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

The project addresses ongoing debates and processes around IQ testing, explores the long history behind the rise of the tests and IQ-scales and examines what kind of work IQ tests and related test-technologies have done and are doing in our society.

A display of different intelligence tests

Photo: Helge Brekke/MUV

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Jon Røyne Kyllingstad Museum of University History Project leader

The purpose of this project is to study the historical development of intelligence tests, IQ-scales and concepts of intelligence that such tests are based on, and have helped to produce. It deals with how the scientific research object “intelligence” has arisen and developed, how it has acquired its various roles and functions in today's Norway, and addresses the values and relations of authority and legitimacy into which intelligence measurements are woven.

Research results

Read about the project's research results

The project's aim and method

The project includes a series of case studies that address ongoing debates and processes around IQ testing, explore the long history behind the rise of the tests and IQ-scales and examine what kind of work IQ tests and related test-technologies have 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 use of IQ tests for assessments of criminal responsibility in the judicial system, and the role of intelligence measurements in eugenic thinking and sterilization practice in Norway. Based on these sub-studies, the project aims to write a synthesizing account of the development of IQ tests in Norway, from around 1900 to the present, situated in an international and transnational context.

With Norway as a starting point, we will explore the transnational contexts, processes and actors that have shaped local developments, including the transnational companies that own and market the tests, and the international organizations, professions and professional networks involved in creating, evaluating, translating, adapting and approving tests and measurement scales. By examining the historical conditions that have given rise to test methods, measuring scales and concepts of intelligence, we aim to produce new insights into what these technologies, practices and concepts are and what kind of social role they have and should have.

The project builds on source material related to the University of Oslo and emanates from the Museum of University History's mandate, which is to manage, disseminate and research the historical legacy of the University of Oslo. It is financed by The Research Council of Norway.

Watch our recorded lectures:

Utilregnelighet, intelligens og IQ (in Norwegian)

The metamorphosis of autism

Participants

Håkon Aamot Caspersen University of Oslo
Gard Paulsen University of Oslo
Susanne Bauer University of Oslo
Ageliki Lefkaditou Museum of University History
Anna Linda Gröning University of Bergen
Kim Gunnar Helsvig OsloMet
Jim Porter Science History Institute
Svein Atle Skålevåg University of Bergen
Fredrik Thue OsloMet
Kari Ludvigsen Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Christian Ydesen University of Zurich

Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2026). Hva måler en intelligenstest? Arr - Idéhistorisk tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7005. 2026(3). Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Hva er intelligens? Blant dem som utvikler og bruker IQ-tester er det lite faglig enighet om hva, helt eksakt, en IQ-test måler. Dette spørsmålet har blitt diskutert fra starten av forrige århundre og fram til i dag. Artikkelen retter fokus mot Wechsler-testene, dagens mest brukte og innflyteleserike IQ-tester, påpeker at disse testenes form og innhold er ikke et uttrykk for en spesifikk teori eller et entydig formulert intelligensbegrep, og argumenterer for at testene, og dermed den kunnskapen om intelligens som de produserer, i stor grad et produkt av testenes historie.
Gröning, Anna Linda & Skålevåg, Svein Atle (2026). A Legal History of Intelligence, Testing, and Criminal Unaccountability. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 101–130. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.03. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Intelligence testing has shaped modern society in profound ways, influencing education, psychology, law, and governance. This volume offers the first comprehensive study of the history of IQ testing in a Nordic country, shedding new light on its development, adaptation, and societal impact in Norway. By tracing the evolution of intelligence tests—from their role in schools and special education to forensic psychiatry and criminal law—the book uncovers the tensions surrounding their use. Are these tests instruments of empowerment or tools of control? How have they shaped access to education, healthcare, and legal rights? A key focus of this study is the transnational movement of intelligence tests, particularly between Norway, the USA, and other Nordic nations. It explores how tests have been translated, adapted, standardized, and used, raising questions about their claims to measure universal intelligence. This volume challenges assumptions about IQ testing, placing practices of testing and the tests themselves at the center of historical analysis. By examining the Norwegian case, it contributes fresh insights to international scholarship, offering a vital perspective on the global history of intelligence measurement. Essential reading for historians, psychologists, and educators, this book redefines our understanding of intelligence testing in a changing world
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2026). 10. “Culture” and Representability in the Norwegian Standardization of WISC-R. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 336–336. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.10. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This chapter explores in detail the translation and adaptation of the Norwegian versions of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised (WISC-R) in 1974 –1978. Particular attention is paid the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the test and the “norming” of the IQ scale, and to the criteria behind the selection of a ‘representative’ sample of Norwegian school children on which the test was tried out. The chapter shows how the adaptation of WISC-R, in practice, has been based on a monolithic, quantitative and hierarchical notion of a national culture, mainly represented by white majority children of well-educated parents.
Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2026). 1. Between Change and Stability. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 29–72. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.01. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This chapter recounts the development of the first full Norwegian adaptation of the Stanford–Binet intelligence scale by school psychiatrist Johan Lofthus during the interwar period. It begins with earlier efforts to adapt the test and concludes with Lofthus´s departure from his school position. The chapter examines what the test’s creation reveals about standardization as scientific practice and sheds light on the convergence of educational and medical ideals that fueled the processes of adaptation. It further investigates what facilitated or resisted change and movement for the tests and the actors associated with them. Finally, it shows the portrayal of these as simultaneously fraught and indispensable diagnostic tools, situated between expressions of care and control, scientific and political projects.
Ludvigsen, Kari (2026). 6. From Segregation to Integration and the Role of Testing in a Norwegian Educational Psychology Office, 1953–1980. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 189–214. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.06. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This chapter deals with disruption and continuity in the approach towards the use of IQ tests and other assessment tools in the Norwegian Educational Psychological Counseling Services (EPS) from the early 1950s until 1980. The analysis is based on the scrutiny of yearly reports from the municipal EPS office in Norway’s second largest city, Bergen. These reports are regarded as forms of social action contributing to shaping that reality. The chapter investigate how testing, individually and in groups, was described and legitimized throughout the period. Can tensions or ruptures be traced regarding the ways forms of testing are mentioned, weighted and linked to other activities in the service? Educational psychology sought hold of IQ testing as a contribution to handle risks related to population degeneration and optimizing of the school system during a period with strong emphasis upon measurement. Services and expertise aimed at classifying children not suitable for ordinary education, like the EPS, has been regarded a decisive element to fulfil the Norwegian 1950s education reforms. This analysis focus upon the role of testing as part of EPS activities during a period of changing educational ambitions towards a principle of inclusion. Thus, the role of EPS also developed. How do the reports reflect educational reforms and a changing role of the EPS service?
Bauer, Susanne (2026). ‘Children Got Slightly Smarter with Fish for Lunch’: The WPPSI Test, Randomized Trials, and Optimized Kindergartens. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 243–268. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.08. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This chapter follows the travels of IQ testing to unexpected terrain and describes how a nutrition study in kindergartens used Wechsler tests in the 2010s. Researchers administered the WPPSI test to examine children’s cognitive capacities as part of a randomized intervention trial in Bergen. This chapter zooms in on the material micro-practices in this fish meal intervention to understand the role of IQ testing in the post-welfare state. Policymakers and industry have promoted the aquaculture industries not only as beneficial for health, but also as a resource poised to constitute Norway’s post-fossil bioeconomy. For the multidisciplinary intervention trial, researchers chose Wechsler tests as validated devices, readily available in Norwegian translation, to compare cognitive performance after the fish meal intervention. With increasingly routinized datafication and evidence-based governance, institutions like kindergartens are enrolled into largely unchallenged regimes of evaluation and optimization. Researchers use such plug-in modules as data-generating instruments in scientific studies, which has contributed to the persistence of the Wechsler tests.
Helsvig, Kim Gunnar (2026). Tests, Metrics, and the Making of the Norwegian School, 1950–2025. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 363–400. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.12. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
