full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Stefan C. Dombrowski: The dark history of IQ tests
Unscramble the Blue Letters
In 1905, psychologists arfled Binet and Théodore somin designed a test for children who were struggling in school in France. Designed to determine which children required individualized attention, their method formed the basis of the IQ test.
bennngiig in the late 19th century, researchers hypothesized that cognitive aliieitbs like verbal reasoning, working memory, and visual-spatial skills reflected an underlying general intelligence, or g factor. Simon and Binet designed a battery of tests to mueasre each of these abilities and combine the results into a single score. Questions were adjusted for each age group, and a child’s score reflceted how they performed relative to others their age. Dividing someone’s score by their age and multiplying the result by 100 yielded the itelnnlgecie quotient, or IQ. Today, a score of 100 rtpneseers the average of a sample pptlaoouin, with 68% of the population scoring within 15 pintos of 100.
Open Cloze
In 1905, psychologists ______ Binet and Théodore _____ designed a test for children who were struggling in school in France. Designed to determine which children required individualized attention, their method formed the basis of the IQ test.
_________ in the late 19th century, researchers hypothesized that cognitive _________ like verbal reasoning, working memory, and visual-spatial skills reflected an underlying general intelligence, or g factor. Simon and Binet designed a battery of tests to _______ each of these abilities and combine the results into a single score. Questions were adjusted for each age group, and a child’s score _________ how they performed relative to others their age. Dividing someone’s score by their age and multiplying the result by 100 yielded the ____________ quotient, or IQ. Today, a score of 100 __________ the average of a sample __________, with 68% of the population scoring within 15 ______ of 100.
Solution
- alfred
- measure
- represents
- beginning
- abilities
- reflected
- population
- intelligence
- points
- simon
Original Text
In 1905, psychologists Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon designed a test for children who were struggling in school in France. Designed to determine which children required individualized attention, their method formed the basis of the IQ test.
Beginning in the late 19th century, researchers hypothesized that cognitive abilities like verbal reasoning, working memory, and visual-spatial skills reflected an underlying general intelligence, or g factor. Simon and Binet designed a battery of tests to measure each of these abilities and combine the results into a single score. Questions were adjusted for each age group, and a child’s score reflected how they performed relative to others their age. Dividing someone’s score by their age and multiplying the result by 100 yielded the intelligence quotient, or IQ. Today, a score of 100 represents the average of a sample population, with 68% of the population scoring within 15 points of 100.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
iq tests |
5 |
iq test |
3 |
united states |
3 |
general intelligence |
2 |
psychiatric conditions |
2 |
Important Words
- abilities
- adjusted
- age
- alfred
- attention
- average
- basis
- battery
- beginning
- binet
- century
- children
- cognitive
- combine
- designed
- determine
- dividing
- factor
- formed
- france
- general
- group
- hypothesized
- individualized
- intelligence
- iq
- late
- measure
- memory
- method
- multiplying
- performed
- points
- population
- psychologists
- questions
- quotient
- reasoning
- reflected
- relative
- represents
- required
- researchers
- result
- results
- sample
- school
- score
- scoring
- simon
- single
- skills
- struggling
- test
- tests
- théodore
- today
- underlying
- verbal
- working
- yielded