IQ". This is the mental age divided by the
chronological, and is usually expressed in per cent. The IQ of the
exactly average child, of any age, is 1, or 100 per cent. The IQ of
the bright child is above 100 and of the dull child below 100. About
sixty per cent. of all children have an IQ between 90 and 110, twenty
per cent, are below 90 and twenty per cent, above 110. The following
table gives the distribution in somewhat greater detail:

IQ below 70, 1%
IQ 70-79, 5%
IQ 80-89, 14%
IQ 90-99, 30%
IQ 100-109, 30%
IQ 110-119, 14%
IQ 120-129, 5%
IQ over 129, 1%
---
100

{275}

For convenience, those with IQ under 70 are sometimes labeled
"feeble-minded", and the others, in order, "borderline", "low normal",
"average" (from 90 to 110), "superior", "very superior", "exceedingly
superior"; but this is arbitrary and really unscientific, for what the
facts show is not a separation into classes, but a continuous
gradation from one extreme to the other. The lower extreme is near
zero, and the upper extreme thus far found is about 180.

While the mental age tells an individual's intellectual level at a
given time, the IQ tells how fast he has progressed. An IQ of 125
means that he has picked up knowledge and skill 25 per cent. faster
than the average individual--that he has progressed as far in four
years as the average child does in five, or as far in eight as the
average does in ten, or as far in twelve as the average does in
fifteen. The IQ usually remains fairly constant as the child grows
older, and thus represents his rate of mental growth. It furnishes a
pretty good measure of the individual's intelligence.

Performance Tests

Since, however, the Binet tests depend greatly on the use of language,
they are not fair to the deaf child, nor to the child with a speech
defect, nor to the foreign child. Also, some persons who are clumsy in
managing the rather abstract ideas dealt with in the Binet tests show
up better in managing concrete objects. For all such cases,
_performance tests are useful. Language plays little part in a
performance test_, and concrete objects are used. The "form board" is
a good example. Blocks of various simple shapes are to be fitted into
corresponding holes in a board; the time of performance is measured,
and the errors (consisting in trying to put a block into a differently
shaped hole) are also counted. To the normal adult, this task seems
too