History of Intelligence

  • Death of Lord Byron

    Death of Lord Byron
    When Lord Byron died in 1824, doctors discovered his brain weighed two more pounds than the average brain. This observation raised the questio: Are people with big brains smarter?
  • Spearman's General Intelligence

    Spearman's General Intelligence
    Charles Spearman believed we had one general intelligence, a basic intelligence predicts our abilities in varied academic areas.
  • Binet: Predicting School Achievement

    Binet: Predicting School Achievement
    Binet meausred children's mental age in order to predict school achievement. For example, a 9-year-old with a mental age of 7 would struggle with school work considered normal for their age.
  • William Stern: IQ Test

    William Stern: IQ Test
    William Stern derived the famous intelligence quotient or IQ. The IQ is simply a person's mental age divided by chronological age and multiplied by 100.
  • US Military Intelligence Test

    US Military Intelligence Test
    Robert Yerkes and Alfred Binet developed an intelligence test for evaluating the US military during World War I.
  • Lewis Terman: Standford-Binet

    Lewis Terman: Standford-Binet
    Lewis Terman adapted some of Binet's original items, added others, and established new age norms. Terman extended the upper end of the test's range from teenagers to "superior adults."
  • Thurstone's Primary Mental Abilities

    Thurstone's Primary Mental Abilities
    L. L. Thurstone believes that our intelligence may be broken down into seven factors: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory.
  • David Wechsler: WAIS

    David Wechsler: WAIS
    David Wechsler created what is now the most widely used intelligence test, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. The WAIS consists of 11 subtests broken into verbal and performance areas.
  • Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

    Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
    Howard Gardner believed that our abilities are best classified into eight independent intelligences, which include a broad range of skills beyond traditional school smarts.
  • Sternberg's Triarchic

    Sternberg's Triarchic
    Robert Sternberg believes our intelligence is best classified into three areas that predict real-world success: analytical, creative and practical.
  • Lykken: Twin Intelligence

    Lykken: Twin Intelligence
    David Lykken found that the intelligence test scores of identical twins reared together are virtually as similar as those of the same person taking the same test twice.
  • Steven Pinker

    Steven Pinker
    Steven Pinker argued that biological as well as social influences appear to affect gender differences in life priorities, in risk-taking, and in math reasoning and spatial abilities.