Textbooks often give a brief account of the beginning of the intelligence testing movement. The sixth edition of Adolescence does also, but you could add to its treatment. Doing so is an excellent introduction to the topic, and a good way to bring forth most of the classic concerns with the enterprise and with the concept of intelligence.

You could begin your lecture with a brief treatment of Galton's idea of the inheritance of intellect. Briefly summarize Galton's ideas (these are usually outlined in introductory psychology texts), and then discuss Galton's idea that intelligence could be measured in terms of elementary cognitive functions such as reaction time; and that intelligence represented a biological trait much like any other. You might conclude with Galton's observations that genius seemed to run in families, the inferences he drew from that, and his interesting recommendations about the value of eugenics. This might be a good time to let the class discuss the ideas you are presenting!

Make the high point of your lecture a presentation of Binet's success. You could emphasize any of the following points: (a) the practical basis of Binet's work (the French government's commission); (b) Binet's empirical approach (development and norming of items that discriminated between children of different ages); (c) the essentially developmental basis of Binet's work (something often overlooked in discussion of the intelligence); (d) Binet's belief that intelligence was learned and remediable; (e) Binet's concerns with the need for an objective, reliable, and valid measure. All of these points feature in contemporary controversies about intelligence, and presenting them allows you to cast contemporary issues in a historical context.

You could conclude your lecture with examples of how IQ tests came to be used after Binet developed the first successful one. For example, one of the first big users was the United States Army, who also figured large in the development of group intelligence tests. The tests also played a role in attempts to control immigration in the early 20's into the United States

A problem of long-standing interest is the question of whether individual differences in infant intelligence can be measured and whether they have predictive value. A lecture on this topic would be an opportunity to explore how basic values influence what researchers consider to be good and important questions, a chance to illustrate and elaborate the stability/change issue, and a further vehicle to discuss how modern methodological advances have contributed both to our scientific and, potentially, applied knowledge of infants.

First, explore the reasons why it would be valuable to identify individual differences in infants. In doing this you may wish to review the reasons why Binet developed the intelligence test. It would be interesting to point out that Binet was optimistic that if he were able to identify intellectual deficits early in the life of a child, he would be able to develop intervention techniques to enhance the child's intelligence. You may wish to explore the rather different historical development of uses of the intelligence test to speculate on the fate of similar rationales for developing infant intelligence tests.

Second, briefly trace the history of attempts to develop developmental scales for infants, expanding on the textbook's coverage. In this treatment it would be important to indicate that these early tests never yielded impressive correlations with later intelligence, yielding an opportunity to review the meaning and uses of correlational findings. Note that recent fine-grain analyses of performance on Bayley scales have shown that some subscales on this test predict later language ability. Finally, present the evidence that rate of habituation in very young infants correlates with later measured intelligence.

Finally, speculate about the meaning of this correlation. Does it mean that intelligence is basically a biological trait? Or does it suggest that differences in information processing capacity lead to differential rates of learning and remembering? Is rate of habituation a cause of intellectual development or is it related to something else? If you can, it would be valuable to interpret these findings in terms of several theories of intelligence (e.g., Jensen's, Gardner's, Sternberg's).

You may wish to conclude with a speculative treatment concerning possible applications of these findings.

In recent years, theorists and researchers like Lauren Resnick and Robert Sternberg have emphasized the important process versus product distinction in the study of intelligence. They point out that traditional intelligence tests focus on the products of intelligence and as such are limited indices of intellectual processes. Although Binet, the creator of the first successful intelligence test, hoped to go beyond the product orientation, that remains the dominant legacy of the tests. Perhaps an unfortunate concomitant (though unintended) legacy is the view that intelligence is a fixed quantity rather than a dynamic, changing process.

Modern researchers have been dissatisfied with this state of affairs and have attempted a process-oriented approach to the analysis of intelligence. Present a lecture that outlines this approach. A good, seminal reference is Resnick's 1976 book, The Nature of Intelligence, or any of a number of works by Robert Sternberg. Begin by presenting the limitations of intelligence tests as devices for revealing the nature of intelligence. Basically, the tests permit us only to guess about the nature of the processes that underlie intellectual performance and do nothing to outline how these processes may accrue or change with age. Then outline what it might mean to take a process approach. This basically involves reviewing the information processing approach, which may mean reviewing material that you have presented in previous lectures (i.e., always a good idea!).

The culmination of the lecture is an analysis of any standard intelligence test item. Sternberg's analysis of analogies is an excellent example. A fun prelude to it is to have the class solve this analogy: Washington is to 1 as Lincoln is to (5, 10, 15, 50). This is Sternberg's own example; students' correct and incorrect guesses help to illustrate through personal experience the validity of Sternberg's componential analysis.

Sternberg also shows how his componential analysis illuminates development. It turns out that children cannot carry out a crucial step, which uniformly results in failure; adolescents, by contrast, pass it. Sternberg also presents data on the success of training people to perform the various mental steps needed to solve analogies.

