Stanford-Binet test

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More about Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales: Purpose Precautions Normal results Resources

Definition

The Stanford-Binet intelligence scale is a standardized test that assesses intelligence and cognitive abilities in children and adults aged two to 23.

Description

The Stanford-Binet intelligence scale is a direct descendent of the Binet-Simon scale, the first intelligence scale created in 1905 by psychologist Alfred Binet and Dr. Theophilus Simon. This revised edition, released in 1986, was designed with a larger, more diverse, representative sample to minimize the gender and racial inequities that had been criticized in earlier versions of the test.

The Stanford-Binet scale tests intelligence across four areas: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, abstract/visual reasoning, and short-term memory. xs The areas are covered by 15 subtests, including vocabulary, comprehension, verbal absurdities, pattern analysis, matrices, paper folding and cutting, copying, quantitative, number series, equation building, memory for sentences, memory for digits, memory for objects, and bead memory.

All test subjects take an initial vocabulary test, which along with the subject's age, determines the number and level of subtests to be administered. Total testing time is 45–90 minutes, depending on the subject's age and the number of subtests given. Raw scores are based on the number of items answered, and are converted into a standard age score corresponding to age group, similar to an IQ measure.

The 1997 Medicare reimbursement rate for psychological and neuropsychological testing, including intelligence testing, is $58.35 an hour. Billing time typically includes test administration, scoring and interpretation, and reporting. Many insurance plans cover all or a portion of diagnostic psychological testing.

— Paula Anne Ford-Martin

A standard intelligence test adapted from the Binet-Simon scale for use in the United States, especially in the assessment of children.

[After Stanford University in western California near Palo Alto.]

Definition

The Stanford-Binet intelligence scale is a standardized test that assesses intelligence and cognitive abilities in children, beginning at age two, and in adults.

Purpose

The Stanford-Binet intelligence scale is used as a tool in school placement, in determining the presence of a learning disability or a developmental delay, and in tracking intellectual development. In addition, it is sometimes included in neuropsychological testing to assess the brain function of individuals with neurological impairments.

Description

The Stanford-Binet intelligence scale is a direct descendent of the Binet-Simon scale, the first intelligence scale created in 1905 by psychologist Alfred Binet (1857–1911) and Theophilus Simon. Lewis Terman (1877–1956) published the Stanford-Binet scale initially in 1916. As of 2004, the scale had been revised five times—in 1937, 1960 (with a scoring change of this version in 1973), 1986, and 2003.

Beginning with the fourth revision (1986), the test underwent design changes to include a larger, more diverse, representative sample in order to minimize the gender and racial inequities that had been criticized in earlier versions of the test. Originally designed for children only, with the fifth edition (2003) the Stanford-Binet can be used on anyone older than two years of age.

The Stanford-Binet scale tests intelligence across six areas: general intelligence, knowledge, fluid reasoning, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory. These areas are covered by ten subtests that include activities measuring both verbal and non-verbal intelligence. Activities include verbal absurdities, picture absurdities, verbal analogies, form patterns, procedural knowledge, sentence and word memory, position and direction, early reasoning, and quantitative reasoning.

All test subjects take two initial routing tests: a vocabulary test and a matrices test (which assesses non-verbal reasoning). The results of these tests, along with the subject's age, determines the number and level of subtests to be administered.

Total testing time is around 45 to 60 minutes, depending on the child's age and the number of subtests given. Raw scores are based on the number of items answered and are converted into a standard age score corresponding to age group, similar to an IQ measure.

Precautions

Intelligence testing requires a clinically trained examiner. The Stanford-Binet intelligence scale should be administered, scored, and interpreted by a trained professional, preferably a psychologist.

Children with physical disabilities may require certain accommodations when taking the test, such as extra time for tasks, rest breaks, or instructions received in an alternate format (e.g., signing for a deaf child). The examiner should be made aware of a child's potential limitations before the day of the test so that appropriate accommodations are available.

