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In 1905, psychologists Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon designed a test for children who were struggling in school in France.
1905年，心理学家阿尔弗雷德·比内特和西奥多·西蒙在法国为学校里表现不佳的孩子们设计了一款测试。
Designed to determine which children required individualized attention, their method formed the basis of the IQ test.
这款测试可以帮助判断哪些孩子更需要特别关注，后来成为了智商（IQ）测试的基础。
Beginning in the late 19th century, researchers hypothesized that cognitive abilities like verbal reasoning, working memory,
从19世纪后期开始，研究人员假设认知能力，如表述推理、工作记忆、
and visual-spatial skills reflected an underlying general intelligence, or g factor.
视觉空间技能等能力反映了潜在的智力，或一般智力因素(g因素）。
Simon and Binet designed a battery of tests to measure each of these abilities and combine the results into a single score.
西蒙和比内特设计了一组考试，用于测试不同方面的能力，然后将结果合并为一个分数。
Questions were adjusted for each age group, and a child's score reflected how they performed relative to others their age.
题目会根据不同年龄段做调整，孩子的分数反映了相对于他们所处年龄段的表现情况。
Dividing someone's score by their age and multiplying the result by 100 yielded the intelligence quotient, or IQ.
把受测者的分数除以他们的年龄，再将结果乘以100，就可以得出智商，或IQ。
Today, a score of 100 represents the average of a sample population, with 68% of the population scoring within 15 points of 100.
如今，100分代表样本人口的平均值，68％的人得分在85分到115分之间。
Simon and Binet thought the skills their test assessed would reflect general intelligence.
西蒙和比内特原本认为他们的测试所评估的能力将反映出一般智力水平。
But both then and now, there's no single agreed upon definition of general intelligence.
但是无论曾经还是现在，人们从没在智力的定义上达成过共识。
And that left the door open for people to use the test in service of their own preconceived assumptions about intelligence.
这也默许了人们使用这种测试为自己对智力的认知所用。
What started as a way to identify those who needed academic help quickly became used to sort people in other ways, often in service of deeply flawed ideologies.
起初，这个方法是为了找出哪些人在学习上需要帮助，却很快变成了对人们进行分类的方法，并且常常被一些根深蒂固、有缺陷的意识形态所利用。
One of the first large-scale implementations occurred in the United States during WWI, when the military used an IQ test to sort recruits and screen them for officer training.
该方法最早的大规模应用之一是在一战时期的美国，军队使用智商测试来筛选新兵，并且为军官训练做测试。
At that time, many people believed in eugenics, the idea that desirable and undesirable genetic traits could and should be controlled in humans through selective breeding.
当时，很多人都相信优生学，形容理想和不理想的遗传性状可以且应该通过选择性育种来控制。
There were many problems with this line of thinking, among them the idea that intelligence was not only fixed and inherited, but also linked to a person's race.
这种想法存在许多的问题，包括智力不仅是固定且遗传的，而且还跟一个人的种族有关系的想法。
Under the influence of eugenics, scientists used the results of the military initiative to make erroneous claims that certain racial groups were intellectually superior to others.
在优生学的影响下，科学家们利用军事倡议的结果，提出了一种错误的主张：某些种族的人们在智力上优于其他种族。
Without taking into account that many of the recruits tested were new immigrants to the United States who lacked formal education or English language exposure,
没有考虑到许多接受测试的新兵都是刚到达美国的新移民，并且缺失正式的教育和对英语环境的充分接触，
they created an erroneous intelligence hierarchy of ethnic groups.
他们依据不同种族创造了一种错误的智力阶级制。
The intersection of eugenics and IQ testing influenced not only science, but policy as well.
优生学和智商测试之间形成的关联不仅影响了科学，也影响了政策。
In 1924, the state of Virginia created policy allowing for the forced sterilization of people with low IQ scores -- a decision the United States Supreme Court upheld.
1924年，费吉尼亚州制定了强制让低智商人群绝育的政策--美国的最高法院也维持原判。
In Nazi Germany, the government authorized the murder of children based on low IQ.
在纳粹德国，政府允许在基于低智商的情况下谋杀儿童。
Following the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement, the discriminatory uses of IQ tests were challenged on both moral and scientific grounds.
大屠杀和民权运动后，智力测试的使用受到了道德和科学的挑战。
Scientists began to gather evidence of environmental impacts on IQ.
科学家们开始收集环境对智商产生影响的证据。
For example, as IQ tests were periodically recalibrated over the 20th century, new generations scored consistently higher on old tests than each previous generation.
例如，由于智力测试在20世纪是被定期校准的，新一代的人一直在旧的考试中比旧一代获得更好的成绩。
This phenomenon, known as the Flynn Effect, happened much too fast to be caused by inherited evolutionary traits.
这个现象叫做费林效应，它发生得太快，不可能是通过先天进化特征实现的。
Instead, the cause was likely environmental -- improved education, better healthcare, and better nutrition.
原因应该很大几率来源于环境的变化--更好的教育体系，更好的医疗体系和更好的营养。
In the mid-twentieth century, psychologists also attempted to use IQ tests to evaluate things other than general intelligence,
在二十世纪中期，心理学家也尝试过用智力测试评估除智力外的其他东西，
particularly schizophrenia, depression, and other psychiatric conditions.
尤其是精神分裂症、抑郁症和其他精神疾病。
These diagnoses relied in part on the clinical judgment of the evaluators, and used a subset of the tests used to determine IQ
这些诊断部分取决于评估者的临床判断，并使用了测试的一部分来判断智商，
a practice later research found does not yield clinically useful information.
在后来的研究中发现，这种做法无法产生对临床诊断有用的信息。
Today, IQ tests employ many similar design elements and types of questions as the early tests, though we have better techniques for identifying potential bias in the test.
如今，智商测试采用了和早期测试相似的问题类型和元素，不过我们有更好的技术，可以识别测试中的潜在偏见。
They're no longer used to diagnose psychiatric conditions.
智商测试不再被用于诊断精神疾病。
But a similarly problematic practice using subtest scores is still sometimes used to diagnose learning disabilities, against the advice of many experts.
但使用测验分数的做法依然被用于诊断学习障碍，违反了许多专家的建议。
Psychologists around the world still use IQ tests to identify intellectual disability,
世界各地的心理学家仍然使用智商测试来诊断智力残疾，
and the results can be used to determine appropriate educational support, job training, and assisted living.
结果则被用来决定适当的教育支持、在职培训和日常看护。
IQ test results have been used to justify horrific policies and scientifically baseless ideologies.
智商测试的结果曾被用来为骇人的政策和无科学依据的意识形态进行辩护。
That doesn't mean the test itself is worthless -- in fact, it does a good job of measuring the reasoning and problem-solving skills it sets out to.
这并不意味着测试本身是无用的--事实上，它可以衡量推理和解决问题的能力。
But that isn't the same thing as measuring a person's potential.
但这跟衡量一个人的潜力不是一回事。
Though there are many complicated political, historical, scientific, and cultural issues wrapped up in IQ testing,
虽然智商测试存在许多与复杂的政治、历史、科学和文化相关的问题，
more and more researchers agree on this point, and reject the notion that individuals can be categorized by a single numerical score.
越来越多的研究人员已经在这一点上达成了共识，并拒绝使用一个单一的数字或分数来衡量每一个独立的个体。
