Describe the 1905 Binet–Simon scale of intelligence. How was the scale revised in 1908? In 1911?
Alfred Binet was a psychologist. Binet and Theodore Simon were both interested in understanding individual differences in children. They started forming tests that could sort between intellectually normal and retarded children. Binet believed that though children inherit intelligence from their parents’, the environment also played a major role. He believed that the intellectual capability of every child could rise, if they were properly nurtured and cared for.
In the year 1905, they discovered a way to differentiate between normal and mentally deficient children. They discovered a scale known as the Binet-Simon scale of intelligence. It consisted of 30 tests, with 3 of them measuring motor development and the rest 27 of them measuring the cognitive abilities of the child.
Binet and Simon observed the following results:
1. Normal children aged 2 years or more passed through tests 1 to 6. Some of the children with slight or average mental retardation passed through some or all of the tests and children with severe retardation passed through a few of them.
2. Normal children aged 2-5 passed through tests 7 to 15 with ease, whereas children having slight mental retardation passed several of the tests. Children with moderate mental retardation had difficulty in passing and severely retarded children could not pass at all.
3. Normal children aged 5-12 passed through tests 16 to 30 in a routinely manner. Children having slight mental retardation had great difficulty in passing even a few of them and severely retarded children could pass in none of the tests.
In the year 1908, they revised their scale of measuring intelligence and intellectual level. This 1908 revision of the scale aimed at assigning a certain test to a certain age level. It was observed that a certain test could measure the “normal intelligence level” of a certain age group, if 75 % or more of the children administered to the test could solve it.
For example, it was seen that only some 3 year olds could copy a square, whereas about 75 % or more of 4 year olds could do so and all 5 year olds could do so with ease. Thus, applying this to their tests deemed at determining whether a child is performing normally with respect to children of his or her same age level.
In the 1911 revision of the Binet-Simon scale of measuring intelligence, it included five tests for each age level. This compact system measured the intelligence level of a child perfectly. If a child passed all the five tests of his age level, he or she was considered to be normal.
If a child passed some tests which were for the higher age level, he or she was considered to be having a ‘higher than average’ intellectual level. On the other hand, a child whose intellectual age was 2 years behind his or her normal level, the child could face trouble in his or her schooling. Following this test, the intellectual age of a child could be found out. However, Binet cautioned that one should be careful while interpreting the intellectual age of a child.