Concept of Intelligence

Alfred Binet’s concept of intelligence
Binet began as an associationist for whom intelligence was a vague, general faculty of”
knowing” which underlay all psychological phenomena. In 1894 he repudiated associationism,
and decided that psychology could progress only through the study of individual differences.
These differences are differences in intelligence—both qualitatively and quantitatively. For ten
years he followed his plan for studying them through the method of” comparative introspection,”
meanwhile refining his concept of intelligence. The measuring scale, incidentally invented in
1905, was later used as a tool in studying the nature of intelligence. Experiments performed
between 1894 and 1909 furnished material for a” scheme of intelligence” in which intelligence,
the fundamental function, operates in comprehension, invention, direction, censorship. In 1911
Binet was formulating a dynamic system in which attitudes were used to explain psychical
phenomena; he would finally have defined intelligence in terms of attitude.(PsycINFO Database
Record © 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
‘The old science of education is like an old-fashioned carriage: it squeaks but it can still serve a
turn […][modern educational science] looks like a precision-made machine, but the parts do not
hold together and it has one defect: it does not work.’Such is Alfred Binet’s conclusion in the
final chapter of his last book Modern Ideas about Children. Published in 1911, this is a critical
review of what ‘thirty years of experimental research […] have taught us about educational
matters’. However, the author does not summarize this research, but suggests new avenues of
investigation and so outlines the work to be done in the future. This future did not include him,
however, as he died a few months after the book’s publication. His review is thus something of a
testament.‘I sought a middle course, halfway between the old science of education and the one
promised us by the innovators—laboratory people’, he said. Have his words been remembered?
Or at least have we followed this middle course envisaged by Binet? Binet criticized traditional
education for being excessively verbal and moralizing, but considered that, however worthy of
criticism its methods may have been, it had the merit of being part and parcel of school life. He
therefore felt that we should keep its ‘direction and its concern with real problems’.
To his mind, the innovators were to be commended for their emphasis on experimentation and
insistence on verification and precision in education and pedology alike. However, their blindly
administered tests and their overly fragmented experiments for the most part served no
purpose.‘These people have no notion of what school—or even life itself—is […] and seem
never to set foot outside their laboratories.’His conclusion was that ‘from old-style education we
should derive the problems to be studied, and from the new—the methods of study’. Which
problems did he have in mind? Reading Modern Ideas about Children, we discover that Binet
was simultaneously conducting studies on lazy children, carrying out a survey of the best ways
of teaching deaf-mutes, and experimenting in teaching morals to a class of abnormal children.
What is intelligence?
Whether man is more intelligent today than he was then is doubtful. He knows more, but
knowledge is not intelligence. Whether the civilization of today is superior to that of ancient
Greece, Egypt, or Babylon is frequently questioned. It is more extensive but perhaps not higher.
As for Aristotle, we are still without agreement as to the nature of intelligence, the most
important concept in the science which he fathered. It was about 1910 that the psychological
world was aroused from its quietude by a rumor that someone had proposed to measure a mental
process called intelligence. A few people knew that since about the beginning of the century the
French psychologist, Alfred Binet, had been studying this” new” mental process. He had
published a number of articles and in 1902 a book, Etude eXlperimentale de l’intelliaence, In
1905 he published his plan for measuring intelligence, and three years later his Measuring Scale
for Intelligence. The Vineland publication of the results of applying the” scale” to 2000 public
school children demonstrated the value of the tests. Then arose the question: What is
intelligence? Never before had there been any need for a definition.’Intelligence was knowledge
and knowledge was easily defined. But the Binet tests measured something besides knowledge.
What was It? Binet himself had faced the question. He had been working on it for more than 10
years. He has recorded some of his thoughts on the subject, and we can see how close he come to
a definition. But he never evolved one that entirely satisfied him. His untimely death In 1911 cut
short his efforts. Had he lived there is no doubt that he would have given us the definition. We
reach this conclusion not only because of Binet’s genius but also because of his intense interest
In children and their welfare. He tells us:
Writings about Alfred Binet
 Bergin, D.A. & Cizek, G.J. (2001)

 Fifty major thinkers on education
 From confucius to dewey ( pp. 160-164 )
 Alfred Binet. In J.A. Palmer ( Ed. )
 London. Routledge
 Fancher, R.E. ( 1985 )
 The intelligence men
 Makers of the IQ controversy
 The other Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet was a French psychologist best remembered for developing the first widely used
intelligence test, often known as the Binet-Simon test. The test originated after the French
government commissioned Binet to create an instrument that could identify school kids who
needed remedial studies. With his collaborator Theodore Simon, they created the Binet-Simon
Intelligence Scale.
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
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.

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Alfred Binet’s concept of intelligence

Writings about Alfred Binet

 Bergin, D.A. & Cizek, G.J. (2001)

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