TITLE: ALFRED BINET

I. ABSTRACT:

Binet was a French psychologist who published the first modern intelligence test,
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. 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.

In 1899, Binet was asked to be a member of the Free Society for the
Psychological Study of the Child. French education changed profusely during the end
of the nineteenth century, because of a law that passed which made it mandatory for
children ages six to fourteen to attend school. This group to which Binet became a
member hoped to begin studying children in a scientific manner. Binet and many
other members of the society were appointed to the Commission for the Retarded.
The question became "What should be the test given to children thought to possibly
have learning disabilities, that might place them in a special classroom?" Binet made
it his problem to establish the differences that separate the normal child from the
abnormal, and to measure such differences. L'Etude experimentale de l'intelligence
(Experimental Studies of Intelligence) was the book he used to describe his methods
and it was published in 1903.

II. INTRODUCTION:

In 1899, Binet was asked to be a member of the Free Society for the Psychological Study of the
Child. French education changed greatly during the end of the nineteenth century, because of a
law that passed which made it mandatory for children ages six to fourteen to attend school. This
group to which Binet became a member hoped to begin studying children in a scientific manner.
Binet and many other members of the society were appointed to the Commission for the
Retarded. The question became "What should be the test given to children thought to possibly
have learning disabilities, that might place them in a special classroom?" Binet made it his
problem to establish the differences that separate the normal child from the abnormal, and to
measure such differences. L'Etude experimentale de l'intelligence (Experimental Studies of
Intelligence) was the book he used to describe his methods and it was published in 1903.
Development of more tests and investigations began soon after the book, with the help of a
young medical student named Theodore Simon. Simon had nominated himself a few years
before as Binet's research assistant and worked with him on the intelligence tests that Binet is
known for, which share Simon's name as well. In 1905, a new test for measuring intelligence was
introduced and simply called the Binet–Simon scale. In 1908, they revised the scale, dropping,
modifying, and adding tests and also arranging them according to age levels from three to
thirteen.
In 1904 a French professional group for child psychology, La Société Libre pour l'Etude
Psychologique de l'Enfant, was called upon by the French government to appoint a commission
on the education of retarded children. The commission was asked to create a mechanism for
identifying students in need of alternative education. Binet, being an active member of this
group, found the impetus for the development of his mental scale.
Binet and Simon, in creating what historically is known as the Binet-Simon Scale, comprised a
variety of tasks they thought were representative of typical children's abilities at various ages.
This task-selection process was based on their many years of observing children in natural
settings[5] and previously published research by Binet and others.[6] They then tested their
measurement on a sample of fifty children, ten children per five age groups. The children
selected for their study were identified by their school teachers as being average for their age.
The purpose of this scale of normal functioning, which would later be revised twice using more
stringent standards, was to compare children's mental abilities relative to those of their normal
peers (Siegler, 1992).

III. LITERATURE REVIEW:

Binet and colleague Theodore Simon developed a series of tests designed to assess mental
abilities. Rather than focus on learned information such as math and reading, Binet instead
concentrated on other mental abilities such as attention and memory. The scale they developed
became known as the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale.4

The test was later revised by psychologist Lewis Terman and became known as the Stanford-
Binet. While Binet's original intent was to use the test to identify children who needed additional
academic assistance, the test soon became a means to identify those deemed "feeble-minded" by
the eugenics movement.4 Eugenics was the belief that the human population could be genetically
improved by controlling who was allowed to have children. By doing this, the eugenicists
believed they could produce more desirable inherited characteristics.

This shift in how the test was used is notable since Binet himself believed that the intelligence
test he had designed had limitations. He believed that intelligence was complex and could not be
fully captured by a single quantitative measure. He also believed that intelligence was not fixed.
Perhaps most importantly, Binet also felt that such measures of intelligence were not always
generalizable and could only apply to children with similar backgrounds and experiences.4

Today, Alfred Binet is often cited as one of the most influential psychologists in history. While
his intelligence scale serves as the basis for modern intelligence tests, Binet himself did not
believe that his test measured a permanent or inborn degree of intelligence. According to Binet,
an individual's score can vary. He also suggested that factors such as motivation and other
variables can play a role in test scores.

IV. IMPLICATIONS TO THE PRESENT EDUCATION

Binet was published the first modern intelligence test, the intelligence test that can
be administered to both children and adults. An individual administered intelligence test
for children between the ages six and sixteen years. It can be completed without any
reading or writing, and it takes 65 to 80 minutes. To measures adults and older
adolescents between the ages of 16 and 90 years. Each test is comprised of two groups of
subtests (verbal and performance). Verbal IQ scales measure general knowledge,
language, reasoning, and memory skills. And performance IQ measure spatial,
sequencing and problem solving skills.

V. PICTURES RELATED TO TITLE:

Binet's work on intelligence began in 1904 when the French government commissioned him
to develop a test that would identify learning disabilities and other academic weaknesses in
grade-school students. At the time, many students in the French education system showed signs
of needing additional help with their studies. Binet, with the help of a colleague named Theodore
Simon, took up the daunting task of trying to measure the mental abilities of students.
By 1905, Binet and Simon developed their first in a series of tests designed to measure
intelligence. It was simply called the Binet-Simon Scale. The scale included 30 tasks that were
progressive in their difficulty. Some of the easiest tasks required students to follow commands or
repeat simple sentences. More difficult tasks included constructing sentences from given words
or drawing images from memory. This test was given to students in Paris and acted as the
reference point for future versions of the intelligence test.
At this stage in the development of the intelligence test, Binet had a growing conviction that
there was great diversity in human intelligence. Based upon his research, he believed that
intellectual development was a process that occurred over time. In other words, intelligence was
not fixed at birth and simply a matter of genetics but was flexible and could be influenced by the
environment to which a child was exposed.

VII. REFERENCES:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/alfred-binet-theory-intelligence-test-quiz.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Binet
https://www.psychologistanywhereanytime.com/mobile/famous_psychologist_and_psychologists/psyc
hologist_famous_alfred_binet.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Binet