Normal Results

Scoring for the Stanford-Binet generates a verbal IQ score (VIQ), a non-verbal IQ score (NIQ), and a full-scale IQ (FSIQ). It is a standardized test, meaning that norms are established during the design phase of the test by administering the test to a large, representative sample of the test population (in the case of the fifth edition, data from the 2000 U.S. census were used). The test has a mean, or average, standard score of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 for composite scores (subtests have a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3). The standard deviation indicates how far above or below the norm the subject's score is. For example, an eight-year-old is assessed with the Stanford-Binet scale and achieves a standard age score of 115. The mean score of 100 is the average level at which all eight-year-olds in the representative sample performed. This child's score would be one standard deviation above that norm.

While standard age scores provide a reference point for evaluation, they represent an average of a variety of skill areas. A trained psychologist evaluates and interprets an individual's performance on the scale's subtests to discover strengths and weaknesses and offer recommendations based upon these findings.

Parental Concerns

Test anxiety can have a negative impact on a child's performance, so parents should attempt to take the stress off their child by making sure they understand that it is the effort and attention they give the test, not the final score, that matters. Parents can also ensure that their children are well-rested on the testing day and have a nutritious meal beforehand.

Resources

Books

Maddox, Taddy. Tests: A Comprehensive Reference forAssessments in Psychology, Education, and Business,5th ed. Austin, TX: Pro-ed, 2003.

Wortham, Sue. Assessment in Early Childhood Education,4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2004.

Periodicals

Becker, K. A. "History of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales: Content and Psychometrics." Stanford-BinetIntelligence Scales, Fifth Edition Assessment Service Bulletin, no. 1. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing, 2003.

Braden, Jeffery P., and Stephen N. Elliott. "Accommodations on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, 5th edition." In Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition Assessment Service Bulletin, no. 2. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing, 2003.

Organizations

American Psychological Association (APA). 750 First St. NE, Washington, DC 20002–4242. Web site: www.apa.org.

Web Sites

Riverside Publishing. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, 5th ed. Available online at www.riverpub.com/products/clinical/sbis5/home.html (accessed October 30, 2004).

[Article by: Paula Ford-Martin]

A test developed in 1916 to measure intelligence and knowledge. After several subsequent revisions, the Stanford-Binet scale became the foundation of intelligence quotient testing.

The development of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales initiated the modern field of intelligence testing. The Stanford-Binet test started with the French psychologist Alfred Binet, whom the French government commissioned with developing a method of identifying intellectually deficient children for their placement in special education programs. As Binet indicated, case studies might be more detailed and helpful, but the time required to test many people would be excessive.

Contents 1 Development 2 Present use 3 Criticisms 4 References

Development

Later, Alfred Binet and physician Theodore Simon collaborated in studying mental retardation in French school children. Theodore Simon was a student of Binet's. ^[1] Between 1905 and 1908, their research at a boys school, in Grange-aux-Belles, led to their developing the Binet-Simon tests; via increasingly difficult questions, the tests measured attention, memory, and verbal skill. Binet warned that such test scores should not be interpreted literally, because intelligence is plastic and that there was a margin of error inherent to the test (Fancher, 1985). The test consisted of 30 items ranging from the ability to touch one's nose or ear when asked to the ability to draw designs from memory and to define abstract concepts.^[1]. Binet proposed that a child's intellectual ability increases with age. Therefore, he tested potential items and determined that age at which a typical child could answer them correctly. Thus, Binet developed the concept of mental age (MA), which is an individual's level of mental development relative to others^[1].

In 1916, the Stanford psychologist Lewis Terman released the "Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale", the "Stanford-Binet", for short. Helped by graduate students and validation experiments, he removed some Binet-Simon test items and added new ones. Soon, the test was so popular that Robert Yerkes, the president of the American Psychological Association, decided to use it in developing the Army Alpha and the Army Beta tests to classify recruits. Thus, a high-scoring recruit might earn an A-grade (high officer material), whereas a low-scoring recruit with an E-grade would be rejected for military service. (Fancher, 1985).

