Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales

Originally released in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon, the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale marked the beginning of a new era in the measurement of intelligence. Initially designed as a diagnostic system primarily for identifying children with mental retardation, the first edition of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale included 30 pass-fail items such as word problems, paper cutting, and repeating sentences and digits. The original concepts, such as presenting items of varying levels of difficulty, the use of age-graded norms to predict mental age, and the provision of standardized instructions for administration, set the precedent for the development of future measures of intelligence. Keywords: Stanford-Binet; intelligence scales; CHC theory; Wechsler intelligence tests