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Alfred Binet’s Influence on Understanding Intelligence
Jaime Messinger-Willman
School of Education, Liberty University
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Abstract
Alfred Binet was an influential scientist known for his extensive research on understanding
humans' mental capacity and capabilities. The development of the first standardized intelligence
assessment revolutionized the fields of education and psychology regarding how we evaluate
intellectual functioning.
Keywords: associations, Binet, cognition, eugenics, intelligence, intellectual disability,
subnormal
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Alfred Binet’s Influence on Understanding Intelligence
According to Nicolas and Levine (2012), Alfred Binet was born in 1857 in Nice, France. While
Alfred Binet obtained a degree to be a lawyer, he never pursued being a lawyer. Instead, he
directed his time and attention to reading and educating himself about psychology. While Binet
published many articles and books and participated in various research studies on memory and
cognitive development, his most influential development was creating the first intelligence test
(Nicolas & Levine, 2017). Binet’s IQ test was a landmark development that helped identify
students with mental deficiencies and learning disabilities (McCredie, 2017). Alfred Binet
identified that cognitive functioning comprises several faculties that influence one’s cognitive
functioning. One’s internal factors (reasoning, judgment, sensations), along with one’s
experiences and interactions of the external world, are the means of how one’s cognitive
development evolves. This paper examines Alfred Binet’s assertions on humans’ cognitive
development, his purpose for developing the first intelligence test, and the impact of cognitive
testing on identifying mental deficiencies in children.
Background and Cultural Context
` Binet spent his years studying and researching individual differences in intelligence.
Binet was a pioneer in psychology through various research studies that he conducted on
memory, cognition, and cognitive development (Nicolas & Levine, 2017). From the beginning of
his career, Binet’s work was consumed with understanding the nature of the mind. Binet became
interested in measuring mental capacity after reading about Sir Francis Galton and his attempt to
measure mental capacity (McCredie, 2017).
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One of Binet’s first collaborations was with Jean Martin Charcot on an experiment of
hypnosis and hysteria on hysterical patients (Nicolas & Levine, 2017). This study brought light
to the difference between conscious and unconscious understanding. While this experiment
highlighted the difference between conscious and unconscious understanding, Binet deemed the
data unreliable because the study participants were under hypnosis. Binet left his work with
Charcot and conducted independent experiments with those of conscious minds at Sorbonne.
Through these independent experiments and those with Charcot, Binet identified the strong
influence of suggestibility on one’s mental capacity (Nicolas & Levine, 2017). Binet believed
suggestibility strongly influences cognition and cognitive processing (Nicolas & Levine, 2017).
Binet found that suggestions made by others strongly influenced one’s memory. How questions
are asked can strongly influence one’s memory, sometimes leading to false memories.
While reading psychology books, Binet became fascinated by John Stuart Mill and his
theory of associations (Varon, 1936). Mill proposed that thoughts flowed through one’s
consciousness, controlled by associations among these ideas. Binet, a strong proponent who
believed in this theory, published a book on associationism and identified that associations
explain everything that happens in the mind. However, Binet soon realized that associations
could not explain all mental phenomena. Binet moved past the theory of associations and began
researching other influences and factors that impact one’s mental capacity. While he moved past
studying and focusing his time and effort on studying only associationism, he pointed out that
mental capacity cannot be understood without looking at one’s associations, circumstances, and
experiences (Binet & Simon, 1916).
Binet sought to understand cognition and personality, in addition to higher-order complex
cognitive processing abilities as opposed to more elementary cognitive abilities (Nicolas &
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Levine, 2017). Binet believed that cognitive functioning is made up of different complex
processing areas. Binet emphasized that cognitive functioning in adults differs significantly from
that in children. Binet’s research identified that cognitive functioning contains both
elementary/primary functioning abilities and higher-order abilities (Varon, 1936).
Intelligence was developed through one being able to see the external world but then
being able to mentally make sense of that world through their perceptions, judgments, and
senses. Binet believed that reasoning and sensation influenced the development of one’s
cognition. Sensation and reasoning are how our mind perceives and understands (Varon, 1936).
Intelligence is developed through which we are conscious.
Through Binet’s experiments with typically developing children, subnormal children, and
those with extraordinary abilities (i.e., chess players), he studied the development of mental
capacity in different individuals. He realized individuals develop mental capacities at different
rates (Tieve et al., 2017). One’s intelligence can be altered depending on age, health, family
background, and school experiences. Binet believed that everyone’s cognitive functioning
developed at variable rates because of one’s maturation and academic experiences (Siegler,
2017).
Philosophy of Education
Binet saw the study of psychology as a means to study individual differences to help
identify and understand different cognitive processes and draw correlations between one
individual’s different processing abilities; cognitive processes are different from person to person
(Varon, 1936). Through years of experimental studies, Binet researched memory, attention,
imagination, suggestibility, and comprehension. Binet believed that one’s intelligence resulted
from multiple factors: sensation, reasoning, memory, health, academic experiences, and family
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background. All these internal and external factors influence the development of one’s cognitive
abilities (Binet & Simon, 1916).
Binet also believed intelligence was malleable rather than being fixed (Siegler, 2017).
