The Mental Testing Movement

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The Mental Testing Movement
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• Precursors
• Galton
• Bessel and the personal equation
• James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944)
• Took his PhD in Leipzig, under Wundt
• Dissertation Dissertation on objective measures
  of reaction time
• Returned to US
• First job at Bryn Mawr, then U of Pennsylvania,
  then Columbia
• First American professor of psychology
• Fired from Columbia for pacifism during WWI
  (1917), sued and won 40K settlement that he used
  to found the Psychological Corporation.
• Also founded Psychological review, edited
  Science, founded the AAUP, and began American Men
  of Sciences (now American Men and Women of
  Science.

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• Studied RT as f(sense mode, attention,
  forewarning), fatigue, reward and punishment)
• Built mental measurement battery based mainly on
  RT measures.
• Later research no relation with school
  performance
• Alfred Binet (1857-1911)
• Early bad experience with hypnotism/magnetism as
  cures for mental afflictions
• Led to resignation from the Salpetriere (1890)
• Observational studies of intellectual growth of
  his daughters (published in 1903) led to some
  early attempts to test for intellectual
  differences among people.
• Tests not highly correlated with each other
  presumably didnt measure intelligence.

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• With Theodore Simon (1873-1961)
• Appointed by French govt. to develop method of
  distinguishing mentally deficient children from
  those with normal intelligence.
• Began with criterion groups and chose measures
  that differentiated them. Binet-Simon test (1905)
• The Binet-Simon test
• New ideas
• Items graded in difficulty
• Difficulty related to age of child
• Intelligence increases through childhood
• Child compared to others of same age
• Idea that intelligence is made up of many skills
  (unlike Galton who believed in a single,
  theoretically basic, measure of intelligence)
• Intelligence isnt based on sensory acuity or
  special training
• Idea that intelligence is not innately restricted
• Believed that remedial training would improve
  intelligence
• Concept of mental age
• In 1911, William Stern invents concept of IQ
  (MA/CA x 100)
• This definition no longer used, since raw scores
  dont continue to rise with chronological age
  after 15-18 yrs of age. (If you are an average 19
  yr old with IQ of 100, what will your IQ be when
  you are 55, assuming ability stays the same?
  19/55 100 35!!!

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• Lasting contributions to intelligence testing
• Used tests for which all subjects could be
  expected to have the required experience
• Used tests of abstract reasoning, e.g.,
• Unwrap and eat a sweet
• Remember shopping lists
• Order weights (3, 6, 9, 12, 15 grams) lines (3
  cm, 4 cm.. Etc)
• Make rough copies pf line-drawn square, diamond,
  cylinder
• Construct sentences containing given words (e.g.,
  Paris, fortune, river)
• Example from the Binet test figure copying
• Task child shown one simple figure and asked to
  draw it from memory (detailed accuracy and
  neatness unimportant)
• Results Square can be copied by average 5 yr
  old diamond by 8 cylinder by 10. Acc. To
  Jensen, this test correlates with other childhood
  abilities.
• Note problem here is not merely perceptual or
  manual it is analytic. The 8 yr old who cant
  copy the diamond, for example, will have been
  able to copy the square. Note, too Training on
  one figure doesnt transfer to the other, harder,
  figures
• David Wechsler (1896-1981)
• Started testing similar to Binet but for adults
  (1930s)
• Established the Deviation IQ as the measure

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• Intelligence Testing in the US
• H.H. Goddard (1866-1957)
• Translated Binet-Simon test into English
• Kallikak family study
• Normal and feebleminded descendents from one
  man and his wife mistress
• Promoted genetic view of intelligence little
  weight given to environmental factors
• Resulted in sterilization laws in several states
  (upheld by Supreme Court) and deportation of
  immigrants with low intelligence test scores
• Applied terms idiot, imbecile, and moron to
  intelligence levels (1910, 1916)
• Lewis M. Terman (1877-1956)
• Took degree from G. Stanley Hall at Clark
  University did most of his work at Stanford
• Revised Binet-Simon scales to give an average
  IQ of 100 at each age level
• Stanford-Binet became standard instrument for
  measuring intelligence in children and was good
  predictor of school performance
• Believed intelligence was
• mostly determined by heredity
• Unitary
• Relatively stable
• Opposite of Binet in these judgments
• Recommended that schools develop different tracks
  for students of different abilities

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• Longitudinal study of genius
• Identified 1470 gifted children (avg. IQ 151)
  through statewide testing in CA. (Termites)
• Tested them frequently on obtained life history
  information from 1921 until the 1950s
• Found that gifted children tend to become well
  adjusted, successful adults with wide interests
• Leta Hollingworth
• PhD from Columbia
• Became prof. of education at Columbia Teachers
  College
• Applied studies in intelligence
• Early studies no gender differences no
  impairment during menstruation
• Later studies many cases of mental deficiency
  were really cases of social or emotional
  impairment
• Studies of gifted children led to methods of
  enriching education for bright students

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• Robert M. Yerkes (1876-1956)
• PhD and faculty member at Harvard
• Devised intelligence scale for group
  administration (1917)
• Army Alpha (for English-speaking subjects) Army
  Beta (for non-English illiterates)
• First mass administrations of intelligence tests
  (1.75 million men)
• Permitted group comparisons
• Score was a point total, not IQ.
• Raised concern about national intelligence
• Data used to promote racial segregation
  theories of racial superiority
• However, Army didnt find the data especially
  useful
• Better contribution
• Established comparative psychology in the U.S.
  (Yerkes Regional Primate Lab in Atlanta named for
  him)
• President of APA (1917)

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• As APA president, Yerkes chaired Army testing
  committee, which included Terman and his doctoral
  student, Arthur Otis (Otis test served as basis
  for construction of the group tests)
• Questions have been raised about significance of
  psychologists contributions to WWI. But. Huge
  boost to mental testing movement.
• After the war
• Terman claimed tests improved military efficiency
  and predicted they would be universally used in
  schools
• Got Rockefeller Foundation funding to adapt tests
  for school use
• Developed National Intelligence Tests for
  grades 3-8 for use in 1920
• Testing widely adopted in schools in 1920s-
  30s. Creation of hierarchical tracking system,
  programming for gifted

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• Hereditarian interpretation of intelligence
  challenged in early 20s when results of WWI
  testing were released.
• Critics raised questions about
• Whether tests measure innate intelligence
• Cultural bias
• Lack of opportunity
• By 1930s testers most closely associated with
  reports of racial/ethnic differences recanted
  their views.
• With respect to racial/ethnic differences, the
  heredity argument was put to rest until revived
  in 1970s by Arthur Jensenhereditarian
  interpretation of racial differences
• Nature-nurture debate over tested intelligence
  was not put aside with respect to American
  schoolchildren.
• Terman continued to advocate for hereditarian
  interpretation of IQ differences among
  schoolchildren
• Environmentalist challenge most prominently
  offered by group from Univ. of Iowa, led by
  George Stoddard.

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• Mass IQ testing in schools continued well into
  1960s.
• Goal was to make long-term predictions regarding
  intellectual potential
• Galton-Terman heredity interpretation maintained
  dominance over Binet-Iowa environmentalist view.
• In 1960s, in context of civil rights movement
  and War on Poverty, the Iowa tradition of
  studying effects of environmental enrichment
  again became prominent
• In conservative climate of Nixon presidency (no,
  this isnt Nixon-bashing)
• Environmentalist position challenged.
• Interesting aside Nixon had been one of
  Termans subjects in the longitudinal study
• Issue remains hot today reflects
  social/political forces