I really don't want to engage in a donnybrook over the IQ issue. These points have been worked over for at least 50 years. I just want to add points that do not usually come up when the arguments involve people who do not administer IQ tests everyday.
1. We must separate IQ scores from a general concept of intelligence. They are not the same thing but they are often used as if they are. Comments about intelligence may not apply to the IQ score. 2. Everyone must get down to the level of the tests. If you don't administer these tests to real people, then you are never confronted with the complexity that underlies their validity. You have to ask yourself, what does Block Design measure, what does Digit Span measure, what does Vocabulary measure? What would be measured by a summary score that essentially averages the scores on a specific set of subtests? 3. If patients with large frontal lobe lesions and the consequent executive function syndromes have IQ scores in the normal range, what does this indicate concerning the validity of the IQ score? 4. If patients with bilateral hippocampal lesions and pure memory disorder have normal IQ scores then what does this say about the validity of the IQ score? 5. Conventional IQ tests, such as the Wechsler Scales do not allow users to assess obviously important intellectual abilities that I think everyone would have in their theories of intelligence. 6. As far as I can tell, the APA commission did not include anyone who administers IQ tests on a regular basis, no one who has designed an IQ test and no neuropsychologists. Many aspects of the APA report support the points I have made here. My general conclusion is that the IQ tests should be considered for the validity of the individual tests included in the IQ battery. Some of these tests are useful in measuring cognition, some are not, and many are redundant. Averaging them all together in a summary score only makes their interpretation confusing. All these tests must be redesigned to incorporate models of cognition that we should be proud to include in new clinical assessment procedures. What was the cognitive revolution all about, anyway? Mike Williams Sent from my iPad On Dec 22, 2012, at 10:00 PM, "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) digest" <[email protected]> wrote: > Irrelevance --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=22522 or send a blank email to leave-22522-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
