an automobile_

_Satisfactory._ "Both means of travel." "Both go." "You ride in
them." "Both take you fast." "They both use fuel." "Both run by
machinery." "Both have a steering gear." "Both have engines in
them." "Both have wood in them." "Both can be wrecked." "Both
break if they hit a rock."

About 45 per cent of the answers are in terms of running or
travel, 37 per cent in terms of machinery or structure, the rest
scattered.

_Unsatisfactory._ "Both black" (or some other color). "Both very
big." "They are made alike." "Both run on wheels." "Ship is for
the water and automobile for the land." "Ship goes on water and
an automobile sometimes goes in water." "An auto can go faster."
"Ship is run by coal and automobile by gasoline."

Of 51 failures, 32 were due to giving differences and 14 to
failure to reply.

REMARKS. The test of finding similarities was first used by Binet in
1905. Our results show that it is fully as satisfactory as the test of
giving differences. The test reveals in a most interesting way one of
the fundamental weaknesses of the feeble mind. Young normal children,
say of 7 or 8 years, often fail to pass, but it is the feeble-minded who
give the greatest number of absurd answers and who also find greatest
difficulty in resisting the tendency to give differences.[60]

[60] For further discussion of the processes involved, see VII, 5.

VIII, 5. GIVING DEFINITIONS SUPERIOR TO USE

PROCEDURE. The words for this year are _balloon_, _tiger_, _football_,
and _soldier_. Ask simply: "_What is a balloon?_" etc.

If it appears that any of the words are not familiar to the child,
substitution may be made from the following: _automobile_,
_battle-ship_, _potato_, _store_.

Make no comments on the responses until all the words have been given.
In case of silence or hesitation in answering, the question may be
repeated with a little encouragement; but supplementary questions are
never in order. Ordinarily there is no difficulty in securing a response
to the definition test of this year. The trouble comes in scoring the
response.

SCORING. The test is passed if two of the four words are defined in
terms superior to use. "Superior to use" includes chiefly: (a)
Definitions which describe the object or tell something of its nature
(form, size, color, appearance, etc.); (b) definitions which give the
substance or the materials or parts composing