Intelligence Testing

Alfred Binet (1857)

  • First intelligence test

  • Worked with Theodore Simon

  • Created a series of tests to distinguish normal children and mentally deficient children

  • Tests included…

    • Word associations

    • Sentence completions

    • Moral judgments

  • Subsequent tests → More difficult

    • Child passed more tests → greater intelligence 

William Stern (1871)

  • Children test “at age”

    • 5-year-olds old should perform like other 5-year-olds

  • Chronological Age

    • Actual age of child

  • Mental ge

    • Intellectual level children perform at

  • Calculated intelligence quotient score

    • Mental age / Chronological Age

  • Binet

    • Opposed intelligence quotient

    • Intelligence is complex

Charles Spearman

  • Intelligence comes down to 2 factors

    • Specific Factors

      • (s) Mathematical or musical abilities

    • General Intelligence

      • (g) Overriding intelligence

      • Determined by inheritance

Comparing Binet and Spearman

  • Binet

    • Many intelligence factors

    • Altered by experience

  • Spearman

    • Single intelligence

    • Genetic component

  • Quotient tests

    • Measured Spearman’s general intelligence

Henry Goddard

  • Eugenics

  • Introduced Binet-Simon test to US

  • Intelligence is inherited

  • Studied differences between normal/feeble-minded people, alongside intellectually gifted children

  • Feeble-minded people → sterilized

    • Eliminated genes from population

  • Immigration…

    • Threatened America’s gene pool

    • Tested immigrants for feeble-mindedness

  • Based on results…

    • Restricted immigrants entering the country

    • Sterilization laws that lasted for 60 years

Lewis Terman

  • Revised intelligence test

  • Believed intelligence was inherited

  • Feeble-mindedness → criminal behavior

  • Multiplied intelligence quotient by 100 (IQ)

  • Contribution was revising the Binet-Simon scales

    • Used larger sample (different ages/intelligence levels)

    • Included additional questions (appropriate to older/younger people)

    • Provided clear and detailed instructions

      • Increased reliability of test and replicate results

Leta Stetter Hollingworth (1886)

  • Researched…

    • Educational techniques to aid gifted children

    • Correct mistreatment of gifted children

  • Intelligence was NOT inherited

  • Women are not less intelligent than men

  • Social norms prevented women from advancing

Robert Yerkes (1876)

  • Created psychological exams for Army during WWI

    • Army Alpha Test for literate soldiers

    • Army Beta Test for illiterate and non-english speaking soldiers

  • Positive → Practical uses

  • Negative…

    • Increased racial tensions

    • Denied people right to vote