Intelligence: In Pursuit of Rational Thought and Effective Action 141
The Binet-Simon Scale established a measure calledmental age,orMA.Men-
tal age is determined by comparing one subject’s score on the Binet-Simon Scale
with the scores of a group of subjects of the same age. Let’s say that a group of nine-
year-old subjects is able, on average, to answer fifteen questions correctly on the
Scale. If seven-year-old Alice is able to answer fifteen questions correctly, her men-
tal age is nine even though her chronological age is seven. Binet and Simon expected
mental age to rise over time, and it does. In view of the fact that mental age is a
changeable number, this created a problem. (The way in which this problem was
solved with the concept of an intelligence quotient, or IQ, will be discussed later.)
The Binet-Simon Scale was translated into English by the Stanford psycholo-
gist Lewis Terman. In 1916, only eleven years after Binet and Simon published
their test, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (SBIS)was published in the
United States. The SBIS became a popular way in which to measure intelligence,
and it is still used today in revised form.
One of the questions that interested Terman was: Do highly intelligent children
do, overall, better in life than children of normal intelligence? In order to answer
the question, Terman started a longitudinal study,a research project that meas-
ures behavior over a span of time. In this case, the Stanford project, carried on after
Terman’s death, continued for more than seventy years. The results are clear. On
the whole, highly intelligent children grew into highly intelligent adults. They
fared better in general in all aspects of life. They had better health, fewer divorces,
and better mental and emotional adjustment than subjects with average intelli-
gence. This result should not be surprising. If intelligence is to mean anything at all
as a concept, it must mean that it has value to the individual and society. As already
indicated in the definition of intelligence, the ability to think clearly and to func-
tion effectively is part and parcel of what it means to beintelligent.
(a) What measure, abbreviated MA, is associated with the Binet-Simon Scale?
(b) Terman translated the Binet-Simon Scale into English and called it.
(c) A research project that measures behavior over a span of time is called what kind of a
study?
Answers: (a) Mental age; (b) the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (SBIS); (c) A longitu-
dinal study.
The Wechsler Scales: Comparing Verbal Intelligence
and Performance Intelligence
Working for a number of years as the chief psychologist for the Bellevue Psychi-
atric Hospital in New York City, David Wechsler conducted a substantial amount
