born July 8, 1857, Nice, France
died Oct. 18, 1911, Paris
French psychologist.
His interest in Jean-Martin Charcot 's work on hypnosis prompted him to abandon a law career and study medicine at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (1878–91). He served as director of a research laboratory at the Sorbonne (1895–1911). A major figure in the development of experimental psychology in France, he founded L'Année Psychologique , the first French journal on psychology, in 1895. He developed experimental techniques to measure reasoning ability; between 1905 and 1911 he and Theodore Simon developed influential scales for the measurement of intelligence of children. His works include Experimental Study of Intelligence (1903) and A Method of Measuring the Development of the Intelligence of Young Children (1915).