The specificity doctrine, holds that psychometric tests measure nothing other than the specific bits of knowledge and learned skills reflected in the item content of the tests. This prevailing doctrine has influenced the interpretation of test scores and the conceptualization of test validity, as well as the practical use of tests in educational…

The relationship between field independence, intelligence, and social class was investigated in a group of 150 kindergarten, second, and third grade children. The effect of social class upon field independence was also studied after controlling for intelligence. The Portable Rod and Frame Test was administered ten times using instructions…

The hypothesis that racial differences in IQ stem from differences in components of executive systems including knowledge base, control processes, and metacognition was investigated. Group differences in metamemory, strategy use, and general knowledge, but not perceptual efficiency, were observed. Metamemory predicted crystallized but not fluid…

Examines the definitions of intelligence and educability and discusses these terms in relation to the writings of Jensen and of Darlington. (PEB)

Supports the notion that personality affects cognitive test performance and that such a relation can be experimentally demonstrated. (RL)

Educators, as applied scientists, must work in partnership with investigative scientists who are researching brain functions in order to reach a better understanding of gifted students and students who are intelligent but do not learn. Improper understanding of brain functions can cause gross errors in educational placement. Until recently, the…

Change in cognitive functioning is an important aspect of human aging and a key outcome in many medical conditions. However, cognitive change can rarely be measured directly, since prior cognitive data do not exist for most people. We examined the criterion validity and one-year stability of the difference between National Adult Reading Test…

Two studies examined modifiability in intellectual functioning in older adults. The fluid-crystallized theory provided a theory base for the research. (Fluid intelligence follows a normative decline through adulthood, while crystallized intelligence remains stable or even increases.) In the first study thirty subjects (average age 69.2)…

This paper reviews studies in which scores on Piagetian tests of logical thought were correlated with IQ, mental age (MA) and chronological age (CA), and examines the possible effects of the size of the age range and mean age of subjects on these correlations. The data included 44 groups of subjects obtained from 36 studies in which Piagetian and…

Current studies of cognition emphasize the contrast between two approaches to analysis of individual differences. It is concluded that the cognitive components approach incorporates the cognitive correlates approach, avoids the inadequacy of correlational methods, and models individual differences on various dimensions of cognitive functioning.…

Students of high intellectual ability and their parents were tested on a battery of cognitive tests. Vernon's model of intelligence best fit results. A verbal-educational and a practical-spatial-mechanical factor explained most performance variance. Among children, age related to verbal but not spatial or mechanical abilities. (Author/RD)

Two studies (N=4,261 persons) illustrate an inverse relationship between ability level and correlations among IQ measures. Low IQ subjects showed higher correlations than did high IQ subjects. Intercorrelations of IQ subtests, intercorrelations of cognitive ability measures, and correlations of IQ with measures of cognitive ability displayed the…

The author refutes Humphrey's test of the Spearman hypothesis. A fair test requires that Black and White samples not be selected on any g-correlated variable, including socioeconomic status. Humphrey's factor analysis on test-score means of demographic groups, rather than on individuals, inflates g loadings and biases results. (LMO)

The scientific concept of intelligence has been heavily influenced by the technology of measurement. The variables which can be measured have been made the operational definition of intelligence. This approach differs from a deductive approach, in which a theory of cognition in general is used to derive the sorts of measurements that must be taken…

This author reviews published data and presents new data relevant to the Spearman hypothesis concerning racial differences on cognitive tests. He concludes that across-the-board difference between SES groups occurs primarily on the general factor, and that there are major determinants of race differences independent of the general factor.…