8 PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS OF TESTING INTELLIGENCE 



pared, but with children we knew nothing at all. 

 What is more, one normal standard is not enough in 

 this case ; every age-year must have its own standard. 

 The magnitude of a defect of intelligence in a nine- 

 year old child can be determined only by comparing 

 it with the normal nine-year old intelligence, and so 

 with other ages. The consequent demand for the 

 creation of normal test-series for each year of child- 

 hood was met, as a matter of fact, not from the side of 

 psychiatry, but from that of psychology. Alfred 

 Binet, with the cooperation of the physician, Simon, 

 has created such a graded series of tests; and al- 

 though the system as it now stands may be far from 

 final, its fundamental conception will retain its per- 

 manent value and will doubtless lead us ultimately to 

 a completely satisfactory solution. His method has 

 already attained international usage. We shall dis- 

 cuss it fully in the second part of our treatment. 



(c) Normal children and youths. It is not to be 

 supposed, however, that intelligence testing of 

 normal children has merely the secondary import- 

 ance of supplying standards of comparison for in- 

 vestigations of the feeble-minded. On the contrary, 

 the gradation of intelligence within the range of 

 normality is an entirely independent problem that is 

 closely connected with practical pedagogical inter- 

 ests. The ordinary school examinations afford a 

 notion of the pupil's knowledge and of his external 

 accomplishments, but they do not afford an index 

 of his inner endowment, of his mental maturity and 

 power ; it is here that psychological tests must sup- 

 plement other forms of examination. This need is 

 especially evident at entrance examinations, but it 



