Chapter 1 - Historical Overview of Intelligence and Memory: Factors Influencing the Wechsler Scales

Abstract

This chapter describes some of the earliest work in testing that influences the development of psychological science. Though the foundation of Wilhelm Wundt's laboratory is the recognized milestone in the birth of psychological science, several prior events laid the foundations for the description and the measurement of intelligence in the Western world. Educators were struggling with notions akin to intelligence prior to the middle of the 1800s. Several efforts mark some of the initial approaches to the education of children and adults with mental retardation and are further suggestive of the increasing awareness of educators about individual differences in intelligence. The 19th century witnessed some remarkable and creative attempts to capture the essence of human mentality through the use of various tests. In the 1870s, the earliest psychological laboratories were founded by Sir Francis Galton in London, England, and Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig, Germany.