Intelligence Tests Today

275
Testing Intelligence
TA B L E
7.1
Age
Task
2
Place geometric shapes into corresponding openings; identify body parts;
stack blocks; identify common objects.
4
Name objects from memory; complete analogies (e.g., fire is hot; ice is
________); identify objects of similar shape; answer simple questions
(e.g., “Why do we have schools?”).
6
Define simple words: explain differences (e.g., between a fish and a horse);
identify missing parts of a picture; count out objects.
8
Answer questions about a simple story; identify absurdities (e.g., in
statements like “John had to walk on crutches because he hurt his arm”);
explain similarities and differences among objects; tell how to handle
certain situations (e.g., finding a stray puppy).
10
Define more difficult words; give explanations (e.g., about why people
should be quiet in a library); list as many words as possible; repeat 6-digit
numbers.
12
Identify more difficult verbal and pictured absurdities; repeat 5-digit
numbers in reverse order; define abstract words (e.g., sorrow); fill in a
missing word in a sentence.
14
Solve reasoning problems; identify relationships among points of the
compass; find similarities in apparently opposite concepts (e.g., “high”
and “low”); predict the number of holes that will appear when folded
paper is cut and then opened.
Adult
Supply several missing words for incomplete sentences; repeat 6-digit
numbers in reverse order; create a sentence using several unrelated words
(e.g., forest, businesslike, and dismayed ); describe similarities between
concepts (e.g., “teaching” and “business”).
The Stanford-Binet
Here are samples of the types of items
included on Lewis Terman’s original
Stanford-Binet test. As in Alfred Binet’s test,
an age level was assigned to each item.
the United States. Terman believed that IQ tests could pinpoint who did and who did
not have a suitable “amount” of intelligence. These beliefs were controversial and, in
some instances, led to prejudice and discrimination as enthusiasm for testing outpaced
understanding of what was being tested. For example, in 1917, as the United States
moved closer to entering World War I, a team of psychologists was asked to develop
group-administered tests that could identify the cognitive ability of army recruits and
then guide their assignment to appropriate jobs. Soldiers who could speak and read
English were tested on mental tasks that required verbal skills, such as defining words,
whereas the rest were asked to visualize objects and perform other nonverbal tasks.
Unfortunately, the verbal tests contained items that were unfamiliar to many recruits.
Further, tests were often given under stressful conditions in crowded rooms where
instructions were not always audible or, for non-English speakers, understandable. As
a result, almost half of the soldiers tested appeared to have a mental age of thirteen or
lower (Yerkes, 1921), leading testers to draw seriously incorrect conclusions about their
lack of intelligence—especially in the cases of those who did not speak English
(Brigham, 1923). Later tests developed by David Wechsler (1939, 1949) were designed
to correct some of the weaknesses of earlier ones.
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Intelligence Tests Today
Today’s editions of the Wechsler tests and the Stanford-Binet are among the most
widely used of all individually administered intelligence tests. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) includes fourteen subtests. Seven of them require verbal skills