No more than skin deep.

Comments on the article by J. E. Helms (see record 1993-07951-001) in which it was claimed that racial differences in IQ performance are culturally biased. It is argued that Helms gives the impression that Blacks are culturally, cognitively, and socially different from Whites. However, evidence shows that IQ tests appear to measure the same psychological attributes in American Whites and Blacks. Further, Helms presented misleading genetic information, and she failed to appreciate the degree of racial similarity of genetic composition. It is suggested that ethnic and racial differences may be "no more than skin deep" because physical dissimilarities lead to false attributions of psychological difference, when in reality people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds are broadly psychologically alike. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attribute criteriality and sex-linked conservatism as determinants of psychological similarity.

"Two hypotheses were proposed: 1… . One event is more likely to be judged similar to a standard event if the two differ on some property which… has not been learned as criterial for defining it, than if this property has been learned as criterial for its definition. 2… . When presented with events of varying criterial difference from a standard, females should judge fewer of these events as similar to the standard than males, on the ground that the former tend to categorize more narrowly… . It was concluded that recognition of similarity depends on learned classification rules and on individual differences in conceptual conservatism." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sleep spindles and learning potential.

The number of sleep spindles remains relatively stable within individuals from night to night. However, there is little explanation for the large interindividual differences in spindles. The authors investigated the relationship between spindles and intelligence quotient (IQ) in 3 separate studies. The number of spindles and sigma power were positively correlated with performance IQ (PIQ), but not verbal IQ (VIQ). The perceptual/analytical skills measured by the PIQ Picture Completion subscale accounted for most of the interindividual differences in spindles. Furthermore, there was a relationship between the rapid eye movements (REMs) of REM sleep and VIQ in individuals with higher IQ scores. A similar pattern was observed between spindles and PIQ. It was hypothesized that high-IQ individuals have more spindles that can support more complex cortical networks underlying perceptual/analytical abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Issues in the study of talent.

Reviews the book "Issues in the study of talent," by Douglas W. Bray (see record 1955-04716-000). It is pointed out that the unusually talented person has always attracted the attention of many groups of individuals but that similar study has not been given to the people who range through the whole spectrum of human abilities. In considering the part played by the hereditary potential in general intelligence the author concludes, in briefest terms, that individuals differ in intellectual potential at birth, but that differences in IQ among children from different socioeconomic cultural groups may be clue to differences in cultural opportunity. Much emphasis is given to an analysis of two basic motives, the desire of the individual to do well in school and his desire to reach a particular socioeconomic goal. The present small book will be of interest to those who are concerned with the fundamental question of the causal factors that underlie the individual differences which characterize those who make up our present day society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abilities, motives, and personal styles: Reply.

Responds to the comments of P. L. Ackerman (see record 2006-12925-012), D. Y. Dai (see record 2006-12925-013), and M. C. Gridley (see record 2006-12925-014) on E. S. Spelke's original article "Sex differences in intrinsic aptitude for mathematics and science? A critical review" (see record 2005-15840-001). Here, the current authors first consider Ackerman's criticism of IQ measures of cognitive sex differences, as well as his suggestion that Advanced Placement tests be used as a second measure. Next, the authors discuss Dai's suggestion that cognition and motivation, abilities and strategies, are inseparably bound in any meaningful measure of aptitude for mathematics and science. Finally, the authors address Gridley's suggestion that differences in men's and women's thinking styles and preferences explain gender disparities in math and science fields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining race differences in IQ: The logic, the methodology, and the evidence.

Examines the claim that there are genetic racial differences in IQ, which has been based mainly on 2 grounds: the evidence for high within-race heritability for IQ and the failure of various environmental explanations to account completely for mean racial differences. It is argued that neither of these trends has direct relevance to the question of whether race differences in IQ have a mainly genetic or environmental origin. The assumption that these factors are relevant and that they support a genetic account is criticized as a "hereditarian fallacy." The choice between a genetic and an environmental account of race differences is most properly based on jointly genetic/environmental designs, which control for both genetic and environmental differences in a behavior genetic framework. Studies using environmental, genetic, and joint models are reviewed. Although evidence tends to support an environmental over a genetic account, it is not considered to be sufficient. Identification of what the relevant environmental differences may be would require turning away from the traditional heredity vs environment question and focusing on the detailed causal influences that affect the development of intellectual level generally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Falsification of the forced-choice guilt inventory.

Administered D. Mosher's Forced-Choice Guilt Inventory (FCGI) to 70 male adjudicated delinquents. All Ss took the test under standard instructions and then under "fake bad" and "fake good" instructions. Results were significantly different under the 3 conditions. Ss had high guilt scores under the good condition and low scores under the bad. Standard condition scores were not highly related to the other scores. The difference in scores in the bad and good conditions was significantly related to IQ, indicating that only brighter Ss could fake successfully on the test. It is concluded that the FCGI is a useful research tool, but that caution must be exercised in evaluation when used as a diagnostic tool. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and IQ change.

