ends came to chat," etc.
In 20 failures out of 66, marriage was incorrectly connected
with a will, a divorce, the death of a child, etc.

The following are not bad, but hardly deserve to pass: "Sickness
and trouble; the lawyer and minister came to help him out of
trouble." Or, "Somebody was sick; the lawyer wanted his money
and the minister came to see how he was." A few present a still
more logical interpretation, but so far-fetched that it is
doubtful whether they should count as passes; for example: "A
man and his wife had a fight. One got hurt and had to have the
doctor, then they had a lawyer to get them divorced, then the
minister came to marry one of them." Again, "Some one is dying
and is getting married and making his will before he dies."

(c) _What the man was riding on_

The only correct response is "Bicycle." The most common error is
_horse_ (or _donkey_), accounting for 48 out of 71 tabulated
failures. Vehicles, like _wagon_, _buggy_, _automobile_, or
_street car_, were mentioned in 14 out of 71 failures. Bizarre
replies are: "A cripple in a wheel chair"; "A person riding on
some one's back," etc.

REMARKS. The experiment is a form of the completion test. Elements of a
situation are given, out of which the entire situation is to be
constructed. This phase of intelligence has already been discussed.[74]

[74] See IX, 5, and XII, 4.

While it is generally admitted that the underlying idea of this test is
good, some have criticized Binet's selection of problems. Meumann thinks
the lawyer element of the second is so unfamiliar to children as to
render that part of the test unfair. Several "armchair" critics have
mentioned the danger of nervous shock from the first problem. Bobertag
throws out the test entirely and substitutes a completion test modeled
after that of Ebbinghaus. Our own results are altogether favorable to
the test. If it is used in year XIV, Meumann's objection hardly holds,
for American children of that age do ordinarily know something about
making wills. As for the danger of shock from the first problem, we have
never once found the slightest evidence of this much-feared result. The
subject always understands that the situation depicted is hypothetical,
and so answers either in a matter-of-fact manner or with a laugh.

The bicycle problem is our own invention. Binet used the other two and
required both to be answer