Edwin Boring - Intelligence Testing

Intelligence Testing

During the First World War Boring was not drafted because of the birth of his first son. Disappointment over not helping his country did not last for long. Robert M. Yerkes asked him to join in the development of intelligence testing. Boring was later appointed chief psychological examiner at Camp Upton in Long Island. Then in 1918 Boring was asked to work on a massive report on the army intelligence program. Boring made his contribution during the war but was troubled afterward by the lack of scientific objectivity that resulted from intelligence testing. He found the use of probabilities to answer scientific questions to be particularly frustrating. At the time Boring felt that science was a field of certainty, not probability. As a result Boring remained cautious of intelligence testing throughout his life. When questions followed in later years about the definition of intelligence Boring adopted the phrase, “Intelligence is what the tests test” (p. 46).