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Alfred Binet

Alfred Binet (July 8, 1857 – October 18, 1911) was a French psychologist and inventor of the first usable intelligence test. Born in Nice, Binet was a French psychologist who published the first modern test of intelligence, the Binet-Simon intelligence scale, in 1905. His principal goal was to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school curriculum. Along with his collaborator Theodore Simon, Binet published revisions of his intelligence scale in 1908 and 1911, the last appearing just before his untimely death. A further refinement of the Binet-Simon scale was published in 1916 by Lewis M. Terman, from Stanford University, who incorporated the German psychologist William Stern's proposal that an individual's intelligence level be measured as an intelligence quotient (I.Q.). Terman's test, which he named the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale formed the basis for one of the modern intelligence tests still commonly used today. They are all colloquially known as IQ tests.

Life

Alfred Binet was born on July 11, 1857 in Nice, France. He was the only child of a physician father and an artist mother, who separated when he was very young. He was raised by his mother. She moved with him to Paris, so that he could attend law school. Although Binet received his license to practice law in 1878, he decided to follow his father into medicine.

Soon, however, Binet became interested in psychology and spent several years readying and studying a variety of books, including those by Alexander Bain, Charles Darwin, and John Stuart Mill.

Binet published his first article on hypnosis in 1880, although the article was poorly received. Subsequently, in 1883, Binet took a position in the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris working in Jean-Martin Charcot’s laboratory. At that time, Charcot’s research was focused on hypnosis. Binet was greatly influenced by Charcot, and published four articles on hypnosis and "animal magnetism." Unfortunately, Charcot's work failed to withstand scientific scrutiny and Binet was embarassed by his support for his mentor. He decided to abandon hypnosis in favor of the study of psychological development.

In 1884, Binet had married Laure Balbiani. Together the couple had two daughters, Madeleine and Alice born in 1885 and 1887, respectively. Binet used his daughters to begin his study of cognitive processes. The research involving Madeleine and Alice assisted Binet in understanding the concepts of suggestibility and attention.

Over the next two decades, Binet published prolifically in the field of psychology. His work with his own children led him to the study of intelligence.

In 1892, Binet was awarded a doctorate in natural sciences from Sorbonne. Binet became the director of Sorbonne in 1894, and it was there where he met Theodore Simon, who began doing doctoral research under the supervision of Binet. Along with Henri Beaunis, Binet founded the first French journal of psychology, L'année psychologique, in 1895.

Binet published an article in 1903 based on the results of standardized tests he used on his daughters. The final revision of the intelligence test he and Simon developed was published in 1911, however, Binet passed away before this revision was completed.

Work

Although Binet published widely and prolifically in psychology, beginning with his ill-fated work in hypnosis, and continuing with experimental studies in various aspects of cognition, it is his work developing intelligence tests for which he is best known.

Chess

In 1894, Binet conducted one of the first psychological studies into chess. It investigated the cognitive facilities of chess masters. Binet hypothesised that chess depends upon the phenomenological qualities of visual memory but after studying the reports by master participants, it was concluded that memory was only part of the chain of cognition involved in the game process. The players were blindfolded and required to play the game from memory. It was found that only masters were able to play successfully without seeing the board for a second time and that amateur or intermediate players found it to be an impossible task. It was further concluded that experience, imagination, and memories of abstract and concrete varieties were required in grand master chess.

Intelligence Tests

In 1904, the French government asked a psychology group to develop an assessment test to identify special needs children. In 1905, Binet and Simon created a test called the "New Methods for Diagnosing Idiocy, Imbecility, and Moron Status." The test included multiple tasks that would determine the ability of children based on the child’s age. One of the easiest tasks on the test was to follow an object with one's eyes; one of the more challenging tasks was to repeat a long sequence of random numbers from memory.

Their observations using these tasks was that the characteristic of the human mind that can be called intelligence requires one fundamental feature:

It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting one's self to circumstances. A person may be a moron or an imbecile if he is lacking in judgment; but with good judgment he can never be either. Indeed the rest of the intellectual faculties seem of little importance in comparison with judgment. (Binet & Simon, 1916, 1973, pp.42-43).

Yet Binet was always aware, since his early studies of his two daughters, that intelligence is not a simple quantitative measure, but rather exhibits remarkable diversity.

