Examines the difference between abstract and concrete behavior without statistical methods at this phase of the authors' work and knowledge, believing it to be the preliminary task, especially of psychopathology, to ascertain data on a descriptive, qualitative level. The distinction between an abstract and concrete attitude in the characterized sense of two different behavioral ranges is of such a preliminary descriptive nature. The methods of testing used, especially the Sorting Tests for determining the impairment of abstract behavior, have also proven fruitful in the study of mental deterioration of other kinds. The performance tests in common usage do this too, but mainly because one tries to avoid the positive effects of verbal training or the negative effects of its absence upon results in verbal testing. In other words the objective of the routine performance test is to determine the actual capacity of a subject which may not express itself in die same clear-cut manner on a verbal test. The authors' tests share this advantage of the performance tests. In these tests the task is so elementary and simple that there can be no doubt about such a condition: a patient cannot sort colors or equally shaped figures together on request; nor can he accept such groupings; neither does he understand the given explanation; nor can he give an account of his concrete grouping; he also fails on request to shift this grouping to another form.
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