in his presence.
He may even pass the test without attaching any definite meaning to the
word "year." On the other hand, if he has lived seven or eight years in
a normal environment, it is safe to assume that he has heard his age
given many times, and failure to remember it would then indicate either
a weak memory or a grave inferiority of spontaneous interests, or both.
Normal children have a natural interest in the things they hear said
about themselves, while the middle-grade imbecile of even 40 years may
fail to remember his age, however often he may have heard it stated.

Binet placed the test in year VI of the 1908 series, but omitted it
altogether in 1911. Kuhlmann and Goddard also omit it, perhaps wisely.
Nevertheless, it is always interesting to give as a supplementary test.
Children from good homes acquire the knowledge about a year earlier than
those from less favorable surroundings. Unselected children of
California ordinarily pass the test at 5 years.

CHAPTER XII

INSTRUCTIONS FOR YEAR VI

VI, 1. DISTINGUISHING RIGHT AND LEFT

PROCEDURE. Say to the child: "_Show me your right hand._" After this is
responded to, say: "_Show me your left ear._" Then: "_Show me your right
eye._" Stress the words _left_ and _ear_ rather strongly and equally;
also _right_ and _eye_. If there is one error, repeat the test, this
time with left hand, right ear, and left eye. Carefully avoid giving any
help by look of approval or disapproval, by glancing at the part of the
body indicated, or by supplementary questions.

SCORING. The test is passed if all three questions are answered
correctly, or if, in case of one error, the three additional questions
are all answered correctly. The standard, therefore, _is three out of
three, or five out of six_.

The chief danger of variation among different examiners in scoring
comes from double responses. For example, the child may point first to
one ear and then to the other. In all cases of double response, the rule
is to count the second response and disregard the first. This holds
whether the first response was wrong and the second right, or _vice
versa_.

REMARKS. It is interesting to follow the child's acquisitions
of language distinctions relating to spacial orientation. Other
distinctions of this type are those between up and down, above and
below, near and far, before and behind, etc. As Bobertag has pointed
out, the child first masters such distinctions as up and do