This article examines psychometric analysis regarding the viability and limits of IQ testing in the context of "The Bell Curve." It discusses eyeball analysis versus item analysis, mean differences, validity coefficients, general intelligence, and IQ and gifted education, and urges a search for intrapersonal and environmental catalysts…

Commentary on "The Bell Curve." Points out that Herrnstein and Murray do not acknowledge their politically conservative funding sources. Discusses bias and inadequacies of IQ tests, lack of evidence of intergenerational reproduction of occupational classes, current underemployment of highly educated people, and the authors'…

One hundred eighty one sets of black twins and 223 sets of white twins provided responses to four 12-item subtests of the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test, Standard Version. The children were in elementary school and their item response patterns were analyzed with the use of revised ordering-theoretic methods to search for best-fitting…

THE REPORT OF UNESCO COMMITTEE STATED THAT THERE WERE NOT MEASURABLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WHAT IS DUE TO INNATE CAPACITY AND WHAT IS THE RESULT OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. TESTS WHICH HAVE MADE ALLOWANCE FOR MOST DIFFERENCES IN ENVIRONMENTAL OPPORTUNITIES HAVE SHOWN ESSENTIAL SIMILARITY IN MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AMONG ALL…

Charles Spearman originally suggested in 1927 that the varying magnitudes of the mean differences between whites and blacks in standardized scores on a variety of mental tests are directly related to the size of the tests' loadings on g, the general factor common to all complex tests of mental ability. Several independent large-scale studies…

Three distinct theories can be set forth for viewing intelligence: a "super-intellect theory" associated with the belief in innate ideas; a sensualistic theory that posits no intellectual role beyond synthesizing of sense-data; and a concept of intelligence as a power to abstract, judge, and reason. Many chronic and current educational…

The purposes of the study to determine psychometric characteristics of the Series Learning Potential Test, the effects of Learning Potential training on Series scores, and the relationship of Series scores to IQ, race, social class, and reading achievement. The Series Test was administered to students in 79 classrooms in five Connecticut towns…

The author presents a discussion of certain portions of Arthur Jensen's controversial article. The general conclusion is that Jensen has not provided substantial evidence that there are differences in neural structure among children from different social or ethnic groups which are genetically determined. The reviewer reacts to Jensen's conclusion…

IQ tests and intelligence were discussed from an evolutionary perspective and implications concerning legal decisions and social policy were presented. It was concluded that disproportionate social and economic benefits need not result from the use of IQ tests in the selection of educational and occupational elites. (RD)

Relationships between intelligence test scores and measures derived from reaction time and perceptual speed procedures were investigated. Only three reaction time measures produced correlations greater than .25 with a general intelligence factor. Test-retest reliability of reaction time measures was low. The reaction time-intelligence relationship…

Until the 1970s, there were few signs of change in the historic difference of one standard deviation between average ability or achievement test scores of black and white students. From 1970 to the mid-to-late 1980s, there was a substantial convergence of the average achievement test scores of blacks and whites. From the mid-to-late 1980s to 1992,…

In this study, the relationship between a refined measure of the learning environment of the home and the levels and profiles of a set of mental ability scores of children from five Canadian ethnic groups was examined. Significant group differences persisted in the verbal, number, and reasoning scores. (Author/JMB)

Correlations between McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities and teachers' ratings of academic achievement were investigated. McCarthy Scales are useful in predicting achievement of normal children, but further research is needed with learning disabled students. Use of teachers' rating scales with low functioning children is discussed in light of…

Subjects with higher verbal than performance IQ's achieved significantly poorer Pascal-Suttell Bender-Gestalt scores than subjects with higher performance over verbal IQ's. The latter subjects were more likely to have dropped out of high school and to have spent some time in prison. (Author/RD)

Groups of 270 Black and 270 White children drawn from the national stratified random sample used in the standardization of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) were matched on age, sex, and WISC-R Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient to facilitate investigation of the patterns of specific cognitive abilities. (Author)