e child during the response, as
this is disconcerting. Look aside or at the record sheet.

SCORING. Passed if the child repeats correctly, after a single reading,
_one series out of the three_ series given. The order must be correct.

REMARKS. Psychologically the repetition of digits differs from the
repetition of sentences mainly in the fact that digits have less meaning
(fewer associations) than the words of a sentence. It is because they
are not as well knit together in meaning that three digits tax the
memory as much as six syllables making up a sentence.

Testing auditory memory for digits is one of the oldest of intelligence
tests. It is easy to give and lends itself well to exact quantitative
standardization. Its value has been questioned, however, on two grounds:
(1) That it is not a test of pure memory, but depends largely on
attention; and (2) that the results are too much influenced by the
child's type of imagery. As to the first objection, it is true that more
than one mental function is brought into play by the test. The same may
be said of every other test in the Binet scale and for that matter of
any test that could be devised. It is impossible to isolate any function
for separate testing. In fact, the functions called memory, attention,
perception, judgment, etc., never operate in isolation. There are no
separate and special "faculties" corresponding to such terms, which are
merely convenient names for characterizing mental processes of various
types. In any test it is "general ability" which is operative, perhaps
now _chiefly_ in remembering, at another time _chiefly_ in sensory
discrimination, again in reasoning, etc.

The second objection, that the test is largely invalidated by the
existence of imagery types, is not borne out by the facts. Experiments
have shown that pure imagery types are exceedingly rare, and that
children, especially, are characterized by "mixed" imagery. There are
probably few subjects so lacking in auditory imagery as to be placed at
a serious disadvantage in this test.

Lengthening a series by the addition of a single digit adds greatly to
the difficulty. While four digits can usually be repeated by children of
4 years, five digits belong in year VII and six in year X.

It is always interesting to note the type of errors made. The most
common error is to omit one or more of the digits, usually in the first
part of the series. If the child's ability is decidedly below the t