Non-verbal IQ testing

Steve Furlong sfurlong at acmenet.net
Wed Oct 17 17:28:12 PDT 2001


Sandy Sandfort wrote:
> 
> "Dr. Evil" wrote:
> 
> > What methods are there for doing non-verbal,
> > cross-cultural IQ tests?
> 
> Either Shockley or Jensen (I always get those two confused) came up with a
> purely PHYSICAL IQ test the had a very high correlation with standard IQ
> tests.  It involved a reaction speed test that had to do with pushing
> buttons when lights flashed or some such.
...

The test apparatus had one central button and a bunch of other lightable
buttons around it. The subject pressed the central button and waited for
one of the others to light, then pressed that one as quickly as he
could. The test measured the time between the lighting and the subject's
release of the central button as well as the time between the lighting
and the subject's pressing the lit button. The first number was pretty
much just reflex time, and was not particularly correlated with g,
general intelligence. The second number involved selection from amongst
alternatives, was positively correlated with g.

And you're right, the test was denounced, though I can't figure out how
the detractors found a cultural bias in it. Maybe they just attacked the
notion of g.

-- 
Steve Furlong    Computer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel
  617-670-3793

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly
while bad people will find a way around the laws." -- Plato





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