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Who was alfred binet11/28/2023 ![]() ![]() The pioneers of the American mental testing movement (Henry Goddard, Lewis Terman, and Robert Yerkes ) all asserted that intelligence tests did measure a fixed, unchangeable capacity, largely determined by an individual’s heredity. ![]() Within a decade of Binet’s original work, adaptations of his test, including some designed for use with adults, were in use in the United States. Binet did not regard the test as measuring some fixed, unchangeable capacity, however, and he railed against the “brutal pessimism” of those who might think otherwise. The test was thus to be used as a diagnostic instrument, indicating a possible need for corrective treatment. Binet prescribed courses of “mental orthopedics” for those who did poorly on his test. If children did as well as other children of the same age, they were labeled “normal.” If children did as well as older children, they were “bright.” If the child could only do as well as younger children, Binet concluded that their intelligence was not developing properly and they should receive remedial education. The child’s performance was compared to the typical performance of children of various ages. The test, designed for schoolchildren, assessed both the child’s fund of acquired knowledge and academic skills. ![]() Chicago: University of Chicago Press.The first intelligence test was devised by French psychologist Alfred Binet (1857–1911) in Paris in 1905. Human intelligence: Historical influences, current controversies, teaching resources. The intelligence men: Makers of the IQ controversy. ![]() At the time of his death in 1911, Binet was working on a further revision of his scale. Nevertheless, Binet was hesitant to quantify intelligence because he believed that one could improve the intelligence levels of retarded children and that intelligence is a not fixed quantity. Revised scales incorporating standardization and a formula for calculating “intellectual level” were issued in 19. The Binet-Simon Intelligence Scales, published in 1905, used items of increasing difficulty that assessed a wide variety of mental functions and were tied together by the use of practical judgment. Binet quickly came to see that the age at which children were able to accomplish certain tasks was a crucial factor in discriminating levels of mental acuity, with normal children able to pass the same tests at younger ages than those who were deficient. Realizing the need for a reliable diagnostic system to identify this condition, Binet and his collaborator Theodore Simon set out to develop a series of test tasks that would differentiate levels of retardation. In 1904, following the enactment of universal education laws in France, Binet was appointed to a commission formed by the government to investigate mental subnormality-as mental retardation was then known- in children. His 1903 book, L’Étude expérimentale de l’intelligence, is a notable work that recounts Binet’s observations of many mental tests he tried on his two daughters. Binet believed testing should tap higher order mental abilities instead of elementary processes. He doubted the value of the sensorimotor tests for assessing mental abilities that predominated at the time. His use of case studies helped him to appreciate the fact that intelligence is complex and needs to be measured with multidimensional scales. Binet’s interest in psychology caused him to start the first French journal in the field, L’Année Psychologique, in 1895.Īs an experimental child psychologist, Binet led a research program he called “individual psychology.” Binet believed that intelligence could never be isolated from the actual experiences of individuals or their environments. In 1891, he went to work with Beaunis at the Sorbonne’s Physiological Psychology Laboratory in 1894, Binet became director of that lab, where he remained for the rest of his life. Through his study of hypnosis during this period, Binet came to appreciate the value of the case study method and the role of suggestibility. This led him to volunteer to work for Charcot, the famous neurologist who directed the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. Binet earned a law degree and attended medical school, but he abandoned both fields and turned his attention to experimental psychology. His independent wealth allowed him to pursue his interests and work without remuneration throughout his life. Binet was born in 1857, the only child of a physician father and artist mother. Alfred Binet was a French pioneer of modern psychological testing who developed the prototype of many intelligence tests in use today, including the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. ![]()
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