed should be taken into consideration, in so far as the test gives paramount importance to the speed of completion of the test itself: speedy completion due to the nimble movements of the examinee but revealing poor method and many errors; slow but steady completion- due to good method with few errors; and lucky completion without promptness or good method. It is evident that the defects such as the first and the last should be eliminated if the test is to be valid. On the other hand it is hardly possible to eliminate these from the test in as much as the test (as at present) gives paramount importance to speed in completion.
The means, therefore, to eliminate these defects is:
1) To improve the construction of the formboard so as to minimize the possibility of accidental success of the test.
2) To examine closely the quality of the errors committed and to consider the number of errors so as to rind out the value in relation to intelligence so called.
Viewing the question in this light, therefore , I intend to design a new type of formboard, and to test it by applying in the case of uncivilized children of Formosan aborigines in order to observe their sense of Form; this Test will be in accordance with the fundamental principles governing Formboard Tests.
