found there was loss from six to seven and gain from seven to eight for both
sexes. From eight to nine girls lost rapidly for one and gained rapidly for the
following year, while boys were nearly stationary till ten, after which both sexes
gained to their maximum at fourteen years of age and declined for the two
subsequent years, both gaining power from sixteen to seventeen, but neither
attaining the accuracy they had at fourteen.[26]
[Illustration: Girls and Boys at Memory Reproductions compared.]
Netschajeff[27] subjected 637 school children, well distributed between the ages
of nine and eighteen, to the following tests. Twelve very distinct objects were
shown them, each for two seconds, which must them be immediately written
down. Twelve very distinct noises were made out of sight; numbers of two
figures each were read; three-syllable words, which were names of familiar
objects, objects that suggested noises, words designating touch, temperature, and
muscle sensations, words describing states of feeling, and names of abstract
ideas also were given them. The above eight series of twelve each were all
reproduced in writing, and showed that each kind of memory here tested
increased with age, with some slight tendency to decline at or just before
puberty, then to rise and to slightly decline after the sixteenth or seventeenth
year. Memory for objects showed the greatest amount of increase during the year
studied, and works for feeling next, although at all ages the latter was
considerably below the former. Boys showed stronger memory for real
impressions, and girls excelled for numbers and words. The difference of these
two kinds of memory was less with girls than with boys. The greatest difference
between the sexes lay between eleven and fourteen years. This seems, at
eighteen or nineteen, to be slightly increased. "This is especially great at the age
of puberty." Children from nine to eleven have but slight power of reproducing
emotions, but this increases in the next few years very rapidly, as does that of the
abstract words. Girls from nine to eleven deal better with words than with
objects; boys slightly excel with objects. Illusions in reproducing words which
mistake sense, sound, and rhythm, which is not infrequent with younger
children, decline with age especially at puberty. Up to this period girls are most
subject to these illusions, and afterward boys. The preceding tables, in which the
ordinates represent the number of correct reproductions and the abscissas the
age, are interesting.
Lobsien made tests similar to those of Netschajeff,[28] with modifications for
greater accuracy, upon 238 boys and 224 girls from nine to fourteen and a half