The nature-nurture debate, aptitudes, and group differences.

The thesis of this article is that the debate over whether intelligence is largely genetically or largely environmentally determined is actually irrelevant in the context of group differences. The real issue is whether intelligence can be changed, an issue that does not at all go hand in hand with the issue of heritability. Many inherited characteristics are changeable, and conversely, many environmentally acquired characteristics are extremely resistant to change. The political nature of this dispute has had serious consequences in the attitudes of psychologists toward important and useful constructs like academic aptitude, which seems in some quarters to have been rejected because of its partially hereditary character and its presumed imperviousness to change. However, several studies have shown that under appropriate conditions aptitude and intelligence can and do change. These studies have important implications for the future performance of minorities in this society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group membership as a predictor variable: A comment on McNemar.

Argues that Q. McNemar's (see record 1975-30837-001) proposal to eliminate unfairness in predictions yielded by regression equations would exacerbate the unfairness of rejecting applicants on the basis of their minority status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Melvin R. Novick (1932-1986).

On May 20, 1986, Melvin Novick suffered a major heart attack and died before he reached the hospital. He and his wife were visiting at the time in Princeton, where he had been called on, along with several other professionals, as an expert consultant to lend advice to the staff and management of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in reviewing matters of philosophy and methodology in examining test items for evidence of sex or ethnic discrimination. Mel Novick's contributions to psychology and measurement are well known and numerous. He was a scholar who insisted that theory must influence practice, and he committed himself to that end. Novick was frequently called on for his advice in measurement and in statistics generally and was known nationally and internationally as a person of exceptional competence in this field. He coauthored books on test theory, statistical methods for psychological research, and Bayesian statistics. His crowning achievement, however, was the production of the 1985 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Philosophical issues of current interest to measurement theorists.

The research interests of measurement theorists in psychology are, expectedly, largely methodological, entailing a search for improved ways of applying statistical principles and methods to problems of measurement. However, these theorists are fundamentally psychologists, and their interests are, also expectedly, rooted in the substantive areas in psychology and education in which their methods are applied. Several such areas are of particular importance today, provoking continuing discussion at a broad range of conceptual and methodological levels. Among the most perplexing of these are bias in testing, aptitude measurement, and validity, three areas that share a common concern with the social consequences of making decisions for individuals on the basis of inferences drawn from test scores. This paper inquires into the meaning of these three concepts, and what they signify for the broad use of test results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)