Profound Silliness

Here is a rather funny excerpt from my lectures in Psych 204. Its about how the measurement of intelligence was too subjective and how the IQ test was developed as a more reliable method of measurement.

Intelligence before Binet

“It is a hackneyed remark that the definitions..for the different states of subnormal intelligence, lack precision. These inferior states are indefinite in number, being composed of a series of degrees which mount from the lowest depths of idiocy, a condition easily confounded with normal intelligence..

…there has been an agreement to accept idiot as applied to the lowest state, imbecile to the intermediate and moron to the state nearest normality. The distinction between idiot, imbecile and moron is not understood in the same way by all practitioners…Dr. Blin, physician of the Vaucluse Asylum, states.. “One child called imbecile in the first certificate, is marked idiot in the second, feeble-minded in the third, and degenerate in the fourth”.

“We are assured that imbecility differs from idiocy in this: in idiocy “there is a gleam of intelligence”, in imbecility “the intellectual faculties exist in a very incomplete degree”. We should like to know what difference must be established between a “gleam” of intelligence and “very incomplete degree of the intellectual faculties”. We are again informed that in profound idiocy “the attention is fugitive” while in imbecility, “the attention is fleeting”. We are unable to grasp the distinctive shade of meaning.”
Binet, A. and Simon, T (1905). L’annee Psychologique, 11, 163-191

Puts a whole new perspective on the word 'stupid' doesnt it?

Binet advocates the psychological method

“The fundamental idea of this method is the establishment of what we shall call a measuring scale of intelligence. This scale is composed of a series of tests of increasing difficulty, starting from the lowest intellectual level that can be observed, and ending with that of average normal intelligence. Understanding the normal progress of intellectual development among normals, we shall be able to determine how many years such an individual is advanced or retarded. In a word, we shall be able to determine to what degree of the scale idiocy, imbecility and moronity correspond.”

Well done, but where does 'nincompoop' come in?