Part 4 (2/2)

4 Gives three differences between a president and a king

5 Gives the ht of a selection which he has heard read

It should be eives little idea of their nature andthe 54 experiently it is necessary to acquaint one's self thoroughly with the purpose of each test, its correct procedure, and the psychological interpretation of different types of response[10]

[10] See Part II of this volume, and References 1 and 29, for discussion and interpretation of the individual tests

In fairness to Binet, it should also be borne in h approximation to the ideal which the author had set hier, he would doubtless have carried the method much nearer perfection

HOW THE SCALE IS USED By iven individual by comparison with standards of intellectual perfores In order to in the examination of the subject at a point in the scale where all the tests are passed successfully, and to continue up the scale until no more successes are possible Then we compare our subject's perfore, and note the amount of acceleration or retardation

Let us suppose the subject being tested is 9 years of age If he goes as far in the tests as noro, we can say that the child has a ”e” of 9 years, which in this case is noroes only as far as noro, we say that his ”e”

is 8 years In like manner, a e” of only 4 years, or a young genius of 9 years e of 12 or 13 years

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BINET-SIMON METHOD Psychologists had experience tests for at least twenty years before the Binet scale ests itself why Binet should have been successful in a field where previous efforts had been for the most part futile The answer to this question is found in three essential differences between Binet's e standards_ Binet was the first to utilize the idea of age standards, or norence It will be understood, of course, that Binet did not set out to invent tests of 10-year intelligence, 6-year intelligence, etc Instead, as already explained, he began with a series of tests ranging fro these tests on children of different ages and noting the percentages of successes in the various years, he was able to locate theed

This plan has the great advantage of giving us standards which are easily grasped To say, for illustration, that a given subject has a grade of intelligence equal to that of the average child of 8 years is a stateeneral iators had worked with subjects the degree of whose intelligence was unknown, and with tests the difficulty of which was equally unknown

An i tests which were used in such a way as to preclude any very ful interpretation of the responses

The Binet ence of a child in a far more definite way than had hitherto been possible Current descriptive terht,” ”dull,” ”very dull,” ”feeble-

A child who is designated by one person as ”ht” by another person The degree of intelligence which one calls ”moderate dullness,” another may call ”extreme dullness,” etc

But every one knohat is meant by the term 8-year mentality, 4-year rades of intelligence in psychological ter experies can perfore standards as definite as we please

Why should a device so si for a discoverer? We do not know It is of a class with many other unaccountable mysteries in the developrade method, as this is called, did not coence tests for some fifteen years At least his first provisional scale, published in 1905, was not rade plan It consisted hly in order of difficulty Although Binet nowhere gives any account of the steps by which this crude and ungraded scale was transforrade scale of 1908, we can infer that the original and ingenious idea of utilizing age norested by the data collected with the 1905 scale However the discovery was made, it ranks, perhaps, from the practical point of view, as the y

2 _The kind of ht into play_ In the second place, the Binet tests differ froned to test the higher and more complex mental processes, instead of the simpler and more ele powers and ingenuity, provoke judg to measure sensory discrimination, mere retentiveness, rapidity of reaction, and the like

Psychologists had generally considered the higher processes too coet at theence with simpler processes which could readily be , discri over their contradictory findings in this line of exploration, Binet went directly to the point and succeeded where they had failed

It is now generally adence is little concerned in such elementary processes as those mentioned above Many of the animals have keen sensory discrirade, do not differ very markedly from normal children in sensitivity of the skin, visual acuity, siery, etc But in power of coht, in the nature of the associative processes, in amount of information possessed, and in spontaneity of attention, they differ enorence”_ Finally, Binet's success was largely due to his abandony”

which, far froiven direction to most of the earlier ith mental tests Where others had attempted to measure memory attention, sense discrimination, etc, as separate faculties or functions, Binet undertook to ascertain the _general level_ of intelligence Others had thought the task easier of accoence separately, and suan in this way, and it was only after years of experimentation by the usual methods that he finally broke away froht of his toithout first getting the dimensions of the individual stones which made it up

The assumption that it is easier to ence than all of it, is fallacious in that the parts are not separate parts and cannot be separated by any refinement of experiment

They are interwoven and intertwined Each ramifies everywhere and appears in all other functions The analogy of the stones of the tower does not really apply Memory, for example, cannot be tested separately from attention, or sense-discrimination separately from the associative processes After le the various intellective functions, Binet decided to test their co the exact contribution of each to the total product It is hardly too ence tests have been successful just to the extent to which they have been guided by this aiination, etc, are tery is dynaht processes which consist in mental adaptation This adaptation is not explicable in terms of the old ht process, for such process always involves the participation of uish accurately Instead ofthe intensity of variousto ical comparison, Binet says the old ”faculties” correspond to the separate tissues of an aniht” corresponds to the functioning organ itself For Binet, psychology is the science of behavior

BINET'S CONCEPTION OF GENERAL INTELLIGENCE In devising tests of intelligence it is, of course, necessary to be guided by so the nature of intelligence To adopt any other course is to depend for success upon happy chance

However, it is ience on the basis of _a-priori_ considerations alone To demand, as critics of the Binet method have soence should first present a complete definition of it, is quite unreasonable As Stern points out, electrical currents werebefore their nature ell understood Similar illustrations could be drawn froy, and other sciences In the case of intelligence it may be truthfully said that no adequate definition can possibly be framed which is not based priht by the test method The best that can be done in advance of such data is to make tentative assuence, and then to subject these assumptions to tests which will show their correctness or incorrectness New hypotheses can then be fraradually we shall be led to a conception of intelligence which will be ful and in harmony with all the ascertainable facts

Such was the method of Binet Only those unacquainted with Binet'sthe publication of his intelligence scale would think of accusing hi no effort to analyze theinto play It is true that many of Binet's earlier assumptions proved untenable, and in this event he was always ready, with exceptional candor and intellectual plasticity, to acknowledge his error and to plan a new line of attack

Binet's conception of intelligence eht process: (1) Its tendency to take and maintain a definite direction; (2) the capacity toa desired end; and (3) the power of auto-criticisence des iique_ (1909), pp 1-147 The last division of this article is devoted to a discussion of the essential nature of the higher thought processes, and is a wonderful exaical analysis in which Binet was so gifted

How these three aspects of intelligence enter into the performances with various tests of the scale is set forth fro the individual tests[12] An illustration whichthe disarranged parts of a divided rectangle As described by Binet, this operation has the following elements: ”(1) to keep in ure to be formed; (2) to try different couides the efforts of the subject even though he e the combination which has been made, to compare it with the model, and to decide whether it is the correct one”

[12] See especially pages 162 and 238

Much the same processes are called for inweights, rearranging dissected sentences, drawing a dia three given words, counting backwards, etc

However, an examination of the scale will show that the choice of tests was not guided entirely by any single forence Binet's approach was a many-sided one The scale includes tests of time orientation, of three or four kinds of e coe about common objects, of free association, of nuination, and of ability to coments into a unitary whole, to comprehend abstract terms, and to meet novel situations