Is There One Intelligence and Can it be Measured?
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The Eskimos have many words for snow. That means that they are able to communicate the differences a lot better than could be done in english, which means that it is easier fo translate the types of snow. There is only one word of Love in English, which means that there is a lot more misunderstanding of what the word means than a culture that has many words for love.
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Any test is going to have an accuracy, and somebody how is very smart may not score well because just because there is going to be a bell curve associated with true intellegence and the test. The problem with the IQ test in the past has been that it was designed to be somewhat accurate for WASP. Then there is a lot of variation in people's skills. There are people know for having perfect memory, and those that can solve complex equations in their heads. That is a special skill, and the IQ test is not designed to capture specific abilities.
Love the bigotry that is shown by voters. Are my comments so obnoxious for votes of 1, Three people hate my comments, but do not seem to provide any substantiation. Would have thought better of people in this forum.
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Somebody has a bee in their bonnet. Of course intelligence can be measured. Just not perfectly. An I.Q. test does not perfectly measure intelligence, and anyway has to be continually recallibrated. You may not be able to distinguish a person with an I.Q. of 100 from one with an I.Q. of 101. However, practically everyone finds a person with an I.Q. of 130 to be subjectively "smarter" than a person with an I.Q. of 100, and that person in turn "smarter" than a person with an I.Q. of 70. So yeah, I.Q. tests do measure a very general kind of intelligence. We can argue that there are more precise or easier to administer measures of specific aspects of intelligence (and there are many well-calibrated tests of such measures). Give it up. We can successfully measure something as general as intelligence, just like we can measure something as general as length. We can use a stick or we can use a micrometer or an interferometer, and they produce different degrees of precision.
Member 2941392 wrote:
Somebody has a bee in their bonnet
I've been caught! :-O
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Wasp == White Anglo Saxon Protestant. Probably should also include Male. One of the American biases.
So what is the problem with telling somebody what WASP means. Deserve a vote of 1. Somebody is a creap.
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Funny that one of the questions at that link just so happens to have a Star of David, a religious symbol. Not to mention an Eye of Providence and a Dragon Ball. :laugh:
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Funny that one of the questions at that link just so happens to have a Star of David, a religious symbol. Not to mention an Eye of Providence and a Dragon Ball. :laugh:
But the potential religious meaning behind those symbols is not relevant to working out the answer to the problem. Therefore one's culture/religion/race does not affect your ability to get the right answer. If, however, you were asked to identify the symbols, then the test would have a bias. Though one in which the typical WASP would have a disadvantage. ;P
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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Love the bigotry that is shown by voters. Are my comments so obnoxious for votes of 1, Three people hate my comments, but do not seem to provide any substantiation. Would have thought better of people in this forum.
I down-voted it because you stated this as fact: "The problem with the IQ test in the past has been that it was designed to be somewhat accurate for WASP", an assertion that seems just as bigoted as what you perceive in the down-voting of that post. I provided substantiation in the example question I posted as a rebuttal.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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The Eskimos have many words for snow. That means that they are able to communicate the differences a lot better than could be done in english, which means that it is easier fo translate the types of snow. There is only one word of Love in English, which means that there is a lot more misunderstanding of what the word means than a culture that has many words for love.
Maybe my view is limited by my own experiences with IQ tests. I don't recall any questions that involved word definitions or nuances of language. Maybe I'm just biased, since I am a WAS. (no longer P, though, or even C.) :laugh:
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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Maybe my view is limited by my own experiences with IQ tests. I don't recall any questions that involved word definitions or nuances of language. Maybe I'm just biased, since I am a WAS. (no longer P, though, or even C.) :laugh:
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
From what I remember it was more of a frame of reference issue, nor definitions of words and such. People with very different cultures have a different way of looking at things. It was a long time ago that I saw the study.
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I down-voted it because you stated this as fact: "The problem with the IQ test in the past has been that it was designed to be somewhat accurate for WASP", an assertion that seems just as bigoted as what you perceive in the down-voting of that post. I provided substantiation in the example question I posted as a rebuttal.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
I do not believe that it was intentionally biased. I believe the people who created the test are trying to do the best job they can. Newton did not intend to misled us with his science but he was wrong. I am also not saying that there is not value in IQ tests, any more than there is not value in Newtonian physics. Still there is a framework which the developers worked in. If you do not believe this, just look into IQ on wikipedia. There is some discussion on this problem. You also have to know that when I heard this it was many years ago, and people developing these tests are trying to eliminate bias. Part of the way they eliminate it is by adjusting scores in different regions. Social Science is far from a percise science, and expecting it to be so is foolish. This is why it is important to provide a reason for down voting.
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My parents never found my wit and sarcasm very impressive. Though, they didn't seem to appreciate intelligence at all. They always said "smart ass" like it was a bad thing. :rolleyes:
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Clifford Nelson wrote:
WASP
What is WASP?