Children as young as 6 can infer spatial relationships in familiar environments. Six-year-olds are as likely as older children to use permanent, reliable environmental cues (e.g., bridges, street signs, store fronts) instead of transient, unreliable cues (e.g., "house for sale'' sign, parked car). Six-year-olds have some skill in providing general directions to neighborhood landmarks not visible from their own homes (Herman et al., 1987).

However, even 11-year-olds have difficulty determining spatial environments in large, unfamiliar environments (Herman et al., 1987). Even though older children have trouble negotiating their way in strange environments, most airlines do not provide "child escort service'' after the age of 11. Perhaps schools need to provide more direct training on spatial conceptual abilities and on strategies for negotiating one's way in unfamiliar settings.

Spatial orientation abilities are often viewed as skills in which males are better than females. However, preschoolers and school-aged children exhibit few sex differences. The relationship between gender and spatial development really shows up in late adolescence (Cohen, 1986). Perhaps differential treatment toward males and females in childhood results in significant differences in abilities from late adolescence on. Although older children are allowed to go farther from home than are younger children, at all ages boys are permitted greater distances than are girls (Herman et al., 1987). The greater physical distance experiences may be one aspect of improving males' spatial orientation abilities over time. Formal instruction in a variety of spatial orientation skills, such as map reading, might be helpful in reducing gender differences in this area. (Sources: Cohen, H. G. 1986. A longitudinal study of the development of spatial conceptual ability. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 148, 71-78; Herman, J. F., Heins, J. A., & Cohen, D. S. 1987. Children's spatial knowledge of their neighborhood environment. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 8, 1015.)

In the 1920s, beliefs about racial differences in intelligence influenced the immigration quotas from different countries. Psychologists expressed racist attitudes in their articles and books about intelligence. For example, the prominent psychologist Robert Yerkes, in 1923, wrote an article called "Testing the Human Mind'' for The Atlantic. In this article he claimed that the WWI testing program of the army showed that Southern European immigrants had low intelligence. Yerkes wrote, "Certainly the results of psychological examining in the United States Army established the relation of inferior intelligence to delinquency and crime, and justify the belief that a country which encourages, or even permits, the immigration of simple-minded, uneducated, defective, diseased, or criminalistic persons, because it needs cheap labor, seeks trouble in the shape of public expense.''

In that same year, psychologist Carl Brigham published A Study of American Intelligence in which he divided the U.S. population into four racial groups of declining ability:

1. The Nordic Race. Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Sweden, England, Scotland, Canada.
2. The Alpine Race. Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Russia, Poland, European Turkey. (Germans were rated much higher than others in this group because they were a mixture of the Nordic and Alpine Races.)
3. The Mediterranean Race. Greece, Ireland, Italy, Wales, Asia, Turkey.
4. The Negro Race.

The quota system in the Immigration Act of 1924 was unfavorable to Southern and Southeastern Europeans partly on the basis of the belief that these immigrants had inferior intelligence. Some psychologists, including Robert Yerkes, who developed the army intelligence tests, campaigned for immigration restriction. (Source: Marks, R. 1981. The idea of IQ. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.)

How would you describe gifted individuals? Many believe that gifted children are odd, physically inept, glasses-wearing loners. Actually, most gifted children are above average in physical development, social skills, and psychological adjustment. However, many gifted children are near-sighted and therefore wear glasses.

The first longitudinal study of gifted children was begun in California in the 1920s by Lewis Terman. Terman studied 1500 children with IQs from 140 to 200. In middle childhood they scored well in a variety of measures from achievement to social and physical skills. They even were 2.5 centimeters taller than their peers. Followed throughout their lives, most of the male subjects (almost 90 percent) went to college; many of them became doctors, lawyers, writers, and researchers. Because of the time period (they were born in the 1910s), most of the women became housewives. As adults they had below average rates of alcoholism, mental health problems, physical health problems, criminal records, and divorce.

Recent studies also conclude that gifted children are average to superior to their peers on social and emotional adjustment. They score lower on aggression and hostility and higher on perseverance and need for achievement.

Some gifted children have problems in school because they find it boring. After all, textbooks and curriculum are geared to the average child. School systems sometimes try enrichment programs, acceleration programs, and other special programs to try to challenge gifted children. (Sources: Reiss, S. M. 1989. Reflections on policy affecting the education of gifted and talented students. American Psychologist, 44, 399-408; Stamps, L. E. & Clark, C. L. C. 1987. Relations between the Type A behavior pattern and intelligence in children. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 148, 529-531; Olszewski-Kubilius, P. M., Kulieke, M. J. & Krasney, N. 1988. Personality dimensions of gifted children and adolescents, Gifted Child Quarterly, 32, 347-352; Halpern, J. J. & Luria, Z. 1989. Labels of giftedness and gender-typicality: Effects on adults' judgments of children's traits. Psychology in the Schools, 26, 301-310; Benbow, C. 1988. Sex differences in mathematical reasoning ability in intellectually talented preadolescents: Their nature, effects, and possible causes. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 11, 169-183.)

