Intelligence and the History of Measuring It
Intelligence, it seems as teenagers that our level of intelligence is the key to life. Our ability to perform on standardized tests, get good grades, obtain honor roll, and be smarter than our fellow classmates is truly the key to our success in the near and immediate future. Failure in any of the aforementioned areas is a scary thought to many of us.
In our text book intelligence is defined as: The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, ad use knowledge to adapt to new situations. As long there has been the idea of intelligence there has been the human desire to test intelligence. According to our text book, Psychology Tenth Edition in Modules, an intelligence test is: A test that asses people's mental abilities and compares them to others numerically.
The origins of testing intelligence comes from Francis Galton. Galton was the cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton was obsessed with measuring traits in humans. His cousin, Darwin, theorized that nature selects desirable traits through survival of the fittest. Galton wondered if those desirable traits could be measured and identified in humans so that humans with these desirable traits could be encouraged to breed and make more desirable off spring.
The next break through in intelligence testing came at the beginning of the 20th century when the European nation of France passed a law that all children must attend school. Many new children arriving in Paris were obviously behind and needed special help, but how could French officials identify these kids and find the help they needed. To solve this problem the French hired Binet and others to solve this problem. Binet and his collaborators theorized that all children follow the same path of mental development. This means that a child who is considered "dumb" may just have a slower level of mental progression than the average kids his age, likewise some kids develop faster and have a higher "mental age" than their average peers. To measure the children of France's mental age they designed an aptitude test with various problem solving questions and by their scores they determined the children's mental age. Binet's plan worked, and it was very successful in one thing: Helping to identify French children with special needs. Binet feared that his test would only identify problem children and limit their opprotunity rather than helping them.
Soon after Binet died in 1911 others began to adapt his test and were starting to find flaws in it. A Stanford professor named Lewis Terman discovered that Binet's test did not work well on California school children. So Terman added a few categories to the test and altered the test to its present state. He even edited the test's name to its current name of: The Stanford-Binet Test.
From tests such as the Stanford-Binet Test, German psychologist William Stern created his famous intelligence quotient or commonly known as IQ. The IQ is a simple score to calculate. It is simply a persons mental age divided by their chronicle age multiplied by 100. Below is a picture of the formula.
In our text book intelligence is defined as: The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, ad use knowledge to adapt to new situations. As long there has been the idea of intelligence there has been the human desire to test intelligence. According to our text book, Psychology Tenth Edition in Modules, an intelligence test is: A test that asses people's mental abilities and compares them to others numerically.
The origins of testing intelligence comes from Francis Galton. Galton was the cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton was obsessed with measuring traits in humans. His cousin, Darwin, theorized that nature selects desirable traits through survival of the fittest. Galton wondered if those desirable traits could be measured and identified in humans so that humans with these desirable traits could be encouraged to breed and make more desirable off spring.
The next break through in intelligence testing came at the beginning of the 20th century when the European nation of France passed a law that all children must attend school. Many new children arriving in Paris were obviously behind and needed special help, but how could French officials identify these kids and find the help they needed. To solve this problem the French hired Binet and others to solve this problem. Binet and his collaborators theorized that all children follow the same path of mental development. This means that a child who is considered "dumb" may just have a slower level of mental progression than the average kids his age, likewise some kids develop faster and have a higher "mental age" than their average peers. To measure the children of France's mental age they designed an aptitude test with various problem solving questions and by their scores they determined the children's mental age. Binet's plan worked, and it was very successful in one thing: Helping to identify French children with special needs. Binet feared that his test would only identify problem children and limit their opprotunity rather than helping them.
Soon after Binet died in 1911 others began to adapt his test and were starting to find flaws in it. A Stanford professor named Lewis Terman discovered that Binet's test did not work well on California school children. So Terman added a few categories to the test and altered the test to its present state. He even edited the test's name to its current name of: The Stanford-Binet Test.
From tests such as the Stanford-Binet Test, German psychologist William Stern created his famous intelligence quotient or commonly known as IQ. The IQ is a simple score to calculate. It is simply a persons mental age divided by their chronicle age multiplied by 100. Below is a picture of the formula.
Stern's test seemed to work well on children, but encountered problems with adults. Tests used to compute IQ's such as the Stanford-Binet are no longer used to identify a level of intelligence. Instead they are used to compare to other people's scores rather than having a set score they are supposed to obtain.
As the popularity of tests such as Stanford-Binet began to fade a new modern form of testing began to replace them. In today's day and age kids of my age have taken dozens of aptitude tests. That is because the main focus of testing today is in the form of achievement or aptitude. An achievement test measures what you have learned. An example of this would be an exam such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. In contrast to the achievement test there is there is the aptitude test, which measures the exact opposite thing. The aptitude test measures our ability to learn new things in the future. A good example of an aptitude test are college entrance exams such as the ACT and the SAT. Togeather aptitude and achievement tests help us see a persons intelligence levels.