During the 1950s, a cooperation between research interests and political interests was established in Norway on the subject of psychometric testing for selection and differentiation within the emerging comprehensive social democratic elementary school. From the late 1960s, however—in the context of the international Positivismusstreit in the social sciences—both the dominant Labor Party and the Ministry of Education and Church Affairs dismissed the psychometric tradition as an irrelevant policy partner for developing the school based on the notions of equity, equal opportunities, and national and social integration. From the turn of the century, the “ PISA era” has nevertheless seen a huge revival of educational tests and measurements as part of a decisive and OECD inspired international turn, also reflected in Norwegian educational debate and policy. This chapter addresses four closely related research questions: (1) Why and how were new psychometric tests introduced in Norwegian schools in the 1950s? (2) Why were they abandoned for almost three decades from the 1970s? (3) Why and how were psychometric tests and tools reintroduced on a large scale after the publication of the first Program for International Student Assessment study in 2001? (4) And lastly, but perhaps most importantly, what have been the changes and continuities in the use of psychometrics in the making of the Norwegian school from 1950 to 2025? In the final part of the chapter, I therefore briefly discuss the question of whether the previously dominant, but for many years dormant, psychometric tradition in the Norwegian school and educational science has been revived in the post-2000 PISA era as a political tool for managing school and teacher accountability within a more general bureaucratization of educational policy. Alternatively, should the increase in the use of psychometrics and “IQ-like” tests since the beginning of the new millennium be understood as a tool to empower the pupils and adapt education to individual abilities and interests within the framework of the “knowledge society”?
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2026). 14. IQ Testing, Education, Reification, and “Race” in Norway’s Social Democratic Welfare State. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 443–458. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.14. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This chapter discuss a few examples of emerging and more overarching perspectives on the Norwegian history of IQ testing that appear throughout the book. The comparative observations focusing on the Norwegian educational system and its connection to the social democratic welfare state, introduced by Jim Porter in the previous chapter, serves as a starting point. Specifically, this includes a discussion of reification and the pragmatic aspect of testing, as well as the relative absence of explicit discussions on “race” when it comes to testing in Norway.
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2026). 7. IQ Testing Today in Norway’s Educational Psychological Services. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 215–242. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.07. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This chapter looks closer at how the most prevalent IQ test in use in Norway today, the WISC-V, is differently understood within Norway’s Educational Psychological Counseling Services (EPS). Based on ethnographically informed observations and interviews it provides glimpses into how practitioners speak and learn to speak of, use, and critically discuss these tests today. Here it is, perhaps surprisingly, not necessarily the full-scale IQ score that is of most interest, but IQ testing remains a central tool of the trade, both a professional marker and a communicative device. Of note, is how in Norway, it is not only psychologists or psychiatrists who conduct IQ tests. Most employees in the EPS come from a background in education or special needs pedagogy. The chapter elucidates how IQ testing is used, legitimised, and problematised within an important contemporary professional test field.
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2026). Historicizing IQ Testing in Norway: Introduction. In Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Ed.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. p. 1–28. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.00. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This introduction provides an entry point to historicizing IQ tests and testing in Norway. It introduces key concepts and debates dealt with in the volume, such as the nature of an IQ-test, IQ-testing and their different roles in society. It provides an initial overview an analytical grounding for the rest of the volume’s contributions – that are all joined around the development of IQ-testing in Norway and beyond.
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2025). Creativity. In Rapport, Nigel (Eds.), Anthropology’s Philosophy: How Anthropology Makes Concepts its Own. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783031838194. p. 81–87. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-83819-4_9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
For decades, creativity has been on ‘everybody’s mind’, as a celebration of modernity and the future, promising (alongside other twenty-first-century skills) to deliver on future prosperity and societal development. Or just to change your life for the better, according to the self-help books that algorithms have bombard me with over the years. This perspective is distinctly different to creativity in the realm of the arts, and the figure of the artist, of the previous centuries: a difference that Margaret Boden (1994) speaks of as that between P-creativity—referring to acts that are novel or original for the individual—and H-creativity—referring to acts or ideas that originate for the first time in history. Think of Kant’s discussions of artistic genius. What both perspectives share, however, is a sense of creativity as virtuous personal attribute. Creativity, in this sense, is not only the ability to solve problems, but the very solution to the problems themselves.
Bauer, Susanne (2024). Seeing Like a Model Fish: How Digital Extractions Mediate Metabolic Relations. Science, Technology and Human Values. ISSN 0162-2439. 49(3), p. 524–554. doi: 10.1177/01622439241236520. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Digital models have become key sites of biological practice and science policy. This paper examines efforts to craft a digital salmon model for metabolic research. It traces the data configurations of feed, food, and health in Norway’s bioeconomy aspirations—from cell culture studies in the lab to an integrated digital repository and public health nutrition trials in schools. A response to policy calls for more sustainable aquaculture, digital models become lynchpins for intensified data sourcing. I describe how datafication and digital model integration enact a particular mode of management, focused on profitability and human preferences, when optimizing fish feed to sustainability goals. Integrating molecular biology and mathematical functions, digital modeling promotes the idea of a prediction machine for preemptive optimization of feed and food across settings. Yet, unforeseen disruptions to aquaculture, for instance, by algae and lice, expose the complexity of marine food webs and the limitations of digital models. Even while in the making, the digital fish model becomes performative and shapes knowledge practices much beyond the lab. As knowledge infrastructures, models participate in the remaking of metabolic relations, recalibrating decision-making, while feeding back into and co-shaping the very entities and environments they were crafted to investigate.