Cognitive development is a constructive process that can be adapted to one’s physical and social
experiences and environments. As individuals experience new environments and situations, they
assimilate this information into new ways of thinking. Another significant contribution by Binet
was his understanding of memory. Binet understood the context of memory better through
naturalistic observations of his daughters as they encountered their environments and their
approaches to solving complex problems (Cunningham, 1995). “Binet took original departures to
study psychological phenomena and arrived at important understandings of memory
reconstruction” (Cunningham, 1995, p. 960). Through Binet’s experiments, he identified that the
core issue of studying memory was understanding that it is flexible. The changes highly
influence one’s memory in one’s mental state, emotions, and learning situations (Cunningham,
1995).
Siegler (1992) explains that Binet believed intelligence was an umbrella term
encompassing the following mental processing capabilities: language development, pain
thresholds, memory, attention, sensation, perception, suggestibility, and creativity. Binet valued
qualitative data about cognitive functioning more than he did a single quantitative number. While
Binet created a standardized assessment that deduces intelligence to one quantitative number, his
view on intelligence was much more than a single number. McCredie (2017) highlighted Binet’s
emphasis and attention on the qualitative study of intelligence rather than on the quantitative
study of intelligence. The qualitative study of intelligence allows one to study personality and
character. A single number does not provide a holistic picture of the cognitive functioning of one
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single person. Qualitative data collected during a child's testing can be as robust as the final score
because it is through these observations that one can identify a pattern of strengths and
weaknesses within a child’s cognitive profile.
Theory to Practice
The French government had laws requiring all children to attend school (Tieve et al.,
2017)). Through Binet’s membership in a group called the Free Society, which focused on the
psychological study of children, the French government asked Binet to develop a test to identify
if children needed extra help in school. Schools were mandated to educate all students and
provide special classes for students who were deemed mentally “subnormal” or, nowadays,
would be identified as having an intellectual disability (Nicolas & Levine, 2017). Binet partnered
with a colleague, Théodore Simon, who was studying children with mental retardations, and it is
through this collaboration that led to the development of the first IQ test. Binet and his colleague,
Simon, developed an IQ test comprising questions focused on children’s developmental
milestones. The questions on the IQ test included questions that focused on attention, memory,
and problem-solving skills; Binet realized that children mentally developed at different rates
(McCredie, 2017). Binet and Simon developed an intelligence test that identified a child’s mental
age, the age at which a child can perform intellectually (White, 2000). Those who are typically
developing have the same mental and chronological ages; however, those who have been
identified as having mental deficiencies have a lower mental age than their chronological age.
While Binet is known for developing the first IQ test, creating the Laboratory of
Experimental Pedagogy was another significant milestone in his career (Vattier, 1910). This
laboratory focused on several different studies. One study focused on training teachers to teach
and work with children with intellectual disabilities. Other studies in this laboratory highlighted
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the influence of vision, auditory acuity, nourishment, physical structure, and fatigue on one’s
mental and intellectual development (Vattier, 1910). In this laboratory, two classes of abnormal
children were developed, called “improvement” classes. Instruction in these classes followed a
strict pedagogy taught by teachers who were trained to work with students with mental
retardation. Data collected focused on pupils' memory, attention, and perceptions in these classes
(Vattier, 1910). The results identified that students progress at different rates and that forcing
students to be taught the same thing in the same way is not appropriate and unsuccessful.
Perspectives on Diversity
Through Binet’s experimental studies, Binet came to believe that intelligence was not
genetically created; instead, intelligence is malleable and could change based on one’s
environment and experiences (Siegler, 1992). Binet’s test of intelligence differentiated between
the intelligent and the unintelligent. Binet identified that a substantial difference in the cognitive
functioning between feeble-minded individuals and normal is judgment or common sense. Each
person has a general intelligence that manifests itself in different ways. Siegler (1992) states that
through the development and revisions of his intelligence test, he stated that the IQ score one
achieved is not an absolute measure of intelligence.
Critical Analysis
Binet believed intelligence was not established at birth through genetics; intelligence was
developed and created through experiences and exposures to different phenomena. However,
later researchers tried to dispel this belief and identify that eugenics, improving human genetic
quality, significantly influenced one’s intelligence (White, 2000).
When Binet developed the first intelligence scale, he was upfront with the public about
its limitations (Siegler, 1992). He could not stress enough the diversity of cognitive functioning
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and the need to evaluate cognitive functioning quantitatively and qualitatively. Binet also stated
that it is essential to note that intellectual development occurs at different rates in individuals and
is highly influenced by environments and experiences.
Binet believed that intelligence is multifaceted and cannot be explained by one single,
unitary construct; however, other researchers and psychologists tried using one quantitative
number to explain cognitive functioning (Minton, 1998). Binet used his intelligence test to
identify children within the Paris schools who were in need of extra help within the Paris
schools; however, other psychologists, such as Terman, took Binet’s test and used this tool as a
way to segregate children with mental retardation into segregated institutions (Minton, 1998).
Implications and Conclusions
Siegler (1992) identified that students in college psychology classes learn that Binet has
become known as the Father of the IQ test. Binet’s original intelligence test has played a critical
role in measuring intelligence. Binet’s intelligence test has influenced many other researchers
and psychologists in developing other mental tests that have allowed for testing a child's
physiological and psychological aspects (Nicolas & Levine, 2017). While cognitive testing
continues to be a diversified topic, it is used for various purposes, including Binet's original
purpose when he developed his test – to identify children who needed extra assistance.
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