Another modern popular way to asses intelligence is David Wechsler's WAIS test. This is the most popular form of modern adult intelligence testing. Wechsler also devised a test for school aged kids called the WISC. His test is made up of four categories: Similarities, vocabulary, block design, and letter-numbering sequencing. Tests like ACT, SAT, WAIS, WISC, etc. are all examples of standardized tests.
When you take a standardized test your success or failure is based on your score compared to others on a normal curve. A normal curve is based forms sort of a bell shaped curve with more scores lying in the middle of the bell. The middle bell is considered to be the average because, the obvious reason that this is where most of scores lie. The outside of the bell is considered the extreme scores. They are obviously considered extreme because very few people obtain these scores weather they are very low or very high it does not matter. They are still considered "extremes." Below you cans see an example of a normal curve. It is easy to notice the elevation toward the middle where most scores lie and the lack of height on the outside.
As the popularity of tests such as Stanford-Binet began to fade a new modern form of testing began to replace them. In today's day and age kids of my age have taken dozens of aptitude tests. That is because the main focus of testing today is in the form of achievement or aptitude. An achievement test measures what you have learned. An example of this would be an exam such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. In contrast to the achievement test there is there is the aptitude test, which measures the exact opposite thing. The aptitude test measures our ability to learn new things in the future. A good example of an aptitude test are college entrance exams such as the ACT and the SAT. Togeather aptitude and achievement tests help us see a persons intelligence levels.
Another modern popular way to asses intelligence is David Wechsler's WAIS test. This is the most popular form of modern adult intelligence testing. Wechsler also devised a test for school aged kids called the WISC. His test is made up of four categories: Similarities, vocabulary, block design, and letter-numbering sequencing. Tests like ACT, SAT, WAIS, WISC, etc. are all examples of standardized tests.
When you take a standardized test your success or failure is based on your score compared to others on a normal curve. A normal curve is based forms sort of a bell shaped curve with more scores lying in the middle of the bell. The middle bell is considered to be the average because, the obvious reason that this is where most of scores lie. The outside of the bell is considered the extreme scores. They are obviously considered extreme because very few people obtain these scores weather they are very low or very high it does not matter. They are still considered "extremes." Below you cans see an example of a normal curve. It is easy to notice the elevation toward the middle where most scores lie and the lack of height on the outside.
Periodically tests that are graded on this curve are edited and made more difficult or easy based on how people did in the past year. This is done to assure the average stays at the score they desire.
A big debate has arisen over testing in the American education system. Some argue that our education system is too dependent on a set criteria of skills that our administrators deem important, and some kids may not necissarily be skilled in these certain areas, but might be exremely proficient in other areas. Growing up in small town Iowa I can see where these people are coming from. Many of my classmates are your typical "farm kids"and have absolutely zero intrest in subjects such as English, Math, and Science and do not put forth any effort in the previously mentioned areas, but they are extremely knowledgeable in agriculture and will most likely be very successful in that particular area. So some experts ask the question of why must they learn these things they will never actually use in the "real world."
Below I have posted two links. The first is a link to a TED talk going over why standardized testing is pointless. The second link is an article pertaining to the history of intelligence testing. The part I found interesting was Binet's view on intelligence. Binet believed that intelligence is a far to complicated thing to be confined to one number, and the tests we devise only flag the children who need help, opposed to identifying the intelligence of an individual.
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otlmKZeNi-U
http://psychology.about.com/od/intelligence/a/wechsler-adult-intelligence-scale.htm
A big debate has arisen over testing in the American education system. Some argue that our education system is too dependent on a set criteria of skills that our administrators deem important, and some kids may not necissarily be skilled in these certain areas, but might be exremely proficient in other areas. Growing up in small town Iowa I can see where these people are coming from. Many of my classmates are your typical "farm kids"and have absolutely zero intrest in subjects such as English, Math, and Science and do not put forth any effort in the previously mentioned areas, but they are extremely knowledgeable in agriculture and will most likely be very successful in that particular area. So some experts ask the question of why must they learn these things they will never actually use in the "real world."
Below I have posted two links. The first is a link to a TED talk going over why standardized testing is pointless. The second link is an article pertaining to the history of intelligence testing. The part I found interesting was Binet's view on intelligence. Binet believed that intelligence is a far to complicated thing to be confined to one number, and the tests we devise only flag the children who need help, opposed to identifying the intelligence of an individual.
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otlmKZeNi-U
http://psychology.about.com/od/intelligence/a/wechsler-adult-intelligence-scale.htm