 |
History of Intelligence Testing (Page 2)
The first tests had 30 questions which asked you various questions with increasing difficulty. The scale of the score was mainly determined by age differentiation and general mental ability of the results. Age differentiation basically refers to the fact that one can differentiate older children from younger ones based on the greater abilities of the older children. Binet, therefore, searched for tasks that could be completed by 66.5% to 75% of the children in a particular age group. Ultimately, Binet created a set of tasks that an a greater portion of children could complete as a function of increasing age. Using these tasks he could estimate the mental ability of a child depending on his or her completion of the tasks compared to the performance for an average child of that particular age, regardless of the child's chronological age. In other words, a 7-year-old child might be able to complete tasks that the average 10-year-old could complete, or a child of the same age may not be able to complete the tasks that the average 4-year-old may be able to complete. On the principle of age differentiation, it was possible, then, to determine the equivalent age capabilities of a child without the knowledge of his or her age. This age capability was later on called the mental age. Using the example above, the first 7-year-old, according to this principle, would have a mental age of 10, while the second child would have a mental age of 4.
  
|
|
|
|
