Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales
The Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales is an individually administered intelligence test that was revised from the original Binet–Simon Scale by Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon. It is in its fifth edition, which was released in 2003.
It is a cognitive-ability and intelligence test that is used to diagnose developmental or intellectual deficiencies in young children, in contrast to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. The test measures five weighted factors and consists of both verbal and nonverbal subtests. The five factors being tested are knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory, and fluid reasoning.
The development of the Stanford–Binet initiated the modern field of intelligence testing and was one of the first examples of an adaptive test. The test originated in France, then was revised in the United States. It was initially created by the French psychologist Alfred Binet and the French psychiatrist Théodore Simon, who, following the introduction of a law mandating universal education by the French government, began developing a method of identifying "slow" children, so that they could be placed in special education programs, instead of labelled sick and sent to the asylum. As Binet and Simon indicated, case studies might be more detailed and helpful, but the time required to test many people would be excessive. In 1916, at Stanford University, the psychologist Lewis Terman released a revised examination that became known as the Stanford–Binet test.
Development
As discussed by Fancher & Rutherford in 2012, the Stanford–Binet is a modified version of the Binet–Simon Intelligence scale. The Binet–Simon scale was created by the French psychologist Alfred Binet and the French psychiatrist Theodore Simon. Due to the introduction of compulsory education at that time, questions were raised about children unfit for regular education, and a proposal was made to build boarding schools in asylums for them. Binet and Simon were part of a learned society that opposed the proposal and advocated the creation of remedial tracks in regular schools. They created the first intelligence test to objectively measure the intellectual functioning of primary school children. Binet and Simon believed that intelligence is malleable and that intelligence tests would help target children in need of extra attention to advance their intelligence.To create their test, Binet and Simon first created a baseline of intelligence. A wide range of children were tested on a broad spectrum of measures in an effort to discover a clear indicator of intelligence. Failing to find a single identifier of intelligence, Binet and Simon instead compared children in each category by age. The children's highest levels of achievement were sorted by age and common levels of achievement considered the normal level for that age. Because this testing method merely compares a person's ability to the common ability level of others their age, the general practices of the test can easily be transferred to test different populations, even if the measures used are changed.
One of the first intelligence tests, the Binet–Simon test quickly gained support in the psychological community, many of whom further spread it to the public. Lewis M. Terman, a psychologist at Stanford University, was one of the first to create a version of the test for people in the United States, naming the first localized version the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale and the second version the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale. Terman used the test not only to help identify children with learning difficulties but also to find children and adults who had above average levels of intelligence. In creating his version, Terman also tested additional methods for his Stanford revision, publishing his first official version as The Measurement of Intelligence: An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet–Simon Intelligence Scale .
The original tests in the 1905 form include:
- "Le Regard"
- Prehension Provoked by a Tactile Stimulus
- Prehension Provoked by a Visual Perception
- Recognition of Food
- Quest of Food Complicated by a Slight Mechanical Difficulty
- Execution of Simple Commands and Imitation of Simple Gestures
- Verbal Knowledge of Objects
- Verbal Knowledge of Pictures
- Naming of Designated Objects
- Immediate Comparison of Two Lines of Unequal Lengths
- Repetition of Three Figures
- Comparison of Two Weights
- Suggestibility
- Verbal Definition of Known Objects
- Repetition of Sentences of Fifteen Words
- Comparison of Known Objects from Memory
- Exercise of Memory on Pictures
- Drawing a Design from Memory
- Immediate Repetition of Figures
- Resemblances of Several Known Objects Given from Memory
- Comparison of Lengths
- Five Weights to be Placed in Order
- Gap in Weights
- Exercise upon Rhymes
- Verbal Gaps to be Filled
- Synthesis of Three Words in One Sentence
- Reply to an Abstract Question
- Reversal of the Hands of a Clock
- Paper Cutting
- Definitions of Abstract Terms
Historical use
As also discussed by Leslie, in 2000, Terman was another of the main forces in spreading intelligence testing in the United States. Terman quickly promoted the use of the Stanford–Binet for schools across the United States where it saw a high rate of acceptance. Terman's work also had the attention of the U.S. government, who recruited him to apply the ideas from his Stanford–Binet test for military recruitment near the start of World War I. With over 1.7 million military recruits taking a version of the test and the acceptance of the test by the government, the Stanford–Binet saw an increase in awareness and acceptance.
Given the perceived importance of intelligence and with new ways to measure intelligence, many influential individuals, including Terman, began promoting controversial ideas to increase the nation's overall intelligence. These ideas included things such as discouraging individuals with low IQ from having children and granting important positions based on high IQ scores. While there was significant opposition, many institutions proceeded to adjust students' education based on their IQ scores, often with a heavy influence on future career possibilities.
Revisions of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale
Since the first publication in 1916, there have been four additional revised editions of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales, the first of which was developed by Lewis Terman. Over twenty years later, Maud Merrill was accepted into Stanford's education program shortly before Terman became the head of the psychology department. She completed both her master's degree and Ph.D. under Terman and quickly became a colleague of his as they started the revisions of the second edition together. There were 3,200 examinees, aged one and a half to eighteen years, ranging in different geographic regions as well as socioeconomic levels in attempts to comprise a broader normative sample. This edition incorporated more objectified scoring methods, while placing less emphasis on recall memory and including a greater range of nonverbal abilities compared to the 1916 edition.When Terman died in 1956, the revisions for the third edition were well underway, and Merrill was able to publish the final revision in 1960. The use of deviation IQ made its first appearance in third edition, however the use of the mental age scale and ratio IQ were not eliminated. Terman and Merrill attempted to calculate IQs with a uniform standard deviation while still maintaining the use of the mental age scale by including a formula in the manual to convert the ratio IQs with means varying between age ranges and nonuniform standard deviations to IQs with a mean of 100 and a uniform standard deviation of 16. However, it was later demonstrated that very high scores occurred with much greater frequency than what would be predicted by the normal curve with a standard deviation of 16, and scores in the gifted range were much higher than those yielded by essentially every other major test, so it was deemed that the ratio IQs modified to have a uniform mean and standard deviation, referred to as "deviation IQs" in the manual of the third edition of the Stanford–Binet, could not be directly compared to scores on "true" deviation IQ tests, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, and the later versions of the Stanford–Binet, as those tests compare the performance of examinees to their own age group on a normal distribution. While new features were added, there were no newly created items included in this revision. Instead, any items from the 1937 form that showed no substantial change in difficulty from the 1930s to the 1950s were either eliminated or adjusted.
Robert Thorndike was asked to take over after Merrill's retirement. With the help of Elizabeth Hagen and Jerome Sattler, Thorndike produced the fourth edition of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale in 1986. This edition covers the ages two through twenty-three and has some considerable changes compared to its predecessors. This edition was the first to use the fifteen subtests with point scales in place of using the previous age scale format. In an attempt to broaden cognitive ability, the subtests were grouped and resulted in four area scores, which improved flexibility for administration and interpretation. The fourth edition is known for assessing children that may be referred for gifted programs. This edition includes a broad range of abilities, which provides more challenging items for those in their early adolescent years, whereas other intelligence tests of the time did not provide difficult enough items for the older children.
Gale Roid published the most recent edition of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale. Roid attended Harvard University where he was a research assistant to David McClelland. McClelland is well known for his studies on the need for achievement. While the fifth edition incorporates some of the classical traditions of these scales, there were several significant changes made.