Mental Ability Tests     1 
            
           Running Head:  MENTAL ABILITY TESTS 
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
                          A History of Mental Ability Tests and Theories 
                                    John D. Wasserman 
                              Independent Practice, Burke, Virginia 
                                     Alan S. Kaufman 
                               Yale University School of Medicine 
            
            
            
            
           DO NOT QUOTE UNTIL PUBLISHED                     
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                                                               Abstract 
                        The concepts  of  measurement  and  theory  have  always  been  central  to  psychological 
                science. This chapter reviews the history of applied mental tests and the ideas behind them, with 
                a specific emphasis on individually-administered intellectual measures in the era of scientific 
                psychology (i.e., after Wundt). The theoretical underpinnings associated with mental tests are 
                summarized, and test/theory falsifications are discussed. Beginning with the contributions of 
                Francis  Galton  and  J.  McKeen  Cattell  and  continuing  through  the  present  day,  the  topics 
                discussed  include  anthropometric  testing,  Charles  Spearman’s  two-factor  theory  and  general 
                intelligence  factor,  Alfred  Binet  and  David  Wechsler’s  pragmatic  approaches,  Raymond  B. 
                Cattell and John L. Horn’s fluid and crystallized intelligence, John B. Carroll’s three stratum 
                model  of  cognitive  abilities,  and  Alexander  R.  Luria’s  conceptualization  of  brain-based, 
                cognitive  processing.  The  successes  of  the  Binet-Simon,  Stanford-Binet,  and  Wechsler 
                intelligence scales in the United States are suggestive that the factors driving practitioners to use 
                specific tests may be different than the factors driving research and theory. The chapter closes 
                with a discussion about theory-building and falsification in mental testing and the importance of 
                reconciling theory with clinical practice in psychological assessment. 
                                                              Keywords 
                Intelligence    mental testing          anthropometrics        cognitive processing  Binet 
                      Wechsler          Galton          Cattell        Spearman        Horn  Carroll           Luria 
                 
                                                 
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          Psychology cannot attain the certainty and exactness of the physical sciences, unless it 
          rests on a foundation of experiment and measurement. A step in this direction could be 
          made by applying a series of mental tests and measurements to a large number of 
          individuals. The results would be of considerable scientific value in discovering the 
          constancy of mental processes, their interdependence, and their variation under different 
          circumstances. Individuals, besides, would find their tests interesting, and perhaps, useful 
          in regard to training, mode of life or indication of disease. (J. M. Cattell, 1890, p. 373) 
          When James McKeen Cattell (1890) introduced the term mental tests (above) in the 
       British journal Mind, he was already cognizant that measurement was essential to establishing 
       the field of psychology as an emerging experimental science. In Wilhelm Wundt’s experimental 
       psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, widely considered the birthplace of scientific 
       psychology, Cattell was the first American to earn a Ph.D. in 1886 (Sokal, 1981). During a 
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       sojourn at St. Johns College at the University of Cambridge, Cattell came to know well and work 
       closely with Francis Galton, the father of psychometrics, who launched the first large-scale 
       program of anthropometric testing at the International Health Exhibition in London. Galton’s 
       approach emphasized accumulation and analysis of large quantities of normative data, with the 
       capacity to identify individual and group differences (phenomena of little value to Wundt, who 
       sought universals governing elementary mental processes). Upon his return to the United States 
       from England, Cattell set up experimental psychology laboratories and testing programs like 
       those he had seen with Wundt and Galton (see Sokal, 2010).  
          Cattell would become a forceful lifelong advocate for mental tests based on their 
       potential applied and practical value (see e.g., Cattell, 1923). As a positivist, Cattell was 
       dedicated to the use of quantitative and statistical methods to discover scientific laws governing 
       the natural world. As the first psychologist elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1901) 
       and as the long-time editor and publisher (from 1894-1944) of the journal Science, Cattell 
       offered an entrée to the scientific community that was shared, at least symbolically, by all 
       psychologists. Finally, as the founder of The Psychological Corporation, Cattell laid the 
       groundwork for a scientific entrepreneurialism that remains prominent today in the commercial 
       test publishing industry. 
          Arguably (and ironically), one of Cattell’s greatest contributions to psychology as a 
       science may have been the high profile falsification of his Galton-influenced anthropometric test 
       battery as a valid measure of intelligence, and his uncharacteristic grace at accepting the apparent 
       research-based outcome. Cattell’s principal research initiative at Columbia University was to 
       determine whether a battery of anthropometric tests supplemented by a variety of sensory, motor, 
       and higher cognitive tasks could constitute a measure of intelligence. Beginning in 1894, the