Binet and Simon originally used their test on a sample of 50 children who performed at an age-typical level. In order to score the test, they would rate the child’s performance in comparison to the performance of other children who were age-typical. For example, a 15-year-old who completed all the tasks that other 15-year-olds completed, would have a mental age of 15. Likewise, if a 15-year-old completed all the tasks that 18-year-olds completed, that 15-year-old would have a mental age of 18. By 1908 Binet and Simon revised their intelligence scale because they believed intelligence increased with age. The new test included a mental age compared to chronological age.

Binet regarded his tests as assessing only a sample of an individual's behavior, not a precise measurement of their intelligence. Thus, the scale merely ordered children according to their performance on intellectual tasks with respect to other similar children of similar age:

I have not sought in the above lines to sketch a method of measuring, in the physical sense of the word, but only a method of classification of individuals. The procedures which I have indicated will, if perfected, come to classify a person before or after such another person, or such another series of persons; but I do not believe that one may measure one of the intellectual aptitudes in the sense that one measures a length or a capacity. Thus, when a person studied can retain seven figures after a single audition, one can class him, from the point of his memory for figures, after the individual who retains eight figures under the same conditions, and before those who retain six. It is a classification, not a measurement... we do not measure, we classify. (Binet, quoted in Varon, 1936, p. 41)

Legacy

Because Binet was never formally trained at a university, his work in intelligence is considered extraordinary. Binet consistently warned that intelligence could never be accurately determined by a single test. Additionally, Binet emphasized that intelligence is subjective; a person may score significantly above average in one area of the test but fail in another area. Binet also argued that individuals learn at varying rates, and that people could be influenced by outside factors such as their peers.

When Binet’s intelligence test was brought to the United States, renamed the Stanford-Binet test, it was used in the exact manner which Binet advised against. Children of various racial and economic backgrounds were compared with one another, and the results of the test were used to make generalizations about groups of people. This type of work became extremely controversial, particularly when difference races were compared, culminating in publications such as Arthur Jensen's work, published in February 1969 in the Harvard Educational Review entitled "How Much Can We Boost I.Q. and Scholastic Achievement?" and the controversial, best-selling 1994 book, The Bell Curve, by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray which explored the role of intelligence in American life.

Such controversial applications notwithstanding, Binet's work in the development of the "IQ test" has proved remarkably long-lived, and the research it has generated has greatly advanced our understanding of human intelligence.

Publications

La psychologie du raisonment; Recherches expérimentales par l'hypnotisme. 1886. (English translation, 1899), his first book.
Perception intérieure. 1887.
Etudes des psychologie expérimentale. 1888.
Les altérations de la personnalité. 1892. (English translation, 1896).
Le magnetisme animale. 1987. with Charles Fere. English translation Animal magnetism. 1892. Reprinted 2003. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0766130770
Introduction à la psychologie expérimentale. 1894. with co-authors.
On Double Consciousness. 1896.
La fatigue intellectuelle. 1898. with co-author Henri.
La Suggestibilité. 1900.
Etude expérimentale de l'intelligence. 1903.
L'âme et la corps. 1905.
Les révélations de lécritique d'après un contrôle scientifique. 1906.
Les enfants anormaux. 1907. with co-author Simon.
Les idées sur les enfants. 1900.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Binet, Alfred & Theodore Simon. 1916. The Development of Intelligence in Children. Reprinted 1973. Arno Press.
Pollack, Robert H. 1969. The Experimental Psychology of Alfred Binet. Springer.
Varon, Edith J. 1936. "Alfred Binet’s concept of intelligence." Psychological Review, 43, 32–49.
Wolf, Theta H. 1973. Alfred Binet. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226904989

