What should we make of IQ research

1
What should we make of IQ research?

• Nothing.

2
Itelligence

• It seems to us that in intelligence there is a
  fundamental faculty, the alteration or lack of
  which is of the utmost importance for practical
  life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called
  good sense, practical sense, initiative, the
  faculty of adapting to circumstances. To judge
  well, to comprehend well, to reason well, these
  are the essential activities of
  intelligenceBinet and Simon (1916)

3
or intelligence?

• By intelligence the psychologist understands
  inborn, all-around intellectual ability. It is
  inherited, or at least innate, not due to
  teaching or training it is intellectual, not
  emotional or moral, and remains uninfluenced by
  industry or zeal it is general, not specific,
  i.e., it is not limited to any particular kind of
  work, but enters into all we do or say or think.
  Of all our mental qualities, it is the most
  far-reachingCyril Burt (quoted in Carrol 1982)

4
What are they testing?

• The point of Binet and Simons tests was to
  identify kids who were doing poorly in school.
• Thus, they elaborated a test that measures how
  well kids do in skills that are taught in
  schools.
• What is the definition of doing well? Test a
  bunch of kids, and the average gets called
  normal. Above that is good and below that is
  problematic.

5
Guess what?

• Raw IQ scores today are considerably higher than
  they were 50 years ago?
• Is this possible?
• It is very unlikely if IQ tests are measuring
  what Cyril Burt claims they measure (something
  innate and unalterable).
• But perfectly consistent with the idea that they
  measure what Binet and Simon (who elaborated the
  logic of the tests) said they wanted to measure
  (something that can be affected by circumstance
  and effort).

6
Cross-cultural IQ testing

• When you take an IQ testdeveloped to measure
  performance in skills that are taught in Western
  schoolsto another culture, you are not testing
  intelligence in the sense that Cyril Burt means
  it.
• You cannot use this test to make a cross-cultural
  comparison of innate intelligence because the
  test itself is culture-specific.

7
Cross-cultural IQ testing

• To see this point, imagine that somebody invented
  a test to measure the degree to which people
  learn the cognitive skills necessary for nomadic
  pastoralism in Mongolia.
• Then they come to your city and pronounce you
  intelligent or stupid based on how you did in
  this test
• Do you object? Does it seem unfair?
• Mmm-hmm.