do intelligence tests really measure intelligence?

-- kathryn lewin (k8tkitten@hotmail.com), November 04, 2002

Answers

Depends on your definition of intelligence. E.G. Boring famously got around the problem in a 1923(?) article (in the Nation? or the New Republic? I cannot recall now) by declaring that "intelligence is what the tests test." In addition, there are many different intelligence tests, and so the question must be answered for each (kind of) test spearately. Many contain culturally-specific information (e.g., I believe the Wechsler includes the question "Who was Amelia Earhart?). Some think that knowledge of such information is an indication of intelligence, but it obviously makes the test invalid for people who are not members of that culture. Other test would have to be written for members of other cultures. On the other hand, some believe that there should be no culturally-specific information (i.e., "culture-free" tests such as the Raven Progressive Matricies test). Critics complain that even this kind of very abstract information has a white/western/male bias.

You might look at Stephen J. Gould's critique of intelligence testing, _The Mismeasure of Man_. It has quite a lot of good basic information, but has been criticized by historians for being sensationalistic and unfairly critical of many historical figures (by comparing their actions with modern sensibilities).

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), November 04, 2002.

Hi Kathryn, well the IQ test is designed to predict how well a person would do in school. And it does that pretty reliably. And there are a lot of people that think people who do well in school are at least intelligent. Best, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), November 07, 2002.

It really depends on what type of intelligence eg. verbal reasoning, mathematics, general knowledge, they are trying to measure. If looking at IQ tests, a good website is

www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1175/4_34/76577459/p1/article.jhtml

-- Beth Hayes (bethmhayes@hotmail.com), November 11, 2002.