Birth order has a small but detectable effect on intelligence and school achievement. Firstborns tend to be more verbal, have slightly higher IQ scores, and are higher achievers.

Children in small families do better in school and stay in school longer. Even controlling for SES, children with many siblings do not do as well in school. Children with many siblings are more likely to drop out of school. One explanation is that large families provide fewer opportunities for a child to interact with a parent—each ends up with less verbal stimulation and less attention. This leads to lower verbal intelligence and fewer school successes.

For given family size, children who are born close together have a slight decrease in IQ compared to sibling space of three or more years. Twins, for example, average 5 lower IQ points over single births. (Source: Blake, J. 1989. Number of siblings and educational attainment. Science, 245, 32-36.)

Louis Leon Thurstone, mathematician and psychologist, was an assistant of Thomas Edison, an originator of tests used by the U.S. Army in World War I, an engineer professor, a psychology professor, and a president of the American Psychological Association. His wife Thelma was a research collaborator with him.

Thurstone did not believe that intelligence should be measured in one general term. So he engaged in six years of research with 56 tests that he gave to 240 students whose IQs were above average. When he analyzed the resultant data, he concluded that intelligence was made up of seven separate mental abilities: numbers, words, visual imagery, memory, perception, induction, (finding a rule governing a set of facts), and verbal reasoning.

Thurstone also concluded that persons who rank high in one of the abilities are likely to have high scores in the other abilities. However, there were frequent cases of superior individuals doing poorly on one or more sections. Several bright persons, for example, had poor memory.

Thurstone also found that the work people like to do is likely to match their particular mental abilities. Many vocational counselors believe that matching abilities and interests to career plans leads to the highest levels of job satisfaction. (Source: Gerow, J. Time Retrospective: Psychology 1923-1988, 18.)

Superbabies are advanced-achieving infants who are trained to perform precociously by their parents. Every generation has taken pride in having offspring who walk or talk early, but today's parents may take a lot of time and effort into increasing infant knowledge. Parents who are more educated, older, and economically well-off are the most likely to work on having a superbaby. The parents themselves are often competitive and successful. They are often aware of animal studies that show advantages of enriched environments and the impressive results of longitudinal studies of Sesame Street and Head Start. (However, these studies show the advantages of enrichment over deprivation and do not address the advantages of enrichment over typical home environment.) They also know that scientists have found that fetuses can hear, and some ambitious parents start prenatal education.

Some parents create their own infant education program, while others dole out money for programs such as Glenn Doman's Better Baby Institute, which has been around since the 1960s. Parents can take a one-week intensive training program in how to use flash cards three times a day with infants. For example, babies may be shown a picture of an apple along with APPLE, or a picture of Mona Lisa along with LEONARDO DA VINCI.

Critics are concerned that superbabies may learn to mimic and memorize rather than excel in curious creativity. In other words, drilling does not equal comprehending. Infants may also adopt the notion that learning is stressful, and may become worried that they will fail their parents' expectations. Superbaby learning may impede other skills in the arenas of social, physical, and emotional learning. Critics also suggest that much of the parental efforts may be a waste of time. First, brain maturation is necessary for some learning. Second, infants learn well from everyday situations. (Sources: Chess, S. & Thomas, A. 1987. Knowing your child. New York: Basic; Elkind D. 1981. The hurried child: Growing up too fast too soon. Reading: Addison-Wesley; Kagan, J. 1984. The nature of the child. New York: Basic; Langway, L. 1983 (March 28). Bringing up superbaby. Newsweek, 62-68; Meyerhoff, M. K. 1988 (August). Avoiding the superbaby syndrome. American Baby, 18-22.)

Savant syndrome is a rare (a few hundred cases worldwide) serious mental handicap in which individuals are retarded and yet have a spectacular area of intelligence in one of the following areas: music, visual arts, mathematical ability, mechanical wizardry, or mnemonic skills such as calendar calculation.

The condition was first described by J. Langdon Down in 1887. It was then called idiot savant; however, these individuals have IQs of 40 or more, and idiot refers to an IQ of 25 or less.

Various explanations have been offered over the years; eidetic imagery, inherited ability, sensory deprivation and social isolation leading to boredom and the adoption of trivial preoccupations, or reliance on concrete thinking. Treffert suggests that the savant syndrome is caused by dysfunction of the cerebral cortex due to postnatal, or more likely, prenatal injury to the brain's left hemisphere. The right hemisphere compensates somewhat in language and motor skills. Most savants have unusual talents generally associated with the right brain.

Additional tidbits:

• One in 10 autistic children demonstrates savant skills.
• One in two savants exhibit clinical symptoms of early infantile autism.
• The brain's right hemisphere completes development first.
• 85 percent of all savants are male.
• Savants seem to use a memory circuit governed by the basal ganglia, rather than the hippocampus.

(Source: Robotham, R. 1989 (September). Islands of genius. Omni, 18, 110.)