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THE INTELLIGENCE OF AN INDIVIDUAL IS NOT A FIXED QUANTITY
In 1859, Charles Darwin set out his theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, providing a framework for the debate over whether intelligence was fixed by genetic inheritance or could be modified by circumstances.His cousin, Francis Galton, carried out tests on the cognitive abilities of around 9,000 people in London in the early 1880s, and concluded that basic intelligence was fixed at birth.
Around the same time, Wilhelm Wundt proposed the idea of an intelligence quotient(程度) (IQ), and made attempts to measure it. Wundt’s work inspired studies into the measurement of mental abilities by the American psychologist James Cattell, and were also to form the basis of Alfred Binet’s research into human intelligence.
Fascination with learning
Binet studied law and natural science before psychology captured his interest.He was largely self-taught, although working with Jean-Martin Charcot at Paris’s Salpêtrière Hospital for more than seven years gave him a firm grasp of experimental procedures, with their need for precision and careful planning.His desire to study human intelligence grew out of his fascination with the development of his own two daughters.
He noted that the speed and ease with which his children absorbed new information varied according to how much they were paying attention.Context, and the child’s frame of mind, seemed to be critical to learning.On hearing of Francis Galton’s testing in London, Binet decided to carry out his own large-scale research on assessing differences in individual abilities between various special-interest groups, such as mathematicians, chess players, writers, and artists.
At the same time, he continued his study of the functional intelligence of children, noting that they became capable of certain skills at specific ages.For example, very young children were not capable of abstract thought – this seemed to be a hallmark(特点) of an increased level of intelligence that was directly attributable to age.
In 1899, Binet was invited to join a new organization dedicated to educational research, La Société Libre pour L’Etude Psychologique de l’Enfant (The Free Society for the Psychological Study of the Child). Within a short time, he became the group’s leader, and began to publish articles and information useful to teachers and education officials.
Around the same time, it became mandatory(强制的) for all children in France to attend school between the ages of six and 12,and Binet was asked to consider how to develop a test that would identify children who might have learning disabilities, so that they could receive schooling that was appropriate to their needs.
In 1904, this work led to Binet being asked to join a government commission to devise a method of assessing learning potential in infants,and he made it his mission to establish the differences between normal and intellectually challenged children, and to find a way of measuring these differences.
"I have not sought to sketch a method of measuring… but only a method of classification of individuals."
——Alfred Binet
Taking intelligence tests, which are still largely based on the Binet–Simon Scale, has become an almost standard way of predicting a child’s potential to be successful at school.
The Binet–Simon Scale
Binet was joined in his task by Théodore Simon, a research scientist at the Sorbonne’s Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, where Binet had been director since 1894. It was to be the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration between the two scientists.
By 1905, Binet and Simon had created their first test, labelled “New Methods for Diagnosing Idiocy, Imbecility, and Moron Status”. Soon after, they introduced a revised version, for children aged 3 to 13, which was simply called the Binet–Simon Scale.It was revised once more in 1908, and then again in 1911.
Based on their many years of observing children, Binet and Simon put together 30 tests of increasing difficulty, using a range of tasks that reflected the average abilities of children at different ages.The easiest tasks included following a beam of light, or engaging in basic conversation with the person who was testing them.
Slightly more difficult tasks included pointing to various named body parts, repeating a series of two digits, repeating simple sentences, and defining basic words such as “house” or “fork”. In the more difficult tests, children were asked to describe the difference between pairs of similar objects, to reproduce drawings from memory, and to construct sentences around three given words.
The very hardest tasks included repeating seven random digits, finding three rhymes for the French word “obéisance”; and answering questions such as “My neighbour has been receiving strange visitors.He has received in turn a doctor, a lawyer, and then a priest.
What is taking place?” Binet and Simon tested their scale on a sample of 50 children, divided equally between five age groups.These children had been selected by their school teachers as being average for their age, providing a baseline measure of normality against which children of all abilities could be measured.
Binet and Simon’s 30 tasks, arranged in order of difficulty, were to be carried out under carefully controlled conditions.
Binet had learned from observing his daughters that children are easily distracted, and that their level of attention plays a critical role in their ability to perform.
He saw intelligence as a mixture of multifaceted(多层面的) mental faculties that operate within a real world of ever-changing circumstances, and are controlled by practical judgment.
"There is in intelligence… a fundamental agency, the lack or alteration of which has the greatest importance for practical life: that is judgment."