External links

Credits

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 '''[[Image:Alfred_Binet.jpg|thumb|Alfred Binet]]'''
-'''Alfred Binet''' (July 8, 1857 &ndash; October 18, 1911), [[France|French]] [[psychologist]] and inventor of the first usable [[intelligence test]]. Born in [[Nice]], Binet was a French psychologist who published the first modern test of [[intelligence]], the Binet-Simon intelligence scale, in 1905. His principal goal was to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school [[curriculum]]. Along with his collaborator [[Theodore Simon]], Binet published revisions of his intelligence scale in 1908 and 1911, the last appearing just before his untimely death.  A further refinement of the Binet-Simon scale was published in 1916 by [[Lewis M. Terman]], from [[Stanford University]], who incorporated the German psychologist [[William Stern]]'s proposal that an individual's intelligence level be measured as an intelligence quotient (I.Q.). Terman's test, which he named the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale formed the basis for one of the modern intelligence tests still commonly used today. They are all colloquially known as IQ tests.
+'''Alfred Binet''' (July 8, 1857 &ndash; October 18, 1911) was a [[France|French]] [[psychologist]] and inventor of the first usable [[intelligence test]]. Born in Nice, Binet was a French psychologist who published the first modern test of [[intelligence]], the Binet-Simon intelligence scale, in 1905. His principal goal was to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school [[curriculum]]. Along with his collaborator [[Theodore Simon]], Binet published revisions of his intelligence scale in 1908 and 1911, the last appearing just before his untimely death.  A further refinement of the Binet-Simon scale was published in 1916 by [[Lewis M. Terman]], from [[Stanford University]], who incorporated the German psychologist [[William Stern]]'s proposal that an individual's intelligence level be measured as an intelligence quotient (I.Q.). Terman's test, which he named the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale formed the basis for one of the modern intelligence tests still commonly used today. They are all colloquially known as IQ tests.
 ==Life==
-'''Alfred Binet''' was born on July 11, 1857 in Nice, [[France]]He was the only child of a physician father and an artist mother, who separated when he was very young. He was raised by his mother. She moved with him to [[Paris]], so that he could attend [[law school]]. Although Binet received his license to practice [[law]] in 1878, he decided to follow his father into [[medicine]].
+'''Alfred Binet''' was born on July 11, 1857 in Nice, [[France]]. He was the only child of a physician father and an artist mother, who separated when he was very young. He was raised by his mother. She moved with him to [[Paris]], so that he could attend [[law school]]. Although Binet received his license to practice [[law]] in 1878, he decided to follow his father into [[medicine]].
-During his time in medical school, Binet became interested in the idea that [[intelligence]] could be explained by the laws of association, which was introduced by [[John Stuart Mill]]. As a result of Mills’ influence, Binet began to read psychological textbooks without ever receiving a formal education in [[psychology]].
+Soon, however, Binet became interested in [[psychology]] and spent several years readying and studying a variety of books, including those by [[Alexander Bain]], [[Charles Darwin]], and [[John Stuart Mill]].
-In 1884, Binet married Laure Balbiani. Together the couple had two daughters, Madeleine and Alice born in 1885 and 1887, respectively. Binet used his daughters to begin his study of [[cognition|cognitive]] processes. The research involving Madeleine and Alice assisted Binet in understanding the concepts of suggestibility and [[attention]]. Based on his research on his daughters, Binet began writing papers on his work and personal thoughts.
+Binet published his first article on [[hypnosis]] in 1880, although the article was poorly received. Subsequently, in 1883, Binet took a position in the Salpêtrière hospital in [[Paris]] working in [[Jean-Martin Charcot]]’s laboratory.  At that time, Charcot’s research was focused on hypnosis. Binet was greatly influenced by Charcot, and published four articles on hypnosis and "animal magnetism." Unfortunately, Charcot's work failed to withstand scientific scrutiny and Binet was embarassed by his support for his mentor. He decided to abandon hypnosis in favor of the study of [[psychological development]].
+In 1884, Binet had married Laure Balbiani. Together the couple had two daughters, Madeleine and Alice born in 1885 and 1887, respectively. Binet used his daughters to begin his study of [[cognition|cognitive]] processes. The research involving Madeleine and Alice assisted Binet in understanding the concepts of suggestibility and [[attention]].
+Over the next two decades, Binet published prolifically in the field of psychology. His work with his own children led him to the study of [[intelligence]].
+In 1892, Binet was awarded a doctorate in natural sciences from [[Sorbonne]]. Binet became the director of Sorbonne in 1894, and it was there where he met [[Theodore Simon]], who began doing doctoral research under the supervision of Binet. Along with [[Henri Beaunis]], Binet founded the first French journal of psychology, ''L'année psychologique'', in 1895.