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Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2026). Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISBN 9781805116202. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Intelligence testing has shaped modern society in profound ways, influencing education, psychology, law, and governance. This volume offers the first comprehensive study of the history of IQ testing in a Nordic country, shedding new light on its development, adaptation, and societal impact in Norway. By tracing the evolution of intelligence tests—from their role in schools and special education to forensic psychiatry and criminal law—the book uncovers the tensions surrounding their use. Are these tests instruments of empowerment or tools of control? How have they shaped access to education, healthcare, and legal rights? A key focus of this study is the transnational movement of intelligence tests, particularly between Norway, the USA, and other Nordic nations. It explores how tests have been translated, adapted, standardized, and used, raising questions about their claims to measure universal intelligence. This volume challenges assumptions about IQ testing, placing practices of testing and the tests themselves at the center of historical analysis. By examining the Norwegian case, it contributes fresh insights to international scholarship, offering a vital perspective on the global history of intelligence measurement. Essential reading for historians, psychologists, and educators, this book redefines our understanding of intelligence testing in a changing world

View all works in NVA

Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2026). Den vitenskapelige rasismen gjør comeback. 205(36), p. 28–28. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Nathan Cofnas er del av et større miljø som henter argumenter fra antropologi, genetikk og psykologi. Deres viktigste retoriske virkemiddel er å fremstille seg selv som offer for en vitenskapelig elite som holder sannheten skjult, skriver Jon Røyne Kyllingstad.
Ludvigsen, Kari (2026). Fra utskilling til inkludering: Testingens rolle i pedagogisk-psykologisk rådgivningestjeneste 1950-1980 - Museum for universitets- og vitenskapshistorie. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne; Lefkaditou, Ageliki & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2025). Innafor boksen? Måling av intelligens i 100 år (permanent utstilling). doi: https:/www.uio.no/for-ansatte/enhetssider/uv/arrangementer/2025/apning-testutstilling.html. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Denne permanente utstillingen er en lettere omarbeidet utgave av temporærutstillingen med samme navn. Hvordan oppsto IQ-tester? Hva består en IQ-test av? Hvordan har tester påvirket våre oppfatninger om intelligens, evner og personlighet? Utstillingen viser ulike IQ-tester som har blitt brukt i Norge de siste hundre årene. Den ble vist i et offentlig tilgjengelig areal i Kristian Ottosens hus på Universitetet i Oslo, Blindern, i 2023-2024.
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2025). IQ-testing og tvangssterilisering: eugenikk, psykiatrisk ekspertise og rettsikkerhet i Norge i 1950-årene - Museum for universitets- og vitenskapshistorie. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
I 1942 ble en kvinne sterilisert etter å ha blitt lurt til å tro at operasjonen gjaldt menstruasjonssmerter. 11 år etter gikk hun til sak mot staten og mot psykiateren Augusta Rasmussen og krevde 100 000 i erstatning. Saken fikk stor oppmerksomhet, og skapte en avisdebatt om IQ-testing, eugenikk og ekspertmakt. Hva var bakgrunnen for denne rettssaken? Hvorfor ble kvinnen sterilisert og hvor kom staten, psykiatrien og IQ-testene inn i bildet?
Gröning, Anna Linda & Skålevåg, Svein Atle (2025). Å avgjøre hvem som er intelligente nok til å kunne straffes - Museum for universitets- og vitenskapshistorie. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2025). Kultur og intelligens - Museum for universitets- og vitenskapshistorie. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Om den norske standardiseringen av Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children fra 1978 – WISC-R.
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2025). Hva sier testerne? Full text in Research Archive
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2025). Dypdykk: Derfor brukte de IQ-tester. doi: https:/www.historiskmuseum.no/arrangementer/andre/dypdykk-iq-testerne. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Vitenskapshistoriker Ageliki Lefkaditou og sosialantropolog Håkon Caspersen inviterer til et dypdykk i intelligenstestenes historie. Hvordan har IQ-testing blitt forstått og begrunnet av dem som bruker slike tester? Hvordan har disse forståelsene påvirket utviklingen av testene? Foredraget vil ta utgangspunkt både i historiske og samtidige perspektiver på testpraksis, og IQ testenes tiknytninger til forskjellige profesjoner. Illustrert blant annet igjennom en sammenligning av fortellinger fra den tidligste bruken av tester innen skolepsykiatrien i mellomkrigstiden og mer nåtidig praksis og argumenter i den pedagogisk-psykologiske rådgivningstjenesten.
