Intelligence test

“ But for persons who lack the proper training and habits of observation the intelligence test acts as a ruthless exterminator of incompetence. The point of it is, I repeat, that it is aimed not at eliciting the things which, from the very routine of our life itself, we are certain we know, but at those things which we ought to know but don't. ”

“ The intelligence tests depend wholly on accurate response and not at all on speed of reaction.
(g) If intelligence tests depended upon previous training, they could not be measures of native intelligence.
(h) High correlation between the test scores of brothers and sisters is a fact that tends to indicate the importance of heredity in determining intelligence.
(i) The "general factors" in intelligence are the same as the instincts.
(j) Feeble-minded individuals include all those who are below the average intelligence. ”

“ But since one of the very best tests of intelligence is, of course, the degree to which one is able to profit by social contacts and the breadth and variety of the individual’s stored-up impressions, these extraneous or collateral qualities, which every test also more or less successfully measures in addition to the particular quality or mental dimension under direct examination, furnish useful data in arriving at a conclusion which is, after all, the main purpose sought, as to the individual’s actual abilities and potential powers. ”

“ Indeed, it would be desirable to make all promotions on the basis chiefly of intellectual ability. Hitherto the school has had to rely on tests of information because reliable tests of intelligence have not until recently been available. As trained Binet examiners become more plentiful, the information standard will have to give way to the criterion which asks merely that the child shall be able to do the work of the next higher grade. The brief intelligence test is not only more enlightening than the examination ”

“ Still more striking is the application of the intelligence test to the plain manual occupations. The worker fulfils, let us admit, his routine duty. But we have to ask, is this all that we have a right to demand from him? No. If the man is to be really competent, his mind ought to have a reach and an outlook which go beyond the mechanical operations of his job. I give an example:
Intelligence Test for Marine Engineers 1. ”

“ In the case of the complex functions again, it is very hard to separate the actual capacities of intelligence (Intelligenzanlagen) , which it is desired to test, from the objective effects of instruction, training, etc. Thus, for example, many of the alienists' socalled tests of intelligence are really tests of information and scholastic attainment. ”

“ Whatever it appears to be from mere inspection, it is a real measure of intelligence. Henceforth it stands or falls with the scale as a whole.
The reader will understand, of course, that no single test used alone will determine accurately the general level of intelligence. A great many tests are required; and for two reasons: (1) because intelligence has many aspects; and (2) in order to overcome the accidental influences of training or environment. If many tests are used no one of them need show more than a moderately high correlation with the scale as a whole. ”

“ We can teach even morons how to read problems and how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide with a fair degree of accuracy; the trouble comes when they try to decide which of these processes the problem calls for. This may require intelligence of high or low order, according to the difficulty of the problem. As for the present test, we have shown that almost totally unschooled men of “average adult” intelligence pass this test as frequently as high-school seniors of the same mental level. ”

“ In fact, the test with weights hardly taxes sensory discrimination at all when used with children of 5-year intelligence. Success depends, in the first place, on the ability to understand the instructions; and in the second place, on the power to hold the instructions in mind long enough to guide the process of making the comparison. The test presupposes, in elementary form, a power which is operative in all the higher independent processes of thought, the power to neglect the manifold distractions of irrelevant sensations and ideas and to drive direct toward a goal. ”

“ The correlation between a general intelligence test and a test for mechanical ability is considerably lower but still positive, coming to about +.4. Few if any real negative correlations are found between different abilities, but low positive or approximately zero correlations are frequent between different, rather special abilities. ”

“ Intelligence tests of superior children. Intelligence tests as a basis for grading. Intelligence tests for vocational fitness. Other uses of intelligence tests. CHAPTER II
Sources of Error in Judging Intelligence 22
Are intelligence tests superfluous? The necessity of standards. The intelligence of retarded children usually overestimated. The intelligence of superior children usually underestimated. Other fallacies in the estimation of intelligence. Binet’s questionnaire on teachers’ methods of judging intelligence. Binet’s experiment on how teachers test intelligence. ”

“ In order to use the tests intelligently 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. ”

“ It is the testing of each individual between his effects of inheritancy and environment.”
“It is very interesting for us to study science for two reasons; first, to test our mental ability, and second for the further development of science.”
“Tests such as we are now making help in two ways; it helps the scientists and it gives information to the people.”
“Tests are being given to pupils to-day to better them and to aid science for generations to come. If each person knows exactly his own beliefs and ideas and faults he can find out exactly what kind of work he is fitted for by heredity. ”

“ Considering the difficulty which normal adults sometimes have in distinguishing right and left, is it fair to use this test as a measure of intelligence? We may answer in the affirmative. It is fair because normal adults, notwithstanding momentary uncertainty, are invariably able to make the distinction, if not by direct association, then by an intermediate one. We overlook the momentary confusion and regard only the correctness of the response. Subjects who are below middle-grade imbecile, however long they have lived, seldom pass the test. ”