Clifford Nelson wrote:
those that can solve complex equations in their heads
I can do that. 1 + 1i + 2 + 2i = 3 + 3i Did that all in my head. ;P
If you are trying to be humorous, then you missed the boat. If you are serious, then Clifford has it right. WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant). That has been a complaint for many years - it didn't consider different cultural groups. If you studied the dictionary, you would (or should) score very high on vocabulary, whereas an immigrant who spoke
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If you are trying to be humorous, then you missed the boat. If you are serious, then Clifford has it right. WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant). That has been a complaint for many years - it didn't consider different cultural groups. If you studied the dictionary, you would (or should) score very high on vocabulary, whereas an immigrant who spoke
My question about what "WASP" stands for was not a joke.
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From what I remember it was more of a frame of reference issue, nor definitions of words and such. People with very different cultures have a different way of looking at things. It was a long time ago that I saw the study.
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I do not believe that it was intentionally biased. I believe the people who created the test are trying to do the best job they can. Newton did not intend to misled us with his science but he was wrong. I am also not saying that there is not value in IQ tests, any more than there is not value in Newtonian physics. Still there is a framework which the developers worked in. If you do not believe this, just look into IQ on wikipedia. There is some discussion on this problem. You also have to know that when I heard this it was many years ago, and people developing these tests are trying to eliminate bias. Part of the way they eliminate it is by adjusting scores in different regions. Social Science is far from a percise science, and expecting it to be so is foolish. This is why it is important to provide a reason for down voting.
I accept that you believe the designers were not intentionally biasing their tests. However, you did not so qualify your assertion in your original post, and your wording there implied that it was intentional. Hence my down vote (for which I did provide my reasons.) If I could change my vote, I would ease it up to at least a three, or remove it altogether.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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Check out the Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient[^]
I'd love to read those studies, but apparently they aren't available for free to the public (at least not from the links on that Wiki article), and I've not enough interest to pay. So I'm stuck having to blindly accept their conclusions.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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I accept that you believe the designers were not intentionally biasing their tests. However, you did not so qualify your assertion in your original post, and your wording there implied that it was intentional. Hence my down vote (for which I did provide my reasons.) If I could change my vote, I would ease it up to at least a three, or remove it altogether.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
As you probably know, unintentional omission is a big problem. In developing software, ususally the biggest cost is due to omitted requirements because nobody thought of them. In design it is these lapses that cause the problems like the Japanese Nuclear plant where the tsunami took out the generators.
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I'd like to read that study, or anything that could explain how one's culture, race, etc., could affect one's ability to work out logical sequences of patterns in an IQ test.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
Just go to wikipedia and read about IQ: Test biasSee also: Stereotype threat The American Psychological Association's report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns stated that in the United States IQ tests as predictors of social achievement are not biased against African Americans since they predict future performance, such as school achievement, similarly to the way they predict future performance for Whites.[39] However, IQ tests may well be biased when used in other situations. A 2005 study stated that "differential validity in prediction suggests that the WAIS-R test may contain cultural influences that reduce the validity of the WAIS-R as a measure of cognitive ability for Mexican American students,"[100] indicating a weaker positive correlation relative to sampled white students. Other recent studies have questioned the culture-fairness of IQ tests when used in South Africa.[101][102] Standard intelligence tests, such as the Stanford-Binet, are often inappropriate for children with autism; the alternative of using developmental or adaptive skills measures are relatively poor measures of intelligence in autistic children, and may have resulted in incorrect claims that a majority of children with autism are mentally retarded.[103]
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Just go to wikipedia and read about IQ: Test biasSee also: Stereotype threat The American Psychological Association's report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns stated that in the United States IQ tests as predictors of social achievement are not biased against African Americans since they predict future performance, such as school achievement, similarly to the way they predict future performance for Whites.[39] However, IQ tests may well be biased when used in other situations. A 2005 study stated that "differential validity in prediction suggests that the WAIS-R test may contain cultural influences that reduce the validity of the WAIS-R as a measure of cognitive ability for Mexican American students,"[100] indicating a weaker positive correlation relative to sampled white students. Other recent studies have questioned the culture-fairness of IQ tests when used in South Africa.[101][102] Standard intelligence tests, such as the Stanford-Binet, are often inappropriate for children with autism; the alternative of using developmental or adaptive skills measures are relatively poor measures of intelligence in autistic children, and may have resulted in incorrect claims that a majority of children with autism are mentally retarded.[103]
Thanks, I did read that exact section. It merely restates the conclusions of three studies. The references are links to the published studies, but the only parts that are freely available are the summaries. To see the actual data from the studies so that you can validate their conclusions for yourself, you have to pay for them. I am unwilling to fork over good money for something I am only mildly interested in, so I am forced to blindly accept their conclusions that WAIS-R is culturally biased. Interestingly enough, even they qualify their conclusion by saying the study "suggests" a bias. Now there's a weasel word! ;)
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.