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot; Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne & Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2025). IQ - Hva forteller testene? / IQ – What Do the Tests Tell Us? doi: https:/www.historiskmuseum.no/english/exhibitions/exhibitions-archive/iq-test/. Full text in Research Archive
Helsvig, Kim Gunnar (2025). Tester, målinger og utviklingen av den norske skolen 1950-2025. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2025). IQ exhibition: "Inside the Box. Measuring Intelligence for 100 Years". doi: https:/www.uv.uio.no/iped/english/research/news-and-events/events/2025/welcome-to-the-15th-history-of-education-summer-sc.html. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Foredrag utstillingsomvisning
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2025). Kvinne sterilisert under dekke av behandling for menstruasjonssmerter - Apollon. [Journal]. Apollon. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Historiker overtok tekstutkast fra kollega som døde brått. Utkastet inneholdt en historie om et mulig overgrep.
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2025). Dypdykk: IQ – født sånn eller blitt sånn? - Historisk museum. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
I 1942 ble en kvinne sterilisert uten å ha samtykket til det. Dette ble blant annet begrunnet med en IQ-test.
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2025). IQ – Hva forteller testene? - Historisk museum. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Foredrag ved åpning av utstilling
Bauer, Susanne (2025). Swimming with and against data streams: a digital fish and its unaccounted others. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This contribution takes the digital twin of a fish as a point of departure. It diffracts the digital salmon model, pursued by life scientists in Norway. A ghostly twin, epistemic thing, imaginary, platform, and tool, all at the same time, this digital doppelganger inhabits the intersection of current AI and bioeconomy aspirations. I examine how digital model fish join and swim with current streams of data and capital. For instance, digital fish thrive in pitches for research funding, carrying the promise of prediction machines and artificial marine intelligence. I show the ways in which the digital model reaches across and jumps scales and how it prompts simultaneous and isomorphic optimization of adjacent digital twins of the aquaculture plant, the human body, IQ testing, and salmon profitability. As digital twins, with their engineering and production goals, model design and refinement tend to leave out what lives next to them and their metabolic relations. Those omissions include other ocean critters, such as fish lice or algae, seemingly appearing out of nowhere as disruptors around and to industrial aquaculture. Turning into unforeseen atrevisados to industrial aquaculture, they expose the exclusions in model building and the complexity of marine food webs as well as their anthropogenic alterations.
Bauer, Susanne (2025). Data and Methods Inside Out? Studying Epidemiology as Infrastructure. Invited Talk STS Seminar, Chalmers University and University of Gothenburg. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2024). IQ-testing og tvangssterilisering: eugenikk, psykiatrisk ekspertise og rettsikkerhet i Norge i 1950-årene. doi: https:/helsehistoriskforum.no/aktiviteter/post-iEPPQ-innafor-boksen-iq-tester-mellom-skole-rett-og-helse. Full text in Research Archive
Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2024). Å skille ut "sinker": intelligenstesting i mellomkrigstidens skole. doi: https:/helsehistoriskforum.no/aktiviteter/post-iEPPQ-innafor-boksen-iq-tester-mellom-skole-rett-og-helse. Full text in Research Archive
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2024). Historier om intelligenstesting i Norge: iakttagelser fra «periferien». Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2024). I intelligensens tidsalder. Full text in Research Archive
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2024). Intelligenstesting i pedagogisk-psykologisk tjeneste: kontinuiteter og endringer. Full text in Research Archive
Helsvig, Kim Gunnar (2024). Innledning til "Testar og målingar etter PISA - mål, hensikt og framtid for kvalitetsvurderingssystemet til skulen". Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2024). IQ-testing og tvangssterilisering: eugenikk, psykiatrisk ekspertise og rettsikkerhet i Norge i 1950-årene. Full text in Research Archive
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2024). Historicizing Intelligence. Full text in Research Archive
Paulsen, Gard (2024). Hvorfor ble bruken av en dårlig oversatt amerikansk IQ-test utbredt i etterkrigstidens Norge? Full text in Research Archive
