The Assessment of Intelligence

Intelligence Testing: Yesterday and Today

• First, compulsory education in the United States and other countries resulted in a very diverse student body. To preserve resources, there was pressure to identify those most likely to succeed in school.

• Second, scientists believed and ultimately demonstrated, that mental abilities could be measured.

Binet-Simon Scale

• Binet’s original purpose was to develop an objective method of identifying those truly lacking in academic ability.

• Institutions such as schools, industries, military forces, and governments were interested in individual differences that might affect performance in those settings; thus, intelligence prospered (herrnstein & Murray, 1994).

The Concept of Intelligence

• What exactly is meant by the term intelligence?

• How do we develop valid instruments for measuring it?

Definition of Intelligence

• Ability

• Aptitude

• Achievement

Ability is the currently available power to perform something and aptitude is the potential for performance after training. Achievement is a measure of successful performance in the past.

Three classes of definition:

1. Definitions that emphasize adjustment or adaptation to the environment– adaptability to new situations, the capacity to deal with a range of situations.

2. Definitions that focus on the ability to learn—on the educability in the broad sense of the term.

3. Definitions that emphasize abstract thinking– the ability to use a wide range of symbols and concepts, the ability to use both verbal and numerical symbols.