Use and Abuse of Intelligence Testing

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Use and Abuse of Intelligence Testing
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Brocas Craniometry

• Men were more intelligent because they had larger
  brains
• The difference between contemporary men and
  womens 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

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Brocas 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

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Mismeasurement of Man

• Re-examined Brocas 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

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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

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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 persons motivation and
  perception could be changes to the opposite using
  a magnet
• Problem no one could replicate his results

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Binet and Fere

• Experiments poorly done with little controls
• Libault reported that Binets results were the
  result of suggestion, subjects knew what they
  were supposed to do
• Binet proved wrong when Libault and others showed
  that Binets 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Spearmens general intelligence

• Intelligence a unitary ability and inherited
• Americans accepted Spearmans perspective of
  intelligence

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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

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Henry Goddard

• Took Spearmans innate perspective to
  intelligence and used his English translations as
  tests
• Heavily influenced by Mendels 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

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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

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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

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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 Binets , but the damage had been done

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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 Termans Termites

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Louis Termans 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 comparisons 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

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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

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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

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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

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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 Lippmanns articles,
  but should have known better than debate a great
  journalist in a public forum