“ It seems that the ability to supply the missing words or phrases quickly in such mutilated material calls for the exercise of a type of ability which correlates to a high degree with most other measures of intelligence. Individual differences as shown by school grades, age, opinion of teachers, estimates of associates, results of other mental tests, etc., are readily and with considerable reliability revealed in the individual's ability to perform this type of test. ”

“ In the second test with the same stimulus words—which is really much more important than the first, since even persons or inferior intelligence may reach higher numbers in the first test—the difference in the wealth of the stock of representations becomes plainly evident: the man of intelligence will not need to draw on the associations which he gave in the first test, but will produce new ones ”

“ One who has not had a thorough training in the methods of mental testing cannot appreciate how numerous are the opportunities for the unconscious transformation of a test. Many of these are pointed out in the description of the individual tests, but it would be folly to undertake to warn the experimenter against every possible error of this kind. ”

“ In the case of intelligence it may be truthfully said that no adequate definition can possibly be framed which is not based primarily on the symptoms empirically brought to light by the test method. The best that can be done in advance of such data is to make tentative assumptions as to the probable nature of intelligence, and then to subject these assumptions to tests which will show their correctness or incorrectness. ”

“ The test is little affected by schooling, and apart from differences in intelligence it is little influenced by age. Other advantages of the test are the keen interest it always arouses and its independence of language ability. ”

“ The principal fact discovered by use of standardized intelligence tests is that the tests serve very well the purpose for which they were intended. In expert hands they actually give a fairly reliable measure of the individual's intelligence. They have located the trouble in the case of many a backward school child, whose intelligence was too low to enable him to derive much benefit from the regular school curriculum. ”

“ If intelligence may be defined as the intellectual power of adaptation to environment, a complete test of intelligence determines the individual’s ability to recognize the situation in which he finds himself, perceive his own relation to the situation, analyze it, and arrive at a conclusion as 49to what he should do next; then put that conclusion into effect by means of a concrete act. Thus one may learn a great deal about an individual’s mental capacity by observing his conduct when he misses a train. ”

“ The tendency of teachers is to estimate a child’s intelligence according to the quality of his school work in the grade where he happens to be located. This results in overestimating the intelligence of older, retarded children, and underestimating the intelligence of the younger, advanced children. The disagreements between the tests and the teachers’ estimates are thus found, when analyzed, to confirm the validity of the test method rather than to bring it under suspicion. ”

“ To determine the relative intelligence of five hundred men in fifty minutes by a method so completely objective that no part of the resulting classification is based on the individual judgment or opinion of either the examiner or any of the men themselves is certainly a practical application of psychological science. Simple as the Alpha test was, its practical working out and reduction to an exact scientific formula was the work of hundreds of highly trained minds for many months. ”

“ The tests are an invaluable aid, when they are themselves chosen with the scientific care outlined above, although it would be a short-sighted policy for any firm to trust entirely to the results of intelligence tests in the employment of its personnel. Appearance, voice, education, manners, physical size, and many other qualities are sometimes quite as important as the degree of intelligence, and the intelligence tests do not measure other elements of personality than the mental qualities. ”

“ On the other hand, if the proportion of passes increased rapidly with age, and if children of a given age, who on other grounds were known to be bright, passed more frequently than children of the same age who were known to be dull, then the test was judged a satisfactory test of intelligence. ”

“ The greatest difficulty with the test is that a rather high minimum of intelligence is required in order to understand what is necessary or desired. The two examples appearing on the title page of the test booklet are not sufficient to demonstrate clearly to the dull person just what he is to do. ”

“ To measure the reliability of any newly devised test of intelligence is not a simple matter. It devolves upon the standardizer to present evidence that the new intelligence scale measures this inadequately defined entity 'intelligence' with approximately the same degree of accuracy as those standards or measuring 'rods' now commonly accepted and in current use. ”

“ Scoring. Passed if one sentence is repeated without a single error. In VI and X we scored the response as satisfactory if one sentence was repeated without error, or if two were repeated with not more than one error each.
Remarks. The test of repeating sentences is not as satisfactory in the higher intelligence levels as in the lower. It is too mechanical to tax very heavily the higher thought processes. It does, however, have a certain correlation with intelligence. ”

“ Sometimes the omission or the addition of a single phrase in giving the test will alter materially the significance of the response. Only the trained psychologist can vary the formula without risk of invalidating the result, and even he must be on his guard. All sorts of misunderstandings regarding the correct placing of tests and regarding their accuracy or inaccuracy have come about through the failure of different investigators to follow the same procedure. ”

“ It is also simple in its method of scoring and yields a very reliable measure of an individual’s clearness of thought about the relations of words and the things for which the words stand.
Psychologists have used various forms of this test for many years and have found it unusually accurate and reliable. It is considered particularly valuable as a test of ability to adapt one’s self quickly and accurately to new situations, which is undoubtedly one of the most important elements in what is called “general intelligence.” ”

“ As a guide to the interpretation of the results of other forms of investigation relating to the work, progress, and needs of children, intelligence tests form a very valuable aid. More than all other forms of data combined, such tests give the necessary information from which a pupil’s possibilities of future mental growth can be foretold, and upon which his further education can be most profitably directed. ”