Maud Amanda Merrill 1888 - 1978

Career Focus: Education; child psychology; clinical psychology; intelligence testing; delinquency.

Maud Amanda Merrill is best remembered today for her work with Lewis Terman on the revised Stanford-Binet intelligence scales, a cognitive-ability and intelligence test that is used to diagnose developmental or intellectual deficiencies in young children. The test measures five weighted factors and consists of both verbal and nonverbal subtests. The five factors being tested are knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory, and fluid reasoning.

Born in Owatonna, Minnesota on April 30, 1888, Merrill spent her childhood in an orphanage as the daughter of the institution's director. In 1911 Merrill completed an undergraduate degree at Oberlin College in Ohio. She spent the next eight years working as Research Assistant to Fred Kuhlmann, the head of the Minnesota Bureau of Research. She received a Master's degree in education from Stanford University in 1920. From 1920 to 1924 Merrill also served as an instructor in psychology at the university. In 1924, by then an Assistant Professor in Stanford's Department of Psychology, her contributions to the study included training fieldworkers to collect data, as well as a longstanding role as statistical consultant to the project. In 1931 she was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. An authority on the proper administration of the Stanford-Binet intelligence scales, Merrill trained generations of undergraduate and graduate students at Stanford in the use of the test.

Merrill collaborated with Terman throughout her career, but was also heavily involved in other projects. In 1920 she began a psychological clinic for children and soon also took on regular consultancy work for the San Jose Juvenile Court. Both her work in the clinic and with the juvenile court system gave Merrill and her students the opportunity to engage directly with children experiencing psychological difficulties.

Through her work with the court system, Merrill met Judge William Frances James, a strong supporter of psychological work with children. The two married in 1933. Occasionally referred to by some as Merrill-James (or Merrill James), by all indications Merrill did not change her name after marriage.

Source: Jacy L. Young (2013) Feminist Voices - https://feministvoices.com/profiles/maud-amanda-merrill