"For a group of 140 boys and girls in the Fels Research population on whom continuous Binet IQ data were available, a distribution of IQ change was obtained by subtracting each S's smoothed IQ at age 6 from his smoothed IQ at age 10. This distribution of differences was divided into quartiles, and the Rorschach and TAT protocols of the upper (maximum increase in IQ), and lower (maximum decrease in IQ) quartiles were analyzed and compared. The results showed that in comparing the Ss who showed IQ increases with those showing IQ decreases, the former head, on the TAT, significantly more (a) achievement imagery… and (b) themes of curiosity… . [It is concluded] that high need achievement, competitive striving, and curiosity about nature are correlated with gains in IQ score." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1HD61K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormality of subtest score differences on the WISC-R.

Discusses the abnormality of the difference as a method for evaluating the magnitude of differences between pairs of WISC-R subtests. Generally, abnormal differences at the .05 level of significance range from 6 to 7 scaled score points and 8 to 10 scaled score points at the .01 level. Abnormal Verbal–Performance scale IQ differences are also considered. Such differences averaged 18 IQ points at the .05 level of significance and 24 IQ points at the .01 level. The diagnostic implications of the use of the abnormality of the difference for evaluating subtest score differences are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial Differences in Intelligence.

Plotikin asserts that Elements of Psycholgy by Krech and Crutchfield (1958) is marred by its treatment of racial differences in intelligence. By 1958, it is clear that the interpretation of empirically discovered differences in intelligence between Whites and Negroes is a function of the degree of comparability of the two populations in terms of geographic distribution, language, education, socioeconomic status, motivation, and a host of other cultural factors. Krech and Crutchfield have singled out and emphasized a study by Tanser (1939). The results of the Tanser experiment indicate a superiority of the Whites over the Negroes of 14-18 IQ points on four tests of intelligence. The obvious danger which faces the unsophisticated reader of Krech and Crutchfield's text is the ready inference that the differences reported by Tanser are innate since the two populations are alleged to be comparable. Krech and Crutchfield, to their credit, do not draw this conclusion completely. When the large differences of the Tanser study are correctly interpreted as due to differential socioeconomic status, we are back where we started before the Tanser study was resurrected as an answer to a very complicated problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

There are no public-policy implicatons: A reply to Rushton and Jensen (2005).

J. P. Rushton and A. R. Jensen (see record 2005-03637-001) purport to show public-policy implications arising from their analysis of alleged genetic bases for group mean differences in IQ. This article argues that none of these implications in fact follow from any of the data they present. The risk in work such as this is that public-policy implications may come to be ideologically driven rather than data driven, and to drive the research rather than be driven by the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of the WISC and WAIS at chronological age sixteen.

A group of 30 Ss was tested with the WISC and 4 wk. later with the WAIS. During this interval they all passed their 16th birthdays. Since chronological age is constant, correlations were calculated for the various IQ scales of the 2 tests and indicated that IQs obtained at age 16 from the 2 scales are highly comparable. The mean IQs and standard deviations of the experimental groups were not significantly different from the mean IQs and standard deviations of the standardization groups. In the case of the Full Scale IQ, differences in individual Ss ranged from -11 to +13 points with a mean at +2.4 points (WAIS -WISC). In general, the results indicate that the transition from the WISC to the WAIS at age 16 introduces no significant errors in IQ determination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thirty years of research on race differences in cognitive ability.

The culture-only (0% genetic-100% environmental) and the hereditarian (50% genetic-50% environmental) models of the causes of mean Black-White differences in cognitive ability are compared and contrasted across 10 categories of evidence: the worldwide distribution of test scores, g factor of mental ability, heritability, brain size and cognitive ability, transracial adoption, racial admixture, regression, related life-history traits, human origins research, and hypothesized environmental variables. The new evidence reviewed here points to some genetic component in Black-White differences in mean IQ. The implication for public policy is that the discrimination model (i.e., Black-White differences in socially valued outcomes will be equal barring discrimination) must be tempered by a distributional model (i.e., Black-White outcomes reflect underlying group characteristics). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Erratum to Samuel et al.

