Why Intelligence Tests Do Not Work Well
A. Gautam
Psychologists have long studied intelligence and various aspects of it, especially when it comes to testing and performance. In early 1900s, psychologist Charles Spearman observed children’s academic performance. He noted that children who performed well in one subject were likely to perform well in other subjects while children who struggled in one subject were likely to struggle in other subjects. In 1904, his conclusion was that a factor, g (general intelligence), is related to testing performance.
Another psychologist further divided g factor into fluid and crystallized intelligence. Raymond Cattell claimed fluid intelligence is based on logic and crystallized is based on knowledge or the ability to use one’s knowledge. French psychologist Albert Binet devised the first standardized intelligence test in 1905. It compared an individual score to scores of children of his or her age. Later devised by Stanford university, the intelligence scale has five sections: fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory.
More and varying standardized intelligence scales have been developed since. However, are these tests accurate and do they reflect intelligence well? Studies show a performance gap between races, wealthy and the poor, and difference of performance based on tasks for men and women. This leads us to question whether the tests are flawed.
According to Neuroethics Program at Emory University, no intelligence test created so far has been completely unbiased. In a study, Zambian children performed better than English children when using wire while English children performed better using pencil and paper. Children without the advantage of a medium they aren’t used to struggle in intelligence tests.
IQ tests often measure only one type of intelligence and leave people with various types of intelligence out. From the beginning, IQ tests have favored only certain types of intelligence or test performances. It tries too hard to fit intelligence in a box when low scores may just be different scores.
As used in paragraph 4 of “Why Intelligence Tests Do Not Work Well,” what is the meaning of unbiased?
A Free from the feeling that one idea is better than the other
B Not using tested ideas that are better than the others
C Not developed by a group of people in Europe
D Free from the factors that work better in every medium