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Pyschology
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Alfred Binet
In 1904, Binet was commissioned by the French Ministry of Public Instruction to develop techniques for identifying primary grade children whose lack of success in normal classrooms suggested the need for some form of special education. -
Terman
Lewis Terman of Stanford University in the US decided to use Binet's test. He found that the Paris-developed age norms didn't work very well for Californian school children. So he revised the test: adapted some items, added other items, established new age norms, and extended the upper age limit to "superior adults". This became the Stanford-Binet revision in 1916. -
First Intelligence Test
When the US entered WWI in 1917 a committee was appointed by the APA to consider ways that psychology might assist the conduct of the war. Head of this committee was Robert Yerkes. His brief was to develop group intelligence testing. -
Spearman
Spproposed, a 'two-factor' theory of intelligence:The General Ability (g): which was required for performance of mental tests of all kinds; he called this a kind of 'mental energy' that underlies the specific factors. Special Abilities: which were required for performance on just one kind of mental test. -
Thurstone
Thurstone accepted Spearman's hypothesis of a general factor. But he disputed its importance. He argued that g is in fact a second order factor or phenomenon - one which arises only because the primary or 'first-order' factors are related to one another. Thus, Thurstone identified 7 'primary mental abilities' which he judged to be more important. These were: verbal comprehension, word fluency, number, space, associative memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning. -
WISC
In 1949, David Wechsler produced the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), which competed with the Stanford-Binet test. -
WAIS
In 1955, David Wechsler produced a revision of the adult scales named the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). And later he produced a scale which could be used with pre-primary children. -
Gardner
Howard Gardner supports Thurstones notion that intelligence comes in different packages. The most widely cited version of Gardners concept of intelligence is that there are seven different types of intelligence. They are verbal, mathematical, musical, spatial, kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. -
Sternberg
Robert Sternberg together with his colleague Richard Wagner argues that there are three intelligences: Academic/Analytical, Creative, and Practical intelligence. -
Modern Intelligence
The IQ score is the most researched approach to intelligence and by far the most widely used in practical setting. However, although IQ attempts to measure some notion of intelligence, it may fail to act as an accurate measure of "intelligence" in its broadest sense. IQ tests only examine particular areas embodied by the broadest notion of "intelligence", failing to account for certain areas which are also associated with "intelligence" such as creativity or emotional intelligence.