+Binet published an article in 1903 based on the results of standardized tests he used on his daughters. The final revision of the [[intelligence test]] he and Simon developed was published in 1911, however, Binet passed away before this revision was completed.
 ==Work==
-Binet published his first article on [[hypnosis]] in 1880, although the article was poorly received because many believed it to be plagiarized. Subsequently, in 1883, Binet took a position in a Parisian hospital working in [[Jean-Martin Charcot]]’s laboratory.  Charcot’s research was focused on hypnosis. While working with Charcot, Binet had four of his articles published.
-Because Binet failed to receive acknowledgment from other professionals in the field of [[psychology]], Binet decided to abandon hypnosis in favor of [[psychological development]]. It was Binet’s research in developmental studies using his daughters, which led him towards the study of intelligence.
-In 1892, Binet was awarded a doctorate in natural sciences from [[Sorbonne]]. Binet became the director of Sorbonne in 1894, and it was there where he met [[Theodore Simon]], who began doing doctoral research under the supervision of Binet. Along with [[Henri Beaunis]], Binet founded the first French journal of psychology in 1895. Sir [[Francis Galton]] was one of the first researchers to record individual differences using standardized tests, which interested Binet. Binet published an article in 1903 based on the results of standardized tests he used on his daughters. The work with Binet’s daughters was later developed into the study of [[personality]] types.
+Although Binet published widely and prolifically in [[psychology]], beginning with his ill-fated work in [[hypnosis]], and continuing with experimental studies in various aspects of [[cognition]], it is his work developing [[intelligence test]]s for which he is best known.
 ===Chess===
-In 1894, Binet conducted one of the first psychological studies into [[chess]]. It investigated the [[cognition|cognitive]] facilities of chess masters. Binet hypothesised that chess depends upon the phenomenological qualities of visual [[memory]] but after studying the reports by master participants, it was concluded that memory was only part of the chain of cognition involved in the game process. The players were blindfolded and required to play the game from memory. It was found that only masters were able to play successfully without seeing the board for a second time and that amateur or intermediate players found it to be an impossible task. It was further concluded that experience, [[imagination]], and memories of abstract and concrete varieties were required in grand master chess. The line of psychological chess research was followed up in the 1950s by [[Reuben Fine]] and in the 1960s by [[Adriaan de Groot]].
+In 1894, Binet conducted one of the first psychological studies into [[chess]]. It investigated the [[cognition|cognitive]] facilities of chess masters. Binet hypothesised that chess depends upon the phenomenological qualities of visual [[memory]] but after studying the reports by master participants, it was concluded that memory was only part of the chain of cognition involved in the game process. The players were blindfolded and required to play the game from memory. It was found that only masters were able to play successfully without seeing the board for a second time and that amateur or intermediate players found it to be an impossible task. It was further concluded that experience, [[imagination]], and memories of abstract and concrete varieties were required in grand master chess.
 ===Intelligence Tests===
-In 1904, the French government asked a psychology group to develop an assessment test to identify special needs children. In 1905, Binet and Simon created a test called the "New Methods for Diagnosing Idiocy, Imbecility, and Moron Status." Binet and Simon created the Binet-Simon scale to rate the children’s performance on the test. The test included multiple tasks that would determine the ability of children based on the child’s age. One of the easiest tasks on the test was to follow an object with one's eyes; one of the more challenging tasks was to repeat a long sequence of random numbers from memory.
+In 1904, the French government asked a psychology group to develop an assessment test to identify special needs children. In 1905, Binet and Simon created a test called the "New Methods for Diagnosing Idiocy, Imbecility, and Moron Status." The test included multiple tasks that would determine the ability of children based on the child’s age. One of the easiest tasks on the test was to follow an object with one's eyes; one of the more challenging tasks was to repeat a long sequence of random numbers from memory.
+Their observations using these tasks was that the characteristic of the human mind that can be called [[intelligence]] requires one fundamental feature:
+<blockquote>It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting one's self to circumstances. A person may be a moron or an imbecile if he is lacking in judgment; but with good judgment he can never be either. Indeed the rest of the intellectual faculties seem of little importance in comparison with judgment. (Binet & Simon, 1916, 1973, pp.42-43).</blockquote>
+Yet Binet was always aware, since his early studies of his two daughters, that intelligence is not a simple quantitative measure, but rather exhibits remarkable diversity.