Skålevåg, Svein Atle (2024). Moralske imbesile og andre undermålere. Intelligenstesting i norsk strafferett, 1914-1940. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2024). I psykometriens tidsalder Noen perspektiver på IQ-testingens nasjonale og transnasjonale norgeshistorie ca 1920-2020. Full text in Research Archive
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2023). IQ tests as tools of a trade: anthropological reflections. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Psychological tests of general intelligence, like tests in general, exists as part of systems of expert knowledge. They have a long history and are institutionalised as an indispensable modern technology in diverse settings, with a wide range of utility value. Not only for the psychological or educational sciences, but as part of governing legibility practices that characterise the high modern state. The WISC-V (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – version V) is one of the most influential tests of general intelligence. It is in daily use as a screening-technology both in psychological-educational counselling services and in the psychiatric services for children and youth. Besides perhaps online “IQ-like” puzzles and ability testing in the army at a later stage, it is the most likely way a child is to encounter a test of general ability directly. This paper will take as its starting point the training of future WISC-V test administrators to tease out a few central characteristics of these tests’ role and function: both as a practical tool and as a marker of professional expertise. “IQ tests are important psychological tools” says the lecturer to her 2nd year psychology students, they help us “reach underneath the skin… we need to dig deeper than outer symptoms”. Why are they counted as important tools? What job, or jobs, are these tests doing? And how do they make the invisible visible? A social anthropologist queries.
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2023). Gjennom mer enn hundre år har man forsøkt å måle intelligens med IQ. [Journal]. Uniforum. Full text in Research Archive
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2023). IQ-utstillingen som møteplass. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2023). "Kultur", representasjon og nasjon i de norske versjonene av WISC 1978-2009. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) er den vanligste IQ-testen for barn i verden. De er standardverktøy både i det norske helsevesenet og skolens PP-tjeneste for utredning av barn med spesielle behov og for diagnostisering av psykisk utviklingshemming. Innlegger presenterer noen tanker og funn fra en studie av oversettelsen og tilpasningen av norske versjoner av denne testen fra 1978 til 2009, med særlig fokus på begrepene om «kultur», «befolkning» og «representabilitet» som ligger til grunn for denne prosessen.
Skålevåg, Svein Atle (2023). Simon Jarrett, Those They Called Idiots: The Idea of the Disabled Mind from 1700 to the Present Day. British Journal for the History of Science. ISSN 0007-0874. 56(4), p. 605–607. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne; Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Vaalund, Anne (2023). Material heritage and the historicization of the present. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
The exhibition “Inside the box? Over 100 years of measuring intelligence” shows a selection of psychometric tests. Such tests have been used as a diagnostic tool in the healthcare system, in forensic psychiatric assessments, in medical and psychological research as well as in the military, and the education system. Their long history connects them to debates over the role of heredity and environment, the politics of segregation and integration, and policies related to sorting and accommodation. The exhibition is based on the research project “Historicizing intelligence” which explores the long history of IQ-testing and “intelligence” in Norway. But neither the research project, nor the exhibition would have been possible without historical sources. Such historical sources - the historical heritage of universities - are often in a state of continuous crisis. Universities seldom prioritize material heritage and its preservation is often a matter of an emergency operation. Using this exhibition and the process of making it as starting point, this session will discuss how university material heritage is not only an indispensable resource for research, but also an important moment for institutions and disciplinary communities to reflect on their history, practices and social role. The session includes a guided tour of the exhibition and an open discussion with the curators and researchers.
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2023). ‘Culture,’ representability and nation in the Norwegian versions of WISC 1978-2009. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Contribution to exhibition session: ‘Inside the Box? Over 100 years of measuring intelligence’. Historicizing Intelligence introduction and exhibition presentation: On the making of an exhibition of psychological tools of measurement (Ageliki Lefkaditou, Jon Røyne Kyllingstad, and Håkon Caspersen)