In "Motivation, Race, Social Class, and IQ" by W. Samuel, D. Soto, M. Parks, P. Ngissah, and B. Jones (Journal of Educational Psychology, 1976, 68, 273-285), there are two inaccuracies pertaining to Table 4. First, the standard deviation reported for low-socioeconomic status Whites with a Black tester in the low expectation-evaluative condition was misprinted as 2.89 instead of its true value of 19.24. Second, the F ratio for the Atmosphere × Socioeconomic Status × Race of Subject × Race of Experimenter interaction should be 2.84 (p 1976-23080-001.) Administered the Performance subscales of the WISC to 208 male and 208 female junior and senior high school students (aged 12-16 yrs) to test the prediction that if performance responded to the manipulation of the testee's motivation state, the size of interracial differences in mean IQ would be more flexible than was suggested by A. R. Jensen's (1969) review of the literature. The variables of test atmosphere (evaluative or gamelike), tester expectation (high or low), race of tester (Black or White), and race of S (Black or White) were manipulated. The pattern of mean IQ scores as well as self-ratings of mood indicated that test performance was optimal at moderate levels of motivational arousal. A replication of the experiment employing 208 male Ss increased cell sizes to the point that socioeconomic status could be treated as an independent variable. Results suggested that interracial differences in mean IQ might be erased depending upon the social psychological characteristics of the test setting and the socioeconomic background of the testee. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the relation between IQ, impulsivity, and delinquency: Remarks on the Lynam, Moffitt, and Southamer-Loeber (1993) interpretation.

A recent report by D. Lynam, M. Moffitt, & M. Stouthamer-Loeber (see record 1993-29924-001) examined the inverse relation between IQ and delinquency and concluded that the observed relation represents "an influence of compromised intelligence on delinquent behavior" (p. 193). Specifically, the role of impulsivity in understanding this relation was discounted. The author considers the conceptual, operational, and analytical bases of the Lynam et al. report and argues that their neurologically based view of "executive dysfunction" as underlying delinquency is selectively portrayed. It is further contended that IQ scores, used as their index of brain–behavior relations, are only remotely related to specifiable neurological functioning. The Lynam et al. conclusion that impulsivity cannot appreciably explain the relation between IQ and delinquency is shown to depend on the analytical approach used. Analyzed alternatively, impulsivity emerges as the more important predictor that can mediate the observed IQ and delinquency relation. Social policy implications of these differing interpretations are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heritability estimates versus large environmental effects: The IQ paradox resolved.

Some argue that the high heritability of IQ renders purely environmental explanations for large IQ differences between groups implausible. Yet, large environmentally induced IQ gains between generations suggest an important role for environment in shaping IQ. The authors present a formal model of the process determining IQ in which people's IQs are affected by both environment and genes, but in which their environments are matched to their IQs. The authors show how such a model allows very large effects for environment, even incorporating the highest estimates of heritability. Besides resolving the paradox, the authors show that the model can account for a number of other phenomena, some of which are anomalous when viewed from the standard perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement attributions of kindergarteners.

Attempted to determine whether kindergartners have consistent preferences in explaining situational outcomes and whether these preferences are related to other variables associated with achievement motivation. It was found that attributional preferences were related to home environments and IQ. There were differences between high and low IQ groups in citing intelligence and ability as explanations for successful outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hebb falls short of the mark.

Asserts that while D. O. Hebb (1978) raises some important points about IQ he omits important information in his analysis regarding the predictive characteristics and immutability of IQ. Issues related to the usage of the IQ when a "competent" non-English language dominates and the instances in which the IQ test is seen as an instrument of oppression are also addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Standard errors for short forms of Wechsler's Intelligence Scales with deviant subjects.

Demonstrates that the standard error of estimate of a short form of the WAIS—R or WISC—R for the standardization sample is an excellent approximation to the standard error of a predicted IQ for a "new" S (i.e., one that was not in the standardization sample). This approximation holds even if that S is markedly deviant (i.e., a high- or low-scoring individual). The more extreme the S's score, the more prone the IQ prediction is to error, but the accuracy of prediction also depends on the sample size. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reply to Leong.

Reply to the comment by Che Kan Leong (see record 2007-07332-017). Downing and Leong take issue with my statement, "The authors recommend some variation of the IQ/achievement discrepancy formula as a definition of reading disability." It appears to me that they are, in fact, recommending an IQ/achievement discrepancy formula. The source for my statement is the discussion on pages 305-306 of Downing and Leong, in particular, the statement on p. 306: "Overall, the regression approach is generally sound and statistically defensible." The regression approach that Downing and Leong discuss is one in which a child's reading level (as measured by a particular test) is related to the child's score on an IQ test. As I noted in my review, this type of equation assumes that IQ and reading can be measured independently are likely to be deficient in the reading-disabled individual, a child with a real reading disability may have spuriously low IQ scores but may not be diagnosed as reading disabled because of a low IQ score. Until investigators agree on some operational definitions or at least attempt to study questions as a function of different operational definitions, advancement in this field will be difficult to achieve. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)