Modern Measures of Intelligence

For the first 50 years in which IQ tests were given, intelligence was assumed to be a single quality. Test developers ignored research findings on the developmental changes in different aspects of intelligence. These tests also ignored Jean Piaget's view that cognitive abilities of young children are fundamentally different from that of adolescents and that cognitive development occurs in stages rather than gradually over time. In addition, they ignored advances in neuroscience and learning style differences. Nadeen and Alan Kaufman developed the Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children, or K-ABC as an alternative to the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler tests. This test was the first IQ test to be guided by theories of intelligence. It was designed to measure several distinct aspects of intelligence as well as different types of learning styles. It included different kinds of problems for different ages as well as varied levels of difficulty. The K-ABC has become one of the more widely used IQ tests.

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