THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYA brief history of intelligence testing
It all started with the Victorian adventurer and polymath Francis Galton
(see p.11). Obsessed with measuring anything and everything, Galton
eventually set his sights on human ability, establishing an Anthro-
pometric Laboratory at the London International Health Exhibition
in 1884. Although many of Galton’s instruments were physiological –
among other things, he recorded people’s height, weight, hearing, vision
and punching power – his ultimate purpose was to identify people’s
Test your intelligence
Here are a few examples of the kind of items you might expect to find
in a typical intelligence test.
1) Pebble is to beach as book is to ... which of the following:
a) page b) library c) magazine d) sea e) onion f ) print.
2) Study the series of numbers 20, 21, 18, 19, x, 17 and select the
correct missing number for x from:
a) 100 b) 20 c) 16 d) 14
3) Jon scores 20 goals in four matches. He scores a tenth of these in
the first match while scoring an equal number in the remaining three
matches. How many goals did he score in each of the last three games?
4) Who is the founder of Microsoft?
5)// ||| \
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\\\ /?
Select the icon that’s missing from the final cell in the table:
a) ||| b) 0 c) \ d) || e) \\
6) Tennis Hockey
Which one of the following has something in common with the above
words, which it does not share with the others: a) darts b) skiing c)
toast d) cricket e) wrestling f ) monkeyAnswers: 1) b; 2) c – the rule from left to right is add one, minus three,add one, minus three; 3) 6; 4) Bill Gates; 5) d; 6) d (all are ball games).