-The test was originally used on a sample of 50 children who performed at an age-typical level. In order to score the test, Binet and Simon would rate the child’s performance in comparison to the performance of other children who were age-typical. For example, a 15-year-old who completed all the tasks that other 15-year-olds completed, would have a mental age of 15. Likewise, if a 15-year-old completed all the tasks that 18-year-olds completed, that 15-year-old would have a mental age of 18. By 1908 Binet and Simon revised their intelligence scale because they believed intelligence increased with age. The new test included a mental age compared to chronological age. The final revision of the [[intelligence test]] was completed in 1911, however, Binet passed away before this revision was completed.
+Binet and Simon originally used their test on a sample of 50 children who performed at an age-typical level. In order to score the test, they would rate the child’s performance in comparison to the performance of other children who were age-typical. For example, a 15-year-old who completed all the tasks that other 15-year-olds completed, would have a mental age of 15. Likewise, if a 15-year-old completed all the tasks that 18-year-olds completed, that 15-year-old would have a mental age of 18. By 1908 Binet and Simon revised their intelligence scale because they believed intelligence increased with age. The new test included a mental age compared to chronological age.
+Binet regarded his tests as assessing only a sample of an individual's behavior, not a precise measurement of their intelligence. Thus, the scale merely ordered children according to their performance on intellectual tasks with respect to other similar children of similar age:
 <blockquote>I have not sought in the above lines to sketch a method of measuring, in the physical sense of the word, but only a method of classification of individuals. The procedures which I have indicated will, if perfected, come to classify a person before or after such another person, or such another series of persons; but I do not believe that one may measure one of the intellectual aptitudes in the sense that one measures a length or a capacity. Thus, when a person studied can retain seven figures after a single audition, one can class him, from the point of his memory for figures, after the individual who retains eight figures under the same conditions, and before those who retain six. It is a classification, not a measurement... we do not measure, we classify. (Binet, quoted in Varon, 1936, p. 41)</blockquote>
 ==Legacy==
-Because Binet was never formally trained at a [[university]], his work in [[intelligence]] is considered extraordinary. Binet consistently warned that intelligence could never be accurately determined by a single test. Additionally, Binet emphasized that intelligence is subjective; a person may score significantly above average in one area of the test but fail in another area. Binet also argued that individuals learn at varying rates, and that people could be influenced by outside factors such as their peers, proving intelligence is not determined by genetics alone.
+Because Binet was never formally trained at a [[university]], his work in [[intelligence]] is considered extraordinary. Binet consistently warned that intelligence could never be accurately determined by a single test. Additionally, Binet emphasized that intelligence is subjective; a person may score significantly above average in one area of the test but fail in another area. Binet also argued that individuals learn at varying rates, and that people could be influenced by outside factors such as their peers.
+When Binet’s intelligence test was brought to the [[United States]], renamed the Stanford-Binet test, it was used in the exact manner which Binet advised against. Children of various racial and economic backgrounds were compared with one another, and the results of the test were used to make generalizations about groups of people. This type of work became extremely controversial, particularly when difference races were compared, culminating in publications such as Arthur Jensen's work, published in February 1969 in the ''Harvard Educational Review'' entitled "How Much Can We Boost I.Q. and Scholastic Achievement?" and the controversial, best-selling 1994 book, ''The Bell Curve'', by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray which explored the role of intelligence in American life.
-Interestingly, when Binet’s intelligence tests came to the [[United States]], it was used in the exact manner which Binet advised against. Children of various racial and economic backgrounds were compared with one another, and the results of the test were used to make generalizations about groups of people. In this case, Binet would argue, a child from a wealthy, college educated family would have greater environmental influences, like having books in the home, which would improve their performance on intelligence tests. Overall, Binet pioneered the study of intelligence and created the groundwork upon which future studies into intellect would build.
+Such controversial applications notwithstanding, Binet's work in the development of the "[[IQ test]]" has proved remarkably long-lived, and the research it has generated has greatly advanced our understanding of human intelligence.
 ==Publications==