Alfred Binet

Life

• Born in France in 1857• Graduated from law school in 1878• Became a self-taught Psychologist

Beginning Research

• 1899 Binet became a member of the Free Society for the Psychological Study of the Child

• Education in France drastically changed making it mandatory for kids ages 6-14 to attend school

• Binet and this group started studying kids scientifically • Bient became a “Commissioner for the Retarted”• Together the commissioners began discussing and

researching the major question: “What should be the test given to children thought to have learning disabilities, that might place them in a special classroom?”

• 1903 he published his knowledge in Experimental Studies of Intelligence

Beginning of the Test

• Binet then started working with a medical student Theodore Simon

• Together they came up with the first intelligence test called the Binet-Simon Scale (1905)

• 1908- The test was revised to add and take away needed items and to include age levels from thee to thirteen.

How the Test Worked

• Tested individuals mental age• Individuals completed mind tasks • The persons mental age was unaffected by their

chronological age• If a child preformed at a mental age of 6 they were given a

mental age of 6 regardless of their actual age.• If their mental age was the same as their actual age the

child was average. • If their mental age was higher than their actual age they

were considered mentally advanced. • If their mental age was below their actual age they were

considered retarded.

The Test

1. Prehension Provoked by a Tactile Stimulus 2. Prehension Provoked by a Visual

Perception 3. Recognition of Food 4. Quest of Food Complicated by a Slight

Mechanical Difficulty 5. Execution of Simple Commands and

Imitation of Simple Gestures 6. Verbal Knowledge of Objects 7. Verbal Knowledge of Pictures 8. Naming of Designated Objects 9. Immediate Comparison of Two Lines of

Unequal Lengths 10. Repetition of Three Figures 11. Comparison of Two Weights 12. Suggestibility 13. Verbal Definition of Known Objects

15. Repetition of Sentences of Fifteen Words

16. Comparison of Known Objects from Memory

17. Exercise of Memory on Pictures 18. Drawing a Design from Memory 19. Immediate Repetition of Figures 20. Resemblances of Several Known

Objects Given from Memory 21. Comparison of Lengths 22. Five Weights to be Placed in Order 23. Gap in Weights 24. Exercise upon Rhymes 25. Verbal Gaps to be Filled 26. Synthesis of Three Words in One

Sentence 27. Reply to an Abstract Question 28. Reversal of the Hands of a Clock 29. Paper Cutting 30. Definitions of Abstract Terms