Psychological Tests · Psychology
Four wooden boards with holes in which puzzle-like pieces may be inserted.
Board A) A varnished wooden board made up of two layers. It contains six holes for twelve pieces, two of which are missing.
Board B) A varnished wooden board made up of two layers. It contains six holes for twelve pieces, three of which are missing.
Board C) A varnished board made up of two layers of particle board. It contains two holes for nine pieces, two of which are missing.
Board D) A varnished wooden board made up of two layers. It contains six holes for twelve pieces, one of which is missing.
Accession Number: 2015.psy.159
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Primary Materials: Wood, Particle Board
Board A: A label on affixed to the bottom side reads “University of Toronto Department of Psychology” on the label is written ” Board 6″, “Nov. 1926″, and another mark that is difficult to decipher.”
Board B: A label on affixed to the bottom side reads “University of Toronto Department of Psychology” on the label is written “Time 30.”, “Ferguson Board 2”, “Turn-none”, “Nov. 1926″, and another mark that is difficult to decipher.”
Board C: A label on affixed to the bottom side reads “University of Toronto Department of Psychology” on the label is written “Top 2-Figure 7b.” and “Nov. 1926”.
Board D: A label on affixed to the bottom side reads “University of Toronto Department of Psychology” on the label is written “Ferguson Board 5”, “Nov. 1926”, “Time 60 seconds”, “Top”, and “Turn- Smaller Bench Pair.”
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Two boards are missing entirely from this collection.
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These boards were constructed in November of 1926 for a critical investigation of the Ferguson Form Board series by Miss J. A. Brown under the supervision of Professor Earl Douglas MacPhee at the University of Toronto Department of Psychology.
1) E. D. MacPhee and A. J. [sic.] Brown “An Inquiry into the Standardization of the Ferguson Form Boards.” <i>The Journal of Educational Psychology<.i>, v.21, no.1, January 1930, p.24-36
2) George Oscar Ferguson, Jr. “A Series of Form Boards.” <i>Journal Experimental Psychology<.i>, Vol. II, 1920, pp. 47-58.
The Ferguson Form Boards series was developed by Professor George Oscar Ferguson, Jr. of the University of Virginia in an attempt to provide a measure of performance of graduated difficulty. Scores were assigned based on the time that it took to complete each board. The tests were given to school aged children and used to measure performance by age. Ferguson notably used the tests to compare black children to white and boys to girls. [Ferguson, 1920]
In a Master’s thesis submitted in June of 1927, Miss J. A. Brown, under the supervision of Professor Earl Douglas MacPhee, did a critical examination of Ferguson’s claims in the hopes that the test might provide an alternative to linguistic testing. Brown found Ferguson’s earlier claims to have been methodologically flawed and concluded that the test had little clinical value. [MacPhee and Brown 1930]
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