Alfred Binet and The Binet-Simon Intelligence scale

Comprehension, inventiveness, direction, and criticism: intelligence is contained in these four words- Alfred Binet

Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who was known for his first practical IQ test, the Binet- Simon test. In 1904, the French Ministry of Education asked Alfred Binet to make an instrument for students who did not learn effectively from regular classroom structure so that they could give them remedial classes. In collaboration with Theodore Simon, Binet published revisions of his test in 1908 and 1911.

After graduating from law school in 1878, Binnet planned to follow his father as he was a physiologist and enrolled in medical school. He began to study science at Sorbonne but soon began educating himself in psychology by reading works of individuals such as Charles darwin and John Stuart Mill.

After being fascinated by the work of Jean-Martin Charcot on hypnosis, Binet abandoned a law career in 1878 to devote himself to Medico-scientific studies at the hospital, where he remained until 1891. In the German research lab, he thought there was not much work on sensation and perception, so he sought to develop experimental methods to measure reasoning ability and other higher mental processes, devising techniques using paper, pencil, pictures, and portable objects.

Binet and Theodore Simon developed a series of tests to assess mental abilities. Rather than focusing on learning information such as maths and reading. Binet instead focused on other mental abilities such as attention and memory. The scale they developed became known as the Binet-Simon intelligence scale.

Lewin Terman later revised the scale and standardized it by using subjects from American samples and the test became known as the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale. The test is still used today and remains one of the most widely intelligence tests.

Binet had done several experiments on how chess players played in blindfolds. He found that only some expert chess players could play from memory and a few could play multiple games simultaneously without looking at the board. To remember the positions of the pieces on the boards, some players visualize exact replicas of specific chess tests, while others visualize an abstract schema of the game. Binet finalised that extraordinary attainment of memory such as blindfolded chess playing could take a variety of mnemonic forms.

He also studied sexual behavior, invented the term ‘erotic fetishism to describe individuals whose sexual interests in nonhuman objects, such as articles of clothing, and linked this to the after-effect of early impressions in anticipation of Freud.

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