who actually believes I.Q test have anything to do with the culture of the people testing them?

Question

Im really sick of that argument, and a lot of people use that as a way to say Europeans don't really have high I.Q;s they just do well on the test because they make it.

Really? I.Q tests consists of questions like
If A is greater than B and C is greater than A, B is what in comparison to C?

It also asks picture comparisons questions a lot.

So how do questions like these have anything to do with culture?

Answer 1

Hello,



Perhaps you have a good point as the East Asians do better on IQ tests than the Europeans, Japan and Korea being the highest on average.



Cheers,



Michael Kelly

Answer 2

Gotta agree with "LexDiamondz" on this one (great answer, by the way). The facts first...



The aim of an IQ test is to measure a person's intelligence, which is supposedly an indication of that person's potential. The average IQ, (measured by mental age/chronological age x 100) is 100, though most people fall between 85 and 115.



Personally, I don't necessarily agree that these tests indicate intelligence, mainly because A) it's hard to develop a test that measures actual intelligence without introducing some kind of cultural bias, and B) there are different kinds of intelligence. Let me explain...



IQ tests rely largely upon symbolic logic as a means to scoring, which is not inherently synonymous with intelligence. For example, it's possible that someone could have a wealth of emotional intelligence while being simultaneously unable to understand the significance of sequentially arranged shapes. Additionally, someone who can't read would be at a huge disadvantage on an IQ test, though being illiterate doesn't mean that person isn't intelligent. Also there are other factors to consider, such as income level, education level, nutrition level, environment, culture, etc., that all contribute to both how well or how poorly a person is able to learn and retain knowledge and the opportunities and tools available to them. Those same factors also contribute to what specific kinds of knowledge a person acquires (e.g., "street smarts" vs. "book smarts", etc.)



So in short, it seems that IQ tests in general are basically a measurement of how well a person has learned (or adapted to) a specific skill set valued by those who created the tests.



Just my two cents.

Answer 3

Iq tests are supposedly designed to measure intelligence, but that first requires those who create the test to define what intelligence is. Is intelligence a persons ability to speak well, is it someones ability to survive under harsh conditions, what is intelligence



right off the bat iq sets a biased definition of intellect and then judges everyone in every culture and. Class based on that definition. That is just one reason why iq tests are not objective



And secondly , modern science has found that there are a crap load of things that affect a persons intelligence and race ranks way at the bottom of that list. Early nutrition and education as a child plays a massive role in how smart a person is as an adult. Hell even being emotionally depressed can lower brain function



iq correlates with wealth, black people who are born in rich countries tend to have higher iqs than those in poor countries. So iq does not even remain constant across different countries. Fillipinos and Japanese people are both Asian, yet Japanese do extremely well in school and fillipinos , who come from poorer backgrounds don't

Answer 4

Simple. What if you can't readily identify what's in the picture, or what if the conditions used in the analogies use terminology that's meaningless to you?



For example, to an Inuit living in the Arctic, its reasonable to say that 100 pounds of fish is more valuable to him than 100 pounds of gold, so to use gold as a means of quantifying value in a question would only confuse him, since gold isn't particularly valuable to him.





People cite race as a distinguishing factor in I.Q, but alot of people fail to also point out that I.Q. also varies among class and economic lines as well. Poor people perform poorly on I.Q. tests, whereas wealthier people tend to perform better, and that difference tends to be most pronounced in children, and unfortunately those are the years when differences in intelligence tend to manifest themselves into either successes or failures. Personally, as both a scientist and a future educator, I'm a firm believer in the notion that tests in general reflect the views and values of the people that are giving them. Just as how some teachers have their own testing style, it's not invalid to make the statement that certain cultures have their own "testing styles" as well.



Finally, just as someone else said, East Asians tend to score the highest on IQ exams, particularly Japan and South Korea. However, it's also worth noting that those two nations are the two most Westernised, and most highly developed, nations in East Asia in the first place.Which lends more credence towards my personal belief that differences in IQ aren't necessarily a factor of racial differences, but rather they're a sum of environmental factors, social factors, and to a small degree, heredity.

Answer 5

It is B.S. because we all learn the same thing. Even if one goes to a crappy ghetto school, it's still a learning environment. A person who chooses not to learn must blame themselves and not someone else.



I've heard one side of the argument say that, essentially, white people have better education and can perform better on IQ tests. Since AA's and MA's are automatically getting a lesser education, they cannot perform on the white guys tests, which are, therefore, biased.



The lesser education is attributed to being born to broken homes, living in the ghetto, and going to sub par schools. Still, it doesn't matter if they come from broken homes. If one chooses not to pay attention in school, then that is their fault.



It's funny how everyone is going on about intelligence having nothing to do with IQ. Clearly, there is lack of IQ in this section because the question was asking if the IQ test is culturally biased, not whether it truly denotes intelligence. Notice that there are a lot of black americans answering this question wrong too.

Answer 6

He who drinks milk, has a high IQ!

Answer 7

i hate the IQ arguement as well its totally you know what

Answer 8

IQ does NOT = Intelligence, when will the morons who say they are superior than other because of their IQ understand that..

Answer 9

If your IQ is below 85 you're probably in the special class. The average black woman has an IQ of about 82.