———Alfred Binet
Binet–Simon tests generate an IQ (intelligence quotient) number, representing an overall level of performance.
This can be plotted on a graph to reveal IQ variations across groups or populations.
Intelligence is not fixed
Binet was always frank about the limitations of the Binet–Simon Scale. He was keen to point out that the scale simply ordered children from their performance of intellectual tasks in relation to other children of a similar age. The tests of 1908 and 1911 placed greater emphasis on tests for different age groups, and it was this that eventually led to the concept of “mental age”.
Binet also stressed that mental development progressed at different rates and could be influenced by environmental factors. He preferred to think of his tests as a way of assessing mental level at a particular point in time, because this allowed for an individual’s level to change as their circumstances changed.
This was in opposition to the views of the influential English psychologist Charles Spearman, who later proposed that intelligence was based on biological factors alone. Binet maintained that a child’s “intelligence is not a fixed quantity”, but grows just as the child does, and that even though he had devised a way of quantifying it, no number could ever give an accurate measure of a person’s intelligence.
A complete picture, Binet thought, could only be formed from an accompanying case study. Ultimately, Binet did not believe that it was possible to measure intellectual aptitude as if it were a length or a capacity; it was only possible to classify it.
Uses and abuses
In 1908, the American psychologist Henry H. Goddard travelled to Europe, where he discovered the Binet–Simon tests. He translated them, distributing around 22,000 copies across the USA to be used for testing in schools.Unfortunately, while Binet had been careful not to attribute intelligence to hereditary(遗传的) factors, Goddard thought that it was genetically determined.
He saw the Binet–Simon Scale as a way of rooting out “feebleminded(低能的) people” for compulsory sterilization(绝育).
In 1916, yet another American psychologist, Lewis Terman, modified the Binet–Simon Scale.Using test results from a large sample of American children, he renamed it the Stanford–Binet Scale.
It was no longer used solely to identify children with special needs, but to pick out those who might be suitable for streaming off into more vocational, or job-oriented, education, effectively condemning them to a lifetime of menial(卑微的) work.
Terman, like Goddard, believed that intelligence was inherited and unchangeable, so no amount of schooling could alter it.Binet was probably unaware of these uses of his work for quite some time.He was an isolated figure, who rarely concerned himself with professional developments outside his immediate sphere.
He never travelled outside France, where the Binet–Simon Scale was not adopted during his lifetime, so he was never confronted by any modifications of his work. When he eventually became aware of the “foreign ideas being grafted(移植) on his instrument” he strongly condemned those who with “brutal pessimism” and “deplorable verdicts” promoted the concept of intelligence as a single constant.
Binet’s concept of the “IQ test” remains the basis of intelligence today.Despite its shortcomings, it has, nevertheless, generated a body of research that has advanced our knowledge of human intelligence.
MORE TO KNOW…
APPROACH
Intelligence theory
BEFORE
- 1859 English naturalist Charles Darwin proposes that intelligence is inherited in On the Origin of Species.
- From 1879 Wilhelm Wundt applies scientific methods to psychology, seeking objective ways of measuring mental abilities such as intelligence.
- 1890 US psychologist James Cattell devises tests to measure differences in individual mental abilities.
AFTER
- 1920s English educational psychologist Cyril Burt claims intelligence is mainly genetic.
- 1940s Raymond Cattell defines two types of intelligence: fluid (inborn) and crystallized(结晶) (shaped by experience).
ALFRED BINET
Alfred Binet was born in Nice, France, but moved to Paris at a young age after his parents separated. He gained a law degree in 1878, then studied sciences at the Sorbonne, in preparation for taking up medicine.But Binet decided that his real interest lay in psychology, and although he was largely self-taught, in 1883 he was offered a post at Paris’s Salpêtrière Hospital by Jean-Martin Charcot.
After his marriage the following year, and the birth of two daughters, he began to take an interest in intelligence and learning. In 1891, Binet was appointed associate director of the Sorbonne’s Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, becoming director in 1894.
Many honours have been heaped upon Binet since his untimely(过早的) death in 1911. These include changing the name of La Société Libre pour l’Etude Psychologique de l’Enfant to La Société Alfred Binet in 1917.
Key works
- 1903 Experimental Study of Intelligence
- 1905 The Mind and Brain
- 1911 A Method of Measuring the Development of Intelligence