In 1908 Binet and Simon Revised their Scale
In 1908 Binet and Simon revised their scale. Their goal at that time was to go beyond simply distinguishing normal children from children with retardation to distinguishing among levels of intel- ligence for normal children. The tests were admin- istered to a large number of normal children from ages 3 to 13. If 75% or more of the children of a certain age passed a particular test, the test was assigned to that age level. For example, it was found that only a minority of 3-year-olds could copy a square, but a majority of 4-year-olds (75% or more) could copy a square, and essentially all 5-year-olds could do so. In this way, it could be determined whether a given child was performing at, above, or below average. A 5-year-old passing the tests that most other 5-year-olds also passed was considered to have normal intelligence. But if that child passed only the tests typically passed by 4-year-olds, he or she was thought to have below average intelli- gence. And if the 5-year-old passed tests normally passed by 6-year-olds, he or she was thought to have above-average intelligence. In other words, a child’s intelligence level was determined by how much higher or lower than the norm the child performed. The 1908 revision of the Binet–Simon scale consisted of 58 tests, each showing the age at which 75% or more of the children perform correctly.
