Intelligence Theories and Tests

Abstract

This chapter discusses intelligence theories and tests. Intelligence and intelligence tests are often in the news, usually at the heart of some controversy. Psychologists, educators, and lay persons alike seem too quick to accept the cliché that intelligence is what intelligence tests measure. The definition and view of intelligence emanating from the testing tradition is not the only psychological perspective; there are other complementary and viable perspectives on intelligence. The psychometric tradition represents the branch of psychology that has been concerned primarily with the measurement of intelligence. Research done within the psychometric framework typically involves testing large numbers of individuals on many different tasks with each person obtaining a score on each task. Theories are based upon statistical analyses of the patterns of test-score relationships. The emphasis on individual differences within the psychometric tradition is certainly relevant to any complete theory of intelligence. A major change in intelligence testing involved the development of intelligence tests that could be simultaneously administered to large groups rather than single individuals. Group tests similar to the original Binet and Simon intelligence test were developed in the United Kingdom and the United States. While the current trend is away from general intelligence testing, researchers working within the field of cognitive psychology have begun to explore issues concerning the cognitive processes and knowledge underlying performance on tasks found on intelligence and aptitude tests.