He attracted many students and was generous with them and coworkers. He made a lot of money from his books but was depressed after his retirement.
In schools, the first intelligence tests were developed in France to enable public schools to measure children for proper grade placement. In schools, the first intelligence tests were developed in France to enable public schools to measure children for proper grade placement.- Rural schools were primarily one-room with all ages taught by a single teacher.
- Schools in cities were stratified by academic accomplishment (not age as is now done).
- Children moving to large cities needed to be placed.
Other, concurrent efforts focused on measuring intelligence as an individual difference.
Broca measured the body to understand its functions, including the head. Broca measured the body to understand its functions, including the head.- He equated a larger head with greater intelligence and concluded that men were more intelligent than women because their heads were larger.
- He concluded that the sex difference was greater in contemporary people than in the past.
His assumptions exemplified the biases of the times, against women, the elderly, primitive people – he believed differences in brain sizes supported them.
Broca used ideas from Darwin’s evolutionary theory to support his thinking. Broca used ideas from Darwin’s evolutionary theory to support his thinking.- “I would rather be a transformed ape than a degenerate son of Adam.”
Broca believed that men struggle to survive whereas women are protected, so bigger brains are selected for in men but not women.Broca’s work was cited to justify denying education to women.
Stephen Jay Gould pointed out that brain weight decreases with age – the women studied were older than the men, introducing a confound. Stephen Jay Gould pointed out that brain weight decreases with age – the women studied were older than the men, introducing a confound.- Taking cause of death into account, Gould concluded that there is probably no difference in brain weight between men and women.
- A man of the same height would have the same size brain as a woman of that height.
- The sample size for prehistoric brains is too small (7 male and 6 female brains).
Binet developed the first psychological scales to measure intelligence, supplanting earlier attempts using physical measures and subjective judgments. Binet developed the first psychological scales to measure intelligence, supplanting earlier attempts using physical measures and subjective judgments.- Informal, subjective assessments may be correct or wrong, but are prone to prejudice and cause trouble when people place excess confidence in them.
- An important result of Binet’s work was replacement of these haphazard and prejudiced methods with standard, uniform, objective methods of assessment.
Binet read Darwin, Galton & John Stuart Mill – he was a self-taught library psychologist. Binet read Darwin, Galton & John Stuart Mill – he was a self-taught library psychologist.- This deprived him of interaction with others and training in critical thinking.
Binet accepted a staff position at La Salpetriere working with Charcot as his mentor.- Charcot used circular reasoning – people who could be hypnotized had unstable nervous systems – as evidence of this, they could be hypnotized.
- Binet accepted Charcot’s reasoning without question.
Binet and Fere claimed that hypnotic phenomena could be transferred from one side of the body to the other using magnets. Binet and Fere claimed that hypnotic phenomena could be transferred from one side of the body to the other using magnets.- They also reported “polarization” in which a red hallucination would turn green with use of a magnet.
- They believed the magnetic field was responsible.
Patients had full knowledge of what was expected so the expts were poorly controlled and carelessly conducted. Ultimately they had to admit their errors.- Hypnotizability was not necessarily linked to hysteria.
Binet was humiliated and became obsessively concerned with suggestibility in experiments. Binet was humiliated and became obsessively concerned with suggestibility in experiments.- He became increasingly withdrawn and more shy.
Studying his own children, he published 3 papers describing their cognitive development.- He devised a number of tests of their thinking.
- These studies anticipated Piaget’s work – Piaget later worked with Binet’s collaborator, Simon, analyzing the wrong answers children gave on intelligence tests.
In 1891 at the Sorbonne, he did a variety of studies
In 1882, a law established mandatory primary education for children from 6 to 14 years old. |
