After Binet, a next step: test many at once
With the Binet scale's success, the logical next step was a test that could be given to large numbers of people at the same time.1 Pyle's contribution was the norms: tables showing what schoolchildren of each age typically scored, so a teacher or examiner could see where a child stood.1
The published manual is short, 92 pages in the scanned Macmillan printing, and is now out of copyright.2
Match each digit to its symbol
Use the key to find the symbol for the highlighted digit, then tap it. Work as fast as you can without mistakes.
Our own symbols, key and timing. It's the same kind of task as Pyle's substitution test, not a copy of his sheet, and there are no 1913 norms to compare with. Nothing leaves your browser.
From diagnosis to general intelligence
References
- [1]Applied History of Psychology / Models of Assessment: early group tests (citing DuBois 1970 and Gregory 2007). Wikibooks.en.wikibooks.org
- [2]Pyle, W. H. The examination of school children: a manual of directions and norms. New York: Macmillan (© 1913; scanned 1917 printing). Internet Archive.archive.org
Related historical tests
Binet's individual scale showed that short tasks could reveal a child's level. Group testing, with norms like Pyle's, was the next step towards testing whole classes at once.
Pintner reused Pyle's tests in 1917 and went on to build group tests of his own, including a non-language test for pupils who spoke little English.
The timed cancellation test Pintner added to Pyle's tests belongs to the family Bourdon started in 1895.
Cattell's battery already included a letter-span task. What was new in 1913 was age norms that let a single child's result be compared with others of the same age.