Question

Answer the following question in detail:

Write in detail about the history of intelligence testing.

Answer 1

1. Paul Broca and Sir Francis Galton were among the first scientists to think about measuring intelligence.
2. In the mid-1880s, Sir Francis Galton administered a battery of tests measuring variables such as head size, reaction time, visual accuracy, auditory threshold, breathing capacity, etc. He assumed that the larger the skull, the smarter the person. His test did not prove very useful.
3. During the early 1890s, Raymond Cattell used the term ‘mental test’ for the first time. He expanded Sir Francis Galton’s ideas by emphasising that test administration must be standardised so that results are comparable.
4. In 1905, Alfred Binet published the first scale of intelligence in collaboration with Theodore Simon. The Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale consists of several components such as logical reasoning, finding rhyming words, and naming objects. This scale was revised in 1908 and 1911.
5. In 1916, Lewis Terman from Stanford University revised the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale. He established new age norms and extended the upper age limit of the scale. This revised test was known as the Stanford Binet Test. It was revised in 1937, 1960, 1972, 1986, and 2004.
6. In 1917, Robert Yerks with his colleagues prepared Army Alpha and Army Beta intelligence tests which were used while recruiting soldiers in the army.
7. In 1939, the Army General Classification Test was used on a large scale while recruiting soldiers in the army during the Second World War.
8. In 1939, David Wechsler published the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale. It was revised in 1955 and renamed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). The fourth edition of this test (WAIS-IV) was released in 2008 by Karl Pearson. Wechsler also developed the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).
9. Besides these tests, many other psychologists have developed various intelligence tests.