ABSTRACT
Tests of intelligence, namely the Stanford-Binet, played a large role in the identification of gifted students. These tests did have their limitations, which were acknowledged: they measure only intelligence; and they give information as to the present mental status. Closely related was the discussion of the interaction of nature and nurture and the impact of environment on intelligence. Leta Hollingworth's and Lewis Terman's work paralleled each other and emerged from a hereditarian view of intelligence. As the 1920s progressed, social scientists and other psychologists began to challenge hereditarian and eugenic principles and started to consider how environment impacted intelligence and school achievement. As Terman developed the Stanford-Binet in the 1910s, hereditarians held sway over the concept that intelligence developed from nature. In the end, strictly hereditarian views of intelligence were nearly out of mode and the ways in which the environment impacted an individual's role in all aspects of society would increasingly become a point of research and consideration.
