<Tr> <Th> Influences </Th> <Td> John Stuart Mill </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Influenced </Th> <Td> Jean Piaget </Td> </Tr> <P> Alfred Binet (French: (binɛ); July 8, 1857--October 18, 1911) was a French psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test, the Binet--Simon test . In 1904, the French Ministry of Education asked psychologist Alfred Binet to devise a method that would determine which students did not learn effectively from regular classroom instruction so they could be given remedial work . Along with his collaborator Théodore Simon, Binet published revisions of his test in 1908 and 1911, the last of which appeared just before his death . </P> <P> Binet attended law school in Paris, and received his degree in 1878 . He also studied physiology at the Sorbonne . His first formal position was as a researcher at a neurological clinic, Salpêtrière Hospital, in Paris from 1883--1889 . From there, Binet went on to being a researcher and associate director of the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology at the Sorbonne from 1891--1894 . In 1894, he was promoted to being the director of the laboratory until 1911 (his death). Binet also educated himself by reading psychology texts at the National Library in Paris . He soon became fascinated with the ideas of John Stuart Mill, who believed that the operations of intelligence could be explained by the laws of associationism . Binet eventually realized the limitations of this theory, but Mill's ideas continued to influence his work . </P>

What was the original purpose of the binet test