ALFRED BINET: LIFE AND THEORY

Alfred Binet (born 1857, Nice, France) originally attended law school in Paris, then conducted work at a hospital in his earlier life. In the early 1900s the French Government asked Binet to carry out research into students capability or intelligence to cope with education in the French capital of Paris, so they could determine which individuals would experience difficulty in schooling and hence who would require further specialised support. (Due to Schooling being mandatory in France)

BINET-SIMON INTELLIGENCE TEST (1905)

Ultimately following research, Binet suggested individuals held a mental age, not to be confused with their chronological age, being a measure of intelligence based on average abilities of children of a certain age bracket/group. (made comparisons between children in age groupings due to knowledge of developmental norms, not as a whole population). He then later compared the chronological age to the mental age and found, for example, that if someone had a mental age 2 or more years behind their chronological age; they were recommended for alternate instruction or deemed retarded. Binet and an associate created their first intelligence test in 1905, comprising of 30 intellectual questions and problems directed at children of specified ages. These questions are in fact today a basis for multiple intelligence tests to this day, as his mental age theory greatly contributed to the famous use of the intelligence quotient or IQ.

THE INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT DEVELOPED (IQ)

HOWEVER! Binet stressed that such a test held many LIMITATIONS as the test is based on so broad a concept to quantify a number. Instead, he argued intelligence is influenced by multiple factors, that it can change over time and can only be compared to between children of similar socio-economic backgrounds. Binets research and test was later utilised by American psychologists at Stanford University in 1916; as his research evolved into a new intelligence test (Binet-Stanford Intellligence test) which continues to be widely used today, which ultimately produces what we know as the IQ. IQ (Intelligence Quotient)=A created quantified measurement of a persons intelligence, which represents a comparison of mental age over chronological age. E.g. MA 160 IQ CA = IQ *We now use Deviation (Einsteins)
IQ and normal distribution to eliminate variables of age as intelligence stops developing into adulthood.

EXAMPLES OF BINET IQ TEST QUESTIONS