T h e scale was devised to provide a quick, objective, self-administering measure of mental deterioration. I t was based on the clinicoexperimental observations that in mental deterioration voccfbulary level tends to be affected but slightly, while the ability t o see abstract relationships declines rapidly. These facts suggested using the differential between vocabulary and abstract thinking levels as an index of deterioration. T h e present scale, which consists of a vocabulary test and an abstract thinking test to be used together, was designed to measure this differential. T h a t it does so, and thus provides an index of intellectual impairment, was brought out strikingly in measurements made on several hundred mental hospital patients. These data will be reported later. T h e present report is limited to a brief description of the background, construction, standardization, and reliability of the scale.

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