on: "Wait for it to come back," "Have to
walk," "Be mad," "Don't swear," "Run and try to catch it," "Try
to jump on," "Don't go to that place," "Go to the next station,"
etc.

_Doubtful._ The main doubtful response is, "Go home again,"
"Come back next day and catch another," etc. In small or
isolated towns having only one or two trains per day, this is
the logical thing to do, and in such cases the score is _plus_.
Fortunately, only about one answer in ten gives rise to any
difference of opinion among even partly trained examiners.

REMARKS. The three comprehension questions of this group were all
suggested by Binet in 1905. Only one of them, however, "What would you
do if you were going some place and missed your train?" was incorporated
in the 1908 or 1911 series, and this was used in year X with seven
others much harder. The other two remained unstandardized previous to
the Stanford investigation.[53]

[53] For general discussion of the comprehension questions as a test,
see p. 158.

VI, 5. NAMING FOUR COINS

PROCEDURE. Show a nickel, a penny, a quarter, and a dime, asking each
time: "_What is that?_" If the child misunderstands and answers,
"Money," or "A piece of money," we say: "_Yes, but what do you call that
piece of money?_" Show the coins always in the order given above.

SCORING. The test is passed if _three of the four_ questions are
correctly answered. Any correct designation of a coin is satisfactory,
including provincialisms like "two bits" for the 25-cent piece, etc. If
the child changes his response for a coin, we count the second answer
and ignore the first. No supplementary questions are permissible.

REMARKS. Some of the critics of the Binet scale regard this test as of
little value, because, they say, the ability to identify pieces of money
depends entirely on instruction or other accidents of environment. The
figures show, however, that it is not greatly influenced by differences
of social environment, although children from poor homes do slightly
better with it than those from homes of wealth and culture. The fact
seems to be that practically all children by the age of 6 years have
had opportunity to learn the names of the smaller coins, and if they
have failed to learn them it betokens a lack of that spontaneity of
interest in things which we have mentioned so often as a fundamental
presupposition of intelligence. It is by no means a test of mere
mec