Historicizing Intelligence: Tests, metrics and the shaping of contemporary society

The purpose of this project is to study the historical development of intelligence tests, IQ-scales and concepts ofintelligence that such tests are based on, and has helped to produce. The project deals with how the scientificresearch object ‘intelligence’ has arisen and has developed, how it has acquired the various roles and functions it hasin today's Norway, and the values and relations of authority and legitimacy into which intelligence measurementsare woven.Projects include a series of case studies that address ongoing debates and processes around IQ testing, explore thelong history behind the rise of the tests and IQ-scales and examine what kind of work IQ tests and related testtechnologieshave done and are doing in our society.We focus in on the school system and testing of school children, IQ as a diagnostic tool for mental disability, the useof IQ tests for assessments of criminal responsibility in the judicial system, and the role of intelligence measurementsin eugenic thinking and sterilization practice in Norway. Based on these sub-studies, the project aims to write asynthesizing account of the development of IQ tests in Norway, from around 1900 to the present, situated in aninternational and transnational context. With Norway as a starting point, we will explore the transnational contexts,processes and actors that have shaped the development in Norway, including the transnational companies that ownand market the tests, and the international organizations, professions and professional networks involved increating, evaluating, translating, adapting and approving tests and measurement scales used in NorwayBy examining the historical conditions that have given rise to test methods, measuring scales and concepts ofintelligence, we aim to produce new insights into what these technologies, practices and concepts are and what kindof social role they have and should have.

Despite the widespread use of IQ and related mental abilities tests in diverse social settings, there is no consensus ontheir workings as descriptive/diagnostic devices or on the conceptual apparatus of intelligence-related assumptionsthat accompanies them. The aim of this project is to study how these tests and varied understandings of intelligencehave come-into-being as scientific objects of inquiry and how they perform diverse roles in today’s Norway. Ourresearch will promote an in-depth discussion on the entanglements of science, technology, politics, economy, lawand culture that produce knowledge, value and legitimacy related to intelligence testing. It will build on a series ofstudies, which will a) address the contemporary situation and follow recent debates around IQ-testing, b) situateintelligence testing in a long-term historical perspective by focusing on the tests and scales themselves, c) examinethe work that mental abilities testing technologies do in society, with a special emphasis in legal and educationalpractices, and d) synthesize these diverse empirical case studies into a coherent account of the development ofintelligence testing in Norway, viewed through a transnational and comparative lens. By historicizing thesetechnoscientific infrastructures and concepts, our ambition is to advance knowledge about what these technologies,Despite the widespread use of IQ and related mental abilities tests in diverse social settings, there is no consensus ontheir workings as descriptive/diagnostic devices or on the conceptual apparatus of intelligence-related assumptionsthat accompanies them. The aim of this project is to study how these tests and varied understandings of intelligencehave come-into-being as scientific objects of inquiry and how they perform diverse roles in today’s Norway. Ourresearch will promote an in-depth discussion on the entanglements of science, technology, politics, economy, lawand culture that produce knowledge, value and legitimacy related to intelligence testing. It will build on a series ofstudies, which will a) address the contemporary situation and follow recent debates around IQ-testing, b) situateintelligence testing in a long-term historical perspective by focusing on the tests and scales themselves, c) examinethe work that mental abilities testing technologies do in society, with a special emphasis in legal and educationalpractices, and d) synthesize these diverse empirical case studies into a coherent account of the development ofintelligence testing in Norway, viewed through a transnational and comparative lens. By historicizing these technoscientific infrastructures and concepts, our ambition is to advance knowledge about what these technologies, practices and concepts are and what their societal roles are and should be. While directing attention to local andNorwegian situations, our transnational approach aims to address the global material and intellectual networks ofinterchanges that have shaped these local developments . The project seeks to impact the general public discourse,as well as professional discussions and practices among those who use the tests and will strive to engage groupsaffected by testing practices.

The project’s research questions draw on and explore theoretical and methodological perspectives developedwithin the broader field of critical studies of science and technology, which emphasize what STS-scholarSheila Jasanoff (2004) has described as the co-production of science and the social order. We approach mentalabilities testing technologies, most often framed in the form of IQ tests, as embedding and being embedded in“social practices, identities, norms, conventions, discourses, instruments and institutions” (ibid, p. 3). Thisperspective allows for a complex investigation of knowledge societies and offers tools for interpreting thesocial implications –including effects on scientific knowledge and practices – of such testing technologies.

The project is inspired by historian of science Lorraine Daston’s (2000) original contributions on howphenomena become objects of scientific inquiry. Daston encourages us to explore the biographies of scientificobjects as they acquire new traits through their interaction with scientific thought and practices. We align withher nuanced positioning away from a realist/constructionist dichotomy to instead understand scientific objectsas both real and constructed. Following Daston, we propose that intelligence, along with its testingtechnologies and scales, is a scientific object “that can be observed and manipulated, that is capable oftheoretical ramifications and empirical surprises, and that coheres, at least for a time, as an ontological entity”(ibid, p. 5). Methodologically, the emphasis on the biography of scientific objects suggests a) looking at theepistemological, cultural, political and economic processes that occasioned the emergence of intelligence as asalient scientific object; b) investigating what gets produced in terms of results: new materialities, policies,connections, and effects; and c) remaining attentive to the ever-changing networks that scientific objects formand are formed by. In this sense, scientific objects can be viewed as hubs of cross-disciplinarity and socialinteractions that invite equally diverse approaches to elucidate their biographies.

The emphasis on intelligence and intelligence testing technologies as a scientific object invites equal attentionto its workings in society. IQ is a popular-cultural notion, a bureaucratic device, a governance tool, and a legalconcept just as much as it is an object of scientific research. Historian Theodore Porter (Porter 1996) hasdescribed how measurement instruments and quantitative procedures that originate in commercial oradministrative arenas often have a decisive effect on how natural and social sciences get practiced. FollowingPorter, we want to examine the thick network of interactions around diverse conceptualizations of intelligenceand its testing technologies to understand their resilience and persistence within and outside scientific circles.