Present use

Since the inception of the Stanford-Binet, it has been revised several times. Currently, the test is in its fifth edition, which is called the Stanford-Binet 5. According to the publisher's website, "The SB5 was normed on a stratified random sample of 4,800 individuals that matches the 2000 U.S. Census. Bias reviews were conducted on all items for gender, ethnic, cultural/religious, regional, and socioeconomic status issues. Validity data was obtained using such instruments as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition, the Stanford-Binet Form L-M, the Woodcock-Johnson III, the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test, the Bender-Gestalt, the WAIS-III, the WIAT-II, the WISC-III, and the WPPSI-R."^{[citation needed]}

Low variation on individuals tested more than once indicates the test has high reliability, although its validity is debated (see below). In 1985, the test was revised to analyze an individual's responses in four content areas: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, abstract/visual reasoning, and short term memory. A general composite score also is obtained. Today the test is scored by comparing how the test taker performs compared with other people of the same age. ^[1]. The five factors assessed in the test are: Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, Quantitative Reasoning, Visual-Spatial Processing, and Working Memory. Each is assessed in two separate domains, verbal and nonverbal, in order to accurately assess individuals with deafness, limited English, or communication disorders. Examples of test items include verbal analogies to test Verbal Fluid Reasoning and picture absurdities to test Nonverbal Knowledge. The test makers state that the Stanford-Binet 5 accurately assesses low-functioning, normal intelligence, and high-functioning individuals (Riverside Publishing, 2004).

Students with exceptional scores on this test may be deemed bright, moderately gifted, highly gifted, extremely gifted, or profoundly gifted (contrast these with obsolete terms for low scores). These terms equate with progressively further standard deviations of IQ scores from the mean (100), bright being 1 standard deviation, moderately gifted 2 standard deviations, etc. Mensa currently requires a score of 132 on the Stanford-Binet. Since the test has a standard deviation of 15 (Roid, 2003)^[2], this corresponds to 2 standard deviations above the mean in a normally distributed population. The Triple Nine Society currently requires a score of 146 on the SB-5 version, and 149 on all others. By administering the Stanford-Binet test to large numbers of individuals selected at random from different parts of the United States, it has been found that the scores approximate a normal distribution.^[1]. The Stanford-Binet continues to be one of the most widely used individual tests of intelligence. ^[1].

Criticisms

The validity of standardized tests such as Stanford-Binet for testing general intelligence has been disputed by a number of commentators. Stephen Jay Gould points out in his book The Mismeasure of Man that Binet originally devised his test for detecting problem areas, rather than as a means of ranking the general intelligence of students. Over time, the purposes of intelligence testing have changed, however, and the Stanford-Binet 5, the 5th revision of Binet's test, now bears little resemblance to his original work. Achievement tests, rather than intelligence tests, are now typically used to assess performance in particular areas.

As Brown & French point out, "IQ tests serve one function exceptionally well, they predict academic success or failure ... they are composed of items that are representative of the kinds of problems that traditionally dominate school curricula," (1979: 255) and thus only predict that category of school assimilation. Further, "children with the same current status on an IQ test item may vary quite widely in terms of their cognitive potential." (ibid.: 258)

References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Santrock, John W. (2008) A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development (4th Ed.)Concept of Intelligence (283-284) New York: McGraw-Hill.
2. ^ Roid, G.H. (2003). Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales 5th Edition: Examiner's Manual. Riverside Publishing, Itaska, Illinois.

• Brown, A. L. and L. A. French (1979). "The zone of potential development: implications for intelligence testing in the year 2000." Intelligence 3(3): 255-271.

• Fancher, R. (1985). The Intelligence Men: Makers of the IQ Controversy. New York:W.W. Norton & Company

• Gould, Stephen Jay. (1981) The Mismeasure of Man. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co.
• History of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales:Content and Psychometrics Kirk A. Becker

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