A Guide To The Binet-Simon and Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test

What is Binet-Simon Intelligence Test?

Alfred Binet and his colleague Theophile Simon first developed the work of measuring intelligence known as the Binet-Simon intelligence test. The test was developed to identify the reason for school children’s bad habits and to take corrective actions. Today, the Binet-Simon intelligence scale is among the most important tests of intelligence.

Later, this Binet test was translated and revised by Lewis Terman, and this new edition is called the Stanford-Binet Intelligence test.

In 1904, the government of France appointed a committee with the task of identifying children who were performing badly in school and providing them with corrective education. This task led to the pioneering work of measuring intelligence. The committee included Alfred Binet (1857-1911), a French psychologist who played an important role in identifying the weaker children and identifying how to improve their performance through special training. Binet and his colleague, another French psychologist, Theophile Simon (1873-1961) developed the first scale in 1905 which was known as Binet-Simon Scale.

This Binet-Simon intelligence scale or test is the father of the contemporary intelligent test after which several English language versions of the test were produced. The test contains thirty items, ranging from simple to complex to capture the ability of children of different ages. The test contained copying a drawing, repeating a string of digits, understanding a story, and so on.

They collected simple problems that measured higher mental processes such as reasoning, memory, and spatial thinking. The typical items required children to define common words (What is a pencil?), name objects seen in pictures, explain how two objects are like (How are a cow and a dog alike?), draw designs of memory, etc. These items seemed to represent the ability level that was typical for children of a certain age, whereas other items are associated with those of different ages.

For example, while making the original test, for six years olds, Binet and Simon made items that could be passed by about 2/3 of the six years old children was regarded as a question for a six-year-old test. When the same question was given to seven and a year old children, it was passed by more than two-thirds of the children of seven and eight and less than two-thirds of the children that were younger than six.

The large-scale testing allowed Binet and Simon to establish a scale comprehending test at every age level and the results also suggested the idea of mental age, which expressed a child’s level of intellectual development. Mental age is the average age at which children achieve a particular score. A child with a chronological (actual) age of five who can answer questions of an eight-year-old level has a mental age of eight, in which case he is advanced three years. A five-year-old who can answer the question expected for his age but not for higher ages has a mental age of five.

In other words, for the average child, the mental age and chronological age are the same. Another child with a mental age of eight maybe eleven years old in which case he is retarded three years. From this standpoint, a mentally retarded child is slow in cognitive development. A mentally retarded eight-year-old child might answer some questions from the eight-year level and seven-year-old levels incorrectly, and be able to answer only some of the six-year-old items.

On Binet and Simon’s scale, brightness and dullness can be expressed in the form of several year’s advancement or retardation. This scale developed the idea of an Intelligent Quotient (IQ). Binet and Simon expanded the field of their test to measure deviation in intelligence among children which served to develop the improved edition in 1908.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test and Concept of IQ

Binet’s test was translated and broadly revised in 1916 by Lewis Terman, a professor, and psychologist at Stanford University. This new edition of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Test is called Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test and applied to children of two to sixteen years of age. The test was again revised several times in 1937, 1960, and 1972. The current version is the Stanford-Binet-V-intelligence test.

In 1912, The German psychologist, William Stern (1871-1938) devised an index of intelligence by dividing a child’s mental age (MA) by his chronological age (CA). Terman adopted this idea in the Stanford-Binet test and added more features. He multiplied the index by 100 to avid decimals. The formula derives a child’s IQ by dividing mental age by chronological age (CA) and multiplying by 100 (IQ = MA/CA * 100)/.

In 1912, The German psychologist, William Stern (1871-1938) devised an index of intelligence by dividing a child’s mental age (MA) by his chronological age (CA). Terman adopted this idea in the Stanford-Binet test and added more features. He multiplied the index by 100 to avid decimals. The formula derives a child’s IQ by dividing mental age by chronological age (CA) and multiplying by 100 (IQ = MA/CA * 100)/.

For example, an 8-year old child with the mental age of 8 would have an IQ of 100 (8/8*100=100). If the same child had the mental age of 5, it would be 63 (5/8*100=63). If the child’s mental age is 12, the IQ would be 150 (12/8*100=150). An IQ above 100 showed that the individual is more intelligent than students of the same age. In contrast, the number below 100 indicated that the individual is less intelligent than his or her peers. It shows IQ of an average child lays around 100.

This method of deriving the intelligence quotient (IQ), helps to quantify intellectual functioning and also allows comparison among individuals. The IQ shows how far the child has developed in terms of age norms. It is the index of brightness. IQ has become synonymous with “smart”.

However, the ratio IQ has several problems. While an individual’s chronological age continues to grow, the mental age does not increase in the same rapid, orderly fashion after the early teen years. As a result, IQ scores begin to decline. It becomes meaningless to describe an individual’s mental age of 25,39. Therefore, the ratio IQ now has a different definition.

An IQ above 100 indicates that a person is intelligent, while a score below 100 indicates that a person is below average than people of his age group. The Stanford-Binet test uses another kind of IQ, called the deviation IQ, which is widely used nowadays. Deviation IQ is obtained by comparing the individual’s score to the average score of the age group.

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale is an individual test that requires a qualified, skilled examiner. The test usually takes two hours to administer. The results provide valuable information about an individual’s strengths, weaknesses, and helps identify learning disabilities in the individual.