How scoring & growth charts work
Please send us your questions about scores and growth charts. We’ll use them to further develop the information on this page.
The Lectical Scale
During the last three decades much has been written about the Lectical Scale, Lectical Assessment, and CLAS (our electronic scoring system). If you’d like to dig into the technical details, the three links provided in the previous sentence will get you going.
In this document, we provide the basic information you are likely to find useful as a Mindlogger, starting with the following video, which offers plain English description of Lectical Levels up to level 12:
Lectical Levels in MindLog
The Scores awarded in MindLog are Lectical Scores. They are calculated by CLAS, our computerized developmental assessment system, and range from 650 (early speech) to 1400 (at the time of writing, the highest recorded score was 1375, awarded to a philosophical text). In adulthood, scores can range from 900 to 1375. Based on existing evidence, we estimate that the vast majority of adults perform in the range between 1000 and 1130.
A Lectical Score represents the complexity level of a particular text or group of texts. In MindLog™, scores are awarded once a Mindlogger has written enough to meet the requirements for accurate scoring—usually every 4–6 reflections in MindLog Reflections and a single essay in MindLog Essays.
Once mindloggers provide enough written material for CLAS to calculate a reliable Lectical Score, their first Lectical Scores appear near the top of the MindLog entry page. When they receive a second Lectical Score, a growth chart will appear. Every score awarded is added to this growth chart.
Over time, as more entries are scored, (assuming responses are written without outside help of any kind) a clear growth pattern will emerge.
Here are a few things to take into account when viewing growth charts.
Scores aren't points
Scores represent probable ranges. In the growth charts on this page, you'll notice that vertical lines pass through or touch the dots that represent scores. These dots represent the best fitting score and the lines represent the range between the highest and lowest scores out of 3 scores, including the best-fitting score and two "next-best" fitting scores.*
The larger the range, the less certain we are of the best-fitting score. Unusually large ranges can be due to a number of things, such as:
- A text is too short to score with confidence;
- An individual is mostly learning by memorizing (rather than learning in a way that helps per understand the material);
- A text has more than one author; or
- An author is writing for or speaking to a younger or less educated audience.
*These ranges are not typical statistical confidence scores. Instead, they represent weightings at the top and bottom of a distribution. See the CLAS page for information about the distribution.
Developmental patterns vs. scores
A pattern of scores over time is much more useful and reliable (trustworthy) than a single score.
Performance is variable
Don’t expect to perform consistently at the same level. Many factors affect performance—including state of mind, energy level, level of effort, engagement, health, hunger, level of wellbeing, hormone levels, and the content being explored.
The figure below shows the growth chart of a very young child named Adam, whose speech was recorded every-other week for just under three years. From our lifespan research, we know that variable performance like Adam's is the rule at every age.
Keep variability in mind when viewing your own growth chart. As an adult, your first few scores may seem to have no pattern at all.
Mental growth is not smooth
In addition to being variable, mental growth, like physical growth, occurs in fits and starts. A close look at Adam's’s growth chart, above, reveals periods of rapid growth followed by periods of slower growth. We, and other researchers, have observed similar patterns in older children and adolescents. MindLog makes it possible for researchers to learn much more about these fits and starts, and can even help mindloggers build skills for managing their own growth more effectively.
Raw data source for Adam's growth chart: Brown, R. (1973). Development of the first language in the human species, American Psychologist 28(2):97-106 DOI: 10.1037/h0034209
Mental growth slows at higher Lectical Levels
The higher your score, the longer it will take to see clear evidence of growth in your MindLog growth chart. This is partly because individual development through higher, more complex levels takes longer than development through lower, less complex levels.
Mental functioning and aging
Lectical growth also slows, and may decline, as we age. Because it fosters reflection, MindLog can offer meaningful mental stimulation for aging adults, while providing a powerful way to monitor mental functioning. Darren's chart, above, shows a gentle overall decline in scores from 1982 to 2026, along with a great deal of score variability around 2018. The four higher scores in 2018 have very wide ranges that reflect the presence a second “voice.” This is a pattern we often see when grammar checkers or other AI have been used to support writing. We also see it when public figures make speeches that are written by committee and when students are taking a course that involves using a great deal of sophisticated-sounding jargon.
Typical growth trajectories
The graph below represents a series of “averaged” growth curves based on our research to date. We've included it here with reservations.
We deliberated long and hard before publishing this graph on the MindLog pages. We're concerned that some folks who've been taught that “higher is better” could find the relationship between their Lectical Scores and these typical trajectories disheartening. On the other hand, plotting their scores along these trajectories appears help many people set satisfying learning goals for themselves—with practices that help them keep learning in their current learning sweet spots (AKA Goldilocks zone or growth zone).
Being able to communicate in words is an important life skill. Learning how to do this well enough to share our thoughts, feelings, and ideas with others is obviously of great importance, and the practice of communicating in speech and writing is a major way we build our minds. Lectical Scores represent the complexity level of our thoughts as they are expressed in words. These scores are useful, especially when it comes to observing mental growth, but they do not, in any way, “sum us up.”
Here are a few things to keep in mind if you decide to plot your MindLog scores on this graph.
- Higher is not necessarily better. It's an advantage if the complexity of our thinking is a good fit for the complexity of our environment (culture, work, etc.), but complexity for complexity's sake is overrated. (The last thing the world needs is an overabundance of philosophers—the folks who tend to score highest on the Lectical scale).
- You'll need to plot several years of growth before a clear trajectory is likely to appear.
- Your scores are likely to straddle two curves—more if you don't always do your own writing or you write in diverse knowledge areas.
- Your current trajectory is not necessarily your destiny. Many things influence the rate of an individual's growth.
- Scoring higher on the Lectical scale is not an indicator of a general level of competence. People tend to receive higher scores in their areas of expertise—as long as these areas of expertise require the ability to explain one's thinking.
- Some skill areas do not require the kind of explicit knowledge that is readily communicated in words. For example, highly skilled or self-taught musicians or artists may struggle to explain their work.
