5 phrases by Alfred Binet about intelligence

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Alfred Binet is one of the most important psychologists in the field of education. What stands out about him is his optimistic vision of intelligence and his interest in measuring it to improve education, personalizing teaching methods, especially for those students with the most problems.

Alfred Binet’s phrases talk about one of the parts that most captivated this French pedagogue and psychologist: intelligence. So much so that He became the first person to create the intelligence test in the educational context.

Alfred Binet was born in 1857 and died in 1911. Although he is known as a pedagogue and psychologist, he was also a graphologist. During years, He dedicated himself to researching how children’s education could be improvedfocusing their attention on those who had some learning difficulty.

With the motivation that they could enjoy an adapted education, Binet set out to create a standardized test that would quickly and accurately identify children who had this problem. Around this concern he developed his career and built a valuable legacy that his contemporaries, in one way or another, can enjoy.

1. Intelligence and the ability to adapt

“Intelligence is the ability to take and maintain a certain direction, adapt to new situations and have the ability to criticize one’s own actions.”

In the first of Albert Binet’s sentences that we collect today, the author himself offers us, as a starting point to understand his work, the definition of intelligence with which he worked.

Although, today, it is very possible that your conception of intelligence is related to a brilliant person or who stands out from the rest, Binet valued it from another point of view.

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Can make a decision and stick to it, adapt to new situations no matter how difficult they may be and be able to be consistent with one’s own actions They encompass a set of skills that identify, for Binet, an intelligent person.

2. Intelligence is not fixed

“Some modern philosophers claim that an individual’s intelligence is fixed, it has a level that cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism…”

This second of Albert Binet’s phrases is a criticism of those who defended that intelligence could neither decrease nor increase. Binet points out that this is a very pessimistic view and fortunately wrong.

According to Binet, With practice, training and a specific method it was possible to improve intelligence. In this goal, our protagonist thought that memory, attention and the use of logic constituted the three pillars of intelligence that could be trained and by which it could improve.

3. Succeed in life

“It seems proven that success in life is achieved thanks to three factors: health, intelligence and character; Let’s add a fourth factor, a little luck.”

Alfred Binet considered that intelligence was part of another series of elements that made it possible for a person to succeed. Along with health and one’s own character, one can achieve achieve goals that one sets.

However, it also adds a very interesting element to the list: luck. Binet understood that luck is a fortune that is presented to all of us, but that we only take advantage of. those who work to be in the right place at the right time. In other words, the transformation of opportunities into success was in the hands of those who were capable of making an intelligent investment of their resources.

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4. The head of a chess player

“If we could look into the head of a chess player, we would find there a world full of feelings, images, ideas, emotion and passion.”

In this fourth sentence, Alfred Binet talks about the inside of a chess player’s head. This game where logic is importantBinet assures that in the mind of the player there are also feelings, images (visualization), ideas, emotion and passion.

All these elements are essential to be able to play the game satisfactorily. Without them, it would be impossible for a player to win. What’s more, Binet is relating these characteristics, indirectly, to intelligence.

5. The scale does not measure intelligence

“The scale, properly speaking, does not allow intelligence to be measured because intellectual qualities are not comparable and, therefore, cannot be measured by comparison.”

We end with one of Alfred Binet’s most significant phrases on the scale of intelligence. Although it is considered that the test is used to know if someone has greater abilities than another person, Binet stated that this was not the case. The scale does not measure intelligence because it does not compare.

Therefore, the result of the test was the identification of a series of points that should serve as a reference to adapt the teaching process to each student. Just as in a language level test no one passes or fails, Binet conceived the intelligence test in a similar way..

Which of these Alfred Binet phrases did you already know? Did you know that he had been the creator of the intelligence test? We hope that this article has been of interest to you and that it has allowed you to get to know a little more about this pedagogue, graphologist, psychologist and pioneer in the study of intelligence.