Skålevåg, Svein Atle (2023). Early Intelligence testing in Norwegian forensic psychiatry (1915 – 1925): Constructing intellectual disability. Full text in Research Archive
Gröning, Linda & Skålevåg, Svein Atle (2023). Psykisk utviklingshemming, IQ og strafferettslig utilregnelighet. Full text in Research Archive
Lefkaditou, Ageliki; Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne; Haave, Per & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2023). Innafor boksen? - Måling av intelligens i 100 år (temporærutstilling). doi: https:/www.muv.uio.no/forskning/forskningsprosjekt/i-intelligensens-tidsalder/utstilling-innafor-boksen/index.html. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Hvordan oppsto IQ-tester? Hva består en IQ-test av? Hvordan har tester påvirket våre oppfatninger om intelligens, evner og personlighet? Utstillingen viser ulike IQ-tester som har blitt brukt i Norge de siste hundre årene. Den ble vist i et offentlig tilgjengelig areal i Kristian Ottosens hus på Universitetet i Oslo, Blindern, i 2023-2024
Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2023). Mellom Amerika og Norge, skole og psykiatri: Hvordan intelligensmåling ble en del av norsk skolehistorie. Full text in Research Archive
Skålevåg, Svein Atle (2023). Constructing intellectual disability in the courtroom: Early Intelligence testing in Norwegian forensic psychiatry (1915 –1925). Full text in Research Archive
Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2023). Between Change and Stability: Producing the Norwegian Standard of the Stanford – Binet Intelligence Scale, 1920s–1930s. Full text in Research Archive
Lefkaditou, Ageliki & Haave, Per (2023). Intelligenstester både ødela og reddet liv. [Journal]. Apollon. Full text in Research Archive
Paulsen, Gard (2023). Oslo – Wien, t/r. Full text in Research Archive
Gröning, Linda & Skålevåg, Svein Atle (2023). Utilregnelighet, intelligens og IQ. Full text in Research Archive
Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2023). Intelligence Testing as a New Tool for Crisis Resolution in School Psychiatry: Johan Lofthus and the Norwegian Standardization of the Stanford – Binet Intelligence Scale, 1923–1931. Full text in Research Archive
Lefkaditou, Ageliki; Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne; Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Vaalund, Anne (2023). Intelligence Tests In and Out of the Box: University Material Heritage between Disruption and Repair. Full text in Research Archive
Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2023). Intelligence Testing from the US to Norway: Producing the Norwegian Standard of the Stanford – Binet scale, 1920s–1930s. Full text in Research Archive
Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2022). Practices, use and function of IQ testing as diagnostic tools in Norway today - a proposed ethnographic exploration. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2022). Adaptation and Norming of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) in Norway: 1970s to the Present. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
The Wechsler tests are the internationally dominating IQ-tests. They are generally regarded as scientific tools that measure universal, culture-independent aspects of the human mind. This claim rest partly on cross-national comparison of test results from culturally and linguistically different populations. The translation, adaptation, and use of the same tests in nations worldwide is therefore an important element in the development of the tests and in establishing and validating the universality of the constructs that the tests measure. This talk presents findings from a historical study of the translation and adaptation of shifting Norwegian versions of the WISC tests (WISC-R, WISC III, WISC IV, AND WISC V). It aims to explore the explicit and implicit methodological and theoretical premises upon which these processes have been based, focusing in particular on the concepts of culture, representativeness, ethnicity, and class that are at play.
Helsvig, Kim Gunnar (2022). Den amerikanske drømmen som mareritt og mulighet. Anmeldelse av Michael J. Sandel "The Tyranny of Merit. What's Become of the Common Good?". Agora Journal for metafysisk spekulasjon. ISSN 0800-7136. p. 422–433. Full text in Research Archive
Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2021). Intelligence Testing in Norway: Tracing Connections between Tests and People from the early 1910s to the 1960s. Full text in Research Archive
Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2021). Historicizing intelligence: Tests, metrics and the shaping of contemporary society. Full text in Research Archive

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Published July 16, 2025 10:23 AM - Last modified July 16, 2025 10:38 AM