Use and Abuse of Intelligence Testing

Broca’s Craniometry Men were more intelligent because they had larger brains The difference between contemporary men and women’s brains was greater than between prehistoric men and women Why? Evolution – men more involved in a competition for survival – they had to adapt quicker and be more intelligent Opinion widely accepted and led to global discrimination of women in education that lasted for nearly a century

Broca’s Craniometry (cont.) These “findings” influenced by prevailing beliefs of the time He looked for explanations that were consistent with the beliefs Commonly believed that younger adults more intelligent than older, Primitive people less intelligent than modern people, and women less intelligent than men. Needed to find a reason – brain size

Mismeasurement of Man Re-examined Broca’s data When age differences accounted for difference between men and women reduced to 113 grams instead of 181 Prehistoric data based upon 13 brains – very small sample Body size not taken into account

Alfred Binet 1st objective and standardized form of intelligence testing Binet studied hypnotism with Jean Charcot Self-taught psychologist and demonstrated poor critical thinking skills – accepted without question the views of people he thought were smart

Binet and Fere Use of hypnotism and magnets The action on one side of the body of a hypnotized person can be moved to the other side by moving a magnet Under hypnosis a person’s motivation and perception could be changes to the opposite using a magnet Problem – no one could replicate his results

Binet and Fere Experiments poorly done with little controls Libault reported that Binet’s results were the result of suggestion, subjects knew what they were supposed to do Binet proved wrong when Libault and others showed that Binet’s results could occur without magnets Binet forced to admit that he and Charcot were wrong, hypnosis and hysteria not linked to a deteriorating nervous system

Binet and intelligence testing Given the task of developing an objective assessment of children that could identify those who would need help to perform in a normal classroom 1906 – Binet and Simon developed the Binet-Simon Scale of general intelligence Test began to be given under very controlled situations to determine its validity

Testing validity Identify two groups a normal group and an abnormal group Give each group the test Identify which tests items differentiate the 2 groups – on which items did the 2 groups consistently perform differently

Binet-Simon Scale of Intelligence Purpose was to identify children who would need help Based on 2 assumptions of Binet Intelligence not a unitary ability, but a combinations of many abilities Inheritance may place a limit on intelligence, but no one reaches their full potential therefore everyone can grow intellectually

1908 Revised Binet-Simon Scale Mental level included – a 5 year old should perform at a 5 year old level Mental level was changeable- a strong environmental position Strongly opposed the idea of the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) IQ developed by Louis Stern (1912) Concept of mental level evolved into mental age – opposed by Binet

Spearmen’s general intelligence Intelligence a unitary ability and inherited American’s accepted Spearman’s perspective of intelligence

Binet – Simon scale introduced to the U.S. 1911 version brought to the U.S. Principally by Henry Goddard and Louis Terman Goddard face by the same problem in New Jersey as Binet faced in Paris

Henry Goddard Took Spearman’s innate perspective to intelligence and used his English translations as tests Heavily influenced by Mendel’s study of heredity in plants Study of the Kallikac family Supported concept of eugenics and helped lead to forced sterilzation of people determined to be mentally deficient Study seriously flawed

Goddard and the Vineland School for the Feebleminded Tested his English translation of the Binet-Simon scale using children in the Vineland School and compared them to children in public schools The 2 groups of children scored very different so he concluded it was a good test Ignored important result ignored

Goddard and immigration More people from southern and eastern Europe immigrating to the U.S. Method needed to screen new immigrants to exclude mental deficients Goddard “showed” that the Binet test could identify people with mental defects. Thousands excluded because they failed the test Test used made up of questions only a U.S. resident would be likely to answer

Later Goddard Began work with gifted children that was followed up by Terman Gifted do not end up maladjusted and that enriched programs can help them Rejected his previous view of intelligence and adopted Binet’s , but the damage had been done

Louis Terman Intelligence inherited Low intelligence the cause of all criminal and immoral behavior Modified the Binet test to the Stanford-Binet Showed the Stanford-Binet correlated with academic success Extensive work with gifted children – longitudinal study of Terman’s Termites

Louis Terman’s longitudinal study Findings: Most children excelled in school and later excelled in college Most were highly successful professionally- making many professional contributions Problems: Sample unrepresentative of the population They knew and were repeatedly told how special they were Very few comparison’s with a control group Terman helped many of them with scholarships and letters of recommendation No really great leader, scholar, or scientists were among them

Robert Yerkes Army intelligence tests – used to test army recruits and draftees Purpose: To segregate the mentally incompetent Classify according to mental ability Identify those most competent for special training Characteristics of test Group testing Intelligence independent of education Challenging to brightest but could be taken by those of lesser ability Toke less than an hour to take

Results of Army Alpha and beta Tests Reported to be the greatest thing to come out of psychology Psychology and psychologists status as a science grew tremendously Problem average score on the test was below normal – the idiot level - adults scoring at the 13 year old level

Impact of the army test Edison did his studies of American intelligence and found people to be “amazingly ignorant” Poor scores blamed on the deterioration of the national intelligence due to immigration of certain ethnic groups and reproduction of inferior people Resulted in further immigration restrictions and sterilization No one questioned the validity of the test and the testing conditions

The challenge to Goddard, Terman , and other psychologists !922 Horace English – data from test were misread 1923 – F. N. Freeman – mental testers conclude that thereis no way to compare intelligence of peopleof different upbringing Walter Lippmann in 1922 and 1923 The average adult intelligence cannot be less than the average adult intelligence Average intelligence on the Stanford-Binet was at a 16 year level on the army test it was 13 Supported the original ideas of Binet and highly criticized later psychologist Terman tried to respond to Lippmann’s articles, but should have known better than debate a great journalist in a public forum