Binet, Alfred

Alfred Binet (1857–1911) was born on July 11, 1857 in Nice, France. His father was a physician and his mother an artist. Binet was an only child. When he was young, his parents separated and he lived with his mother. When Binet was 15, he moved to Paris with his mother to study law. After graduating from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Binet became a licentiate in jurisprudence. In 1878 and at the age of 21, Binet could practice law, but his family's wealth allowed him to follow other interests. He began to study science and biology at the Sorbonne and then to read psychology texts at the National Library in Paris.

In 1883, Binet met Jean-Martin Charcot, the director of La Salpêtrière, a hospital in Paris. Binet began to work in Charcot's neurological laboratory. Charcot was working on hypnosis, and during the 7 years with Charcot, Binet accepted his mentor's views.

In 1884, Binet married Laure Balbiani, the daughter of an embryologist. They had two daughters, Madeleine (born in 1885) and Alice (born in 1887). Binet left La Salpêtrière in 1890 to study the cognitive abilities of his two daughters. The 2-year difference in their ages caused developmental differences, but Binet did not focus his investigations in that direction. He spent many years in the study of ways to measure intelligence. These investigations led Binet to conclude that a direct measurement of complex intellectual functions would be the best path for further study. He began working at the Sorbonne's Laboratory of Experimental Psychology in 1891. He was named assistant director of the Laboratory of Physiological Psychology created at the Sorbonne in 1889. In 1894, Binet became director. He and his coworkers studied perception, hypnosis, memory, handwriting, and thinking. Théophile Simon applied to do research under Binet's supervision. This began their close working relationship. The following year, Binet and Henri Beaunis founded the first French journal of psychology, L'Année Psychologique, which is still in publication today.

In 1904, the minister of public instruction appointed Binet to a commission to study the problems associated with the education of subnormal students attending Paris schools. The commission sought a test that could be given to children who might have learning disabilities. The test results could be used to place low-functioning children in special classrooms. Binet published his book, Experimental Studies of Intelligence, which described his methods for determining intelligence.

Also in 1904, Binet began developing a test to identify students needing special education. Binet and his colleague Théophile Simon published the first intelligence scale in 1905. This scale, known as the 1905 scale, consisted of 30 problems or tasks arranged in ascending order of difficulty. In 1908, Binet and Simon revised the scale, dropping, modifying, and adding tests and also arranging them according to age levels from the ages of 3 to 13. Binet published the third version of the Binet-Simon scale just before his death in 1911, but it was not yet finished.