As psychology students and future psychologists, we can’t get enough of the WISC-V (Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children, 5th edition) and the WAIS-IV (Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th edition). These tests are used very frequently today, especially by neuropsychologists, to grasp the way that an individual globally functions and sees the world. During a child’s cognitive assessment, an intelligence scale is administered almost systematically. It’s also one of the few tests that doctors really know about, as the scores to these tests (and notably the overall IQ score) mean something to them. But where comes the intention to measure intelligence? Was it always used to appreciate an individual’s way of functioning, in order to provide him better help and support?
During the 20th century, the common conception regarding intelligence was that certain cognitive abilities (such as visuo-spatial capacities, working memory and verbal reasoning) were predictors of the g factor: the general intelligence of individuals.
The first test created to measure intelligence was the Binet-Simon test. It was drawn up by Alfred Binet (a French psychologist) and Theodore Simon (a French psychiatrist) in 1905. They were commissioned by the French government to create a tool that could identify the students who were struggling the most in school. Therefore, Binet and Simon created a test that evaluated the cognitive predictors of the g factor and combined the performances into a unique score: the IQ (intelligence quotient).
The aim was then to meet children’s needs and give them special attention. However, this intelligence test was quickly diverted from its original aim. Mostly in the USA, IQ tests were used by the police or the military to sort out applicants. During World War I (1914-1918), the United States Army created the Alpha and Beta Tests, intelligence scales that were administrated to over 1.7 million soldiers to evaluate their intellectual capacities and identify which positions they were most suited for. Thus, the use of IQ tests became a common way to recruit people.
Why is it bothering that anybody started to use IQ tests? The reason for this is that to this day, no one agrees on the definition of the concept of intelligence. Although Binet and Simon thought their test measured general intelligence, it actually only measured what they perceived as being intelligence. That means that anybody who used the test could interpret an IQ score based on their conception of intelligence.
Alongside the people who used these tests as a recruitment tool during the 20th century, we found ethnocentrists and eugenicists. These people considered that intelligence was solely related to biology and race (it could thus be directly inherited), and that one should control “undesirable traits” (such as skin color) through “selective breeding”. With the results gathered during the multiple screenings of World War I, scientists concluded that some individuals were intellectually superior than others. For example, IQ score discrepancies between high-income and low-income groups or between white individuals and minorities were highlighted as arguments that these groups were genetically different. In reality, these discrepancies are simply explained: the minorities that had lower IQ scores were generally immigrants who hadn’t received an education and who didn’t speak the language of the test (English), which obviously brought them to fail the test.
These misconceptions of intelligence and these misuses of IQ scores led to inhumane political decisions. In 1924, the state of Virginia ordered the forced sterilization of people with low IQ. Similarly, the Nazi regime in Germany murdered children with low IQ. One had to wait for the end of the 2nd World War and the Civil Rights Movement for these malpractices to end, as they were challenged by moral arguments, but also scientific arguments. Indeed, scientists started to gather information regarding the environment’s influence on intelligence (such as better education or nutrition), concluding that one could not simply inherit of our parents’ IQ.
Where are we at nowadays?
IQ tests are now generally used for good. In France, to buy an IQ test you must be a psychologist: nobody else can administer it. The tests in themselves still have similarities with the first intelligence scales, however they are more precise and fitting to what we think intelligence is today. They take into account the Flynn effect, for example. They are a good way to identify intellectual deficiency and adapt the education and social support accordingly to the specificities of each individual.
There is still no common ground regarding what intelligence is or regroups. Some researchers say that intelligence is a concept which is specific to one’s culture, and what is considered smart in one part of the world might not be in another.
Nevertheless, it’s a good way to assess cognitive functions in individuals. One must just not make the mistake that it can assess somebody’s potential and must be careful regarding the diffusion of the IQ score in itself. Given the decades of dark history behind IQ tests, people still have many stereotypes and misconceptions regarding that number. It is our role, as future psychologists, to explain to our patients what exactly goes into calculating an IQ score, what it means about their cognitive function and how it does not define them. Generally, one could say that the subtests of the IQ scale (the quantitative and qualitative conclusions that you make of them) are what’s interesting in this, not the final IQ score.
Words I learned
To grasp = apprehender (in the context of the sentence)
Working memory = mémoire de travail
To commission = mandater
To breed = se reproduire
Discrepancies = différences
Written by Joanna Gautier