Alfred Binet

Infobox Scientist
name = Alfred Binet


image_size =
caption = Alfred Binet
birth_date = July 8, 1857
birth_place = Nice
death_date = October 18, 1911
death_place =
nationality=
field = Psychology

Alfred Binet (July 8, 1857 – October 18, 1911), French psychologist and inventor of the first usable intelligence test, the basis of today's IQ test.

Born in Nice, Binet was a French psychologist who published the first modern intelligence test, the Binet-Simon intelligence scale, in 1905. His principal goal was to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school curriculum. Along with his collaborator Théodore Simon, Binet published revisions of his intelligence scale in 1908 and 1911, the last appearing just before his untimely death. A further refinement of the Binet-Simon scale was published in 1916 by Lewis M. Terman, from Stanford University, who incorporated the German mr. William Stern's proposal that an individual's intelligence level be measured as an (I.Q.). Terman's test, which he named the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale formed the basis for one of the modern intelligence tests still commonly used today. They are all colloquially known as IQ tests.

He studied sexual behavior, coining the term erotic fetishism to describe individuals whose sexual interests in nonhuman objects, such as articles of clothing. [Binet, A. (1887). Le fétichisme dans l’amour. "Revue Philosophique, 24," 143–167, 252–274.] He also studied abilities of Valentine Dencausse, the most famous chiromancer in Paris in those days.

Early Background

Binet was born in 1857, in Nice, France. His father was a physician, and his mother was an artist. His parents separated when he was young, and Binet then moved to Paris with his mother. He attended law school, and earned his degree in 1878. He planned on going to medical school, but decided that his interest in psychology was more important. Binet was a self-taught psychologist from reading books by Charles Darwin, Alexander Bain, and others.

Binet and Chess

In 1894, Binet conducted one of the first psychological studies into chess. It investigated the cognitive facilities of chess masters. Binet hypothesized that chess depends upon the phenomenological qualities of visual memory but after studying the reports by master participants, it was concluded that memory was only part of the chain of cognition involved in the game process. The players were blindfolded and required to play the game from memory. It was found that only masters were able to play successfully without seeing the board for a second time and that amateur or intermediate players found it to be an impossible task. It was further concluded that experience, imagination, and memories of abstract and concrete varieties were required in grand master chess. The line of psychological chess research was followed up in the 1950s by Reuben Fine and in the 1960s by Adriaan de Groot.

Education and Career

Binet attended law school in Paris, and received his degree in 1878. He also studied Natural Sciences at the Sorbonne. Binet was a self-taught psychologist from reading books by Charles Darwin, Alexander Bain, and others. His first formal job was as a researcher at a neurological clinic, Salpetriere Hospital, in Paris from 1883 – 1889. From there, Binet went on to being a researcher and associate director of the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology at the Sorbonne from 1891 – 1894. In 1894, he was promoted to being the director of the laboratory until 1911 (his death).

Binet-Simon Test

From 1905 to 1908, Binet and Simon developed a test primarily for kids ages 3 – 15 that would compare their intellectual capabilities to other children of the same age. He did a lot of trial and error testing with students from his area. Binet studied groups of “normal” children, and also children who were mentally challenged. He had to figure out which tasks each group of students was able to complete, and what would be considered standard in the groups. The tests were held between one interviewer and one student, and determined what level of intellectual thinking the student had achieved. The invention of the intelligence test was extremely important to the field of education.

Publications

*"La psychologie du raisonnement; Recherches expérimentales par l'hypnotisme" (1886; English translation, 1899), his first book.
*"Perception intérieure" (1887).
*"Etudes de psychologie expérimentale" (1888).
*"Les altérations de la personnalité" (1892; English translation, 1896).
*"Introduction à la psychologie expérimentale" (1894; with co-authors).
*"On Double Consciousness" (1896).
*"La fatigue intellectuelle" (1898; with co-author Henri).
*"La Suggestibilité" (1900).
*"Etude expérimentale de l'intelligence" (1903).
*"L'âme et le corps" (1905).
*"Les révélations de l'écriture d'après un contrôle scientifique" (1906).
*"Les enfants anormaux" (1907; with co-author Simon).
*"Les idées sur les enfants" (1900).

He was one of the editors of "L'année psychologique", a yearly volume comprising original articles and reviews of the progress of psychology.

References

Bibliography

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id = PMID:17333631
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17333631
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issue=4
periodical=History of psychology
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17205542
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title=Ribot, Binet, and the emergence from the anthropological shadow.
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periodical=Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12891695
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title=Archival note: an inquiry into the relationshp between Alfred Binet and Cyril Burt.
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issue=3
periodical=Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
pages=289-97
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12269336
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publication-date=2002 Aug
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title=Alfred Binet and higher education.
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periodical=History of psychology
pages=264-83
*Citation
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9222149
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periodical=Revue de synthèse / Centre international de synthèse
pages=457-93
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title=Contributions to the history of psychology: LVII. Terman-Binet communication.
volume=68
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periodical=Perceptual and motor skills
pages=936-8
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year=1980
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volume=16
issue=3
periodical=Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
pages=281-6
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id = PMID:11636093
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11636093
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first=S B
publication-date=1976
year=1976
title=The unfortunate fate of Alfred Binet and school psychology.
volume=77
issue=4
periodical=Teachers College record
pages=580-92
*Citation
id = PMID:11609528
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11609528
last=Pollack
first=R H
publication-date=1971 Oct
year=1971
title=Binet on perceptual-cognitive development or Piaget-come-lately.
volume=7
issue=
periodical=Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
pages=370-4
*Citation
id = PMID:11610158
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11610158
last=Wolf
first=T H
publication-date=1969 Jul
year=1969
title=The emergence of Binet's conceptions and measurement of intelligence: a case history of the creative process. Part II.
volume=5
issue=3
periodical=Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
pages=207-37
*Citation
id = PMID:11610191
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11610191
last=Wolf
first=T H
publication-date=1969 Apr
year=1969
title=The emergence of Binet's conception and measurement of intelligence: a case history of the creative process.
volume=5
issue=2
periodical=Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
pages=113-34
*Citation
id = PMID:14301636
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14301636
last=SILVERMAN
first=H L
last2=KRENZEL
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publication-date=1964
year=1964
title=ALFRED BINET: PROLIFIC PIONEER IN PSYCHOLOGY.
volume=38
issue=
periodical=The Psychiatric quarterly. Supplement
pages=323-35

ee also

*Stanford-Binet IQ test

External links

* [http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/references?id=per309 Short biography, bibliography, and links on digitized sources] in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
* [http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eintell/binet.shtml Human Intelligence: Alfred Binet]
*gutenberg author|id=Alfred_Binet|name=Alfred Binet
* [http://publicliterature.org/books/mind_and_the_brain/xaa.php "The Mind and the Brain" by Alfred Binet]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20030724232307/http://www.src.uchicago.edu/users/sjack/classes/psc226/gould/node3.html Binet's Self-Consciousness]
* [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Binet/binet1.htm "New Methods for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals" by Alfred Binet]
* [http://www.pnl-nlp.org/download/binet/ "Le Magnetisme Animal" by Alfred Binet]