Two different sorts of words were used: namely, (1) words of concrete significance chosen from the childrens circle of ideas, Papier, Strasse, Ofen, Feder, & ; (2) words of abstract significance, less known to the younger children, such as Menschheit, Oesetz, Masse, Organ, Anziehung, & As a result of his experiments, confirming the casual observations which had suggested them, he concludes that the degree of mental development of the children is determined by their capacity of abstraction, and can be recognised by their retention of abstract words, since such retention is essentially dependent upon their power of understanding the words.

In applying this method to our purposes, the procedure used by Meumann was modified in the following respects.

The children were, as always, tested, not by a class experiment, but privately and indi- vidually; and the test was conducted, not by the master, but by ourselves personally.

The words chosen were all of one syllable, and, in addition to concrete and abstract words, a third series consisting of nonsense syllables was used.

The children not only heard the words, but also saw and spoke them thus in some degree obviating differences of Imagery-type.