MA Lecture 2 - Origins of Intelligence Testing

Historical Context

• late 19th to early 20th century France

• growing concern abt children struggling in school

• French govt sought method to identify students needing special ed support

Alfred Binet (1857-1911)

• commissioned in 1904 by the French Ministry of Edu

• collaborated w Theodore Simon to develop practical tests for schools

Developement of the Binet-Simon Scale (1905) — Standardisation 

1st standardised test to measure mental abilities in children

• standardised — administered & scored in a consistent manner 

  • uniform —everyone takes the same test under similar conditions 

  • objective scoring — answers scored using consistent method 

  • comparability — results can be compared across indv, groups or time periods 

Developement of the Binet-Simon Scale (1905) — Overview 

Test focused on identification, memory, reasoning 

• 30 diff tests increasing in difficulty 

• verbal knowledge of food, objects, body parts 

• memory tests 

• resemblance (e.g. how are a fly, ant, butterfly and flea alike) 

• explaining abstract terms (diff between weariness and sadness) 

Developement of the Binet-Simon Scale (1905) — Key Principles  

Aim: identify students who needed extra support in school (“slight” intellectual disability)

• scores are practical not theoretical

  • only assesses performance

  • not designed to assess causes

  • not designed to label people

• test developed further to establish age norms

Revised test (1908) — Age level tests

• introduced age level grouping for age based comparison

  • conducted extensive testing of children across various ages & ability levels

  • developed graded intellectual tasks — increasing cognitive complexity

  • standardised age assignment — task assigned to specific age level if at least 75% of children at that age could successfully complete it — ‘typical’ age performance

Revised test (1908) — What did they need for each age

Age 3 — identify body parts, repeat simple sentences, describe pictures

Age 5 — compare weights, copy shapes, count coins

Age 7 — complete unfinished pictures, count fingers, copy images

Age 9 — know the date, define familiar objects

Age 12 — repeat complex figures, create rhymes, solve abstract problems

Age 13 — describe abstract figures, explain differences btwn abstract terms 

Mental Age and Task Difficulty

Age level of the most difficult task a child can successfully complete

e.g. — if 5 year old can solve tasks designed for 7 year old but not beyond then their mental age is 7

Binet’s Position

incremental theory

• intelligence not fixed and can develop over time

• can be developed through education

• not a single ability

Binet’s Legacy 

test laid the foundation for modern intelligence testing 

• influenced educational psychology, cognitive assessment & developmental research

• compassionate attitude — focus on present abilities not labels 

• his values were not universal 

Francis Galton

• 19th century British polymath

• cousin of Charles Darwin

• pioneer in psychology, statistics & human measurement

introduced key statistical & research methods

• correlations, regression

• 1st look at twin studies to examine nature and nurture

• proposed lexical hypothesis

Galton & Intelligence

• entity theorist (fixed biological trait)

• intelligence was something hereditary

• influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution

  • indv differences and natural selection

• founder of eugenics

  • advocated for selective breeding to improve human intelligence

• believed that intelligence was related to sensory discrimination

  • visual acuity, auditory accuracy, tactile discrimination, reaction time

James McKeen Cattell 

• ‘mental tests’ 

• sensory tests didn’t predict academic performance 

Lewis Terman

Eugenicist

• also believed intelligence was largely inherited and stable

Advocated for:

• identifying & supporting the ‘gifted’

• restricting reproduction among those deemed ‘feebleminded’

• his work contributed to standardised testing and tracking systems in schools 

Test Evolution — Standford-Binet 

Terman

• revised and published Binet’s test 

• become the standard against which others were validated 

Henry Goddard

Eugenicist

• applied intelligence tests to immigrants arriving at Ellis Island

• believed low intelligence was hereditary — linked to crime and poverty

• forced sterilisations

• advocated for:

  • restricted immigration based on intelligence

  • sterilisation & institutionalisation of those w low intelligence

• used culturally biased tests in english

Historical Classification of Intellectual Disabillity 

Early 20th century class

Mixed Legacy of Intelligence Testing — Negatives 

• contributed to racist & xenophobic immigration policies 

• reinforced social hierarchies based on race, class & percieved intelligence 

• helped legitimise eugenics as public policy in education, healthcare and law

• misused to track minority & indigenous peoples into lower educational streams 

Mixed Legacy of Intelligence Testing — Positives  

• educational personalisation

• clinical assessment

• early identification & support

• development of aptitude tests

• cross-cultural research into cultural fairness & universality of cognitive constructs

• contributed to test-taking culture

Contributions to Policy — E Morris Miller

• influenced Tasmanian legislation on ‘mental deficiency’

  • Tasmanian Mental Deficiency Act (1920)

  • Responsibility & care for intellectually disabled

  • Lovell (1923) — NSW had no provision for intellectually disabled