Tags
Block Design, cross-cultural IQ, Digit Span, IQ, race, South Africa, university, WAIS
A 2015 paper by Kate Cockcroft et al., compares the scores of 349 British middle class university undergrads to 107 lower class black South African undergrads on the WAIS-III (UK edition).
The results were as follows:
The UK students averaged a full-scale IQ of 106.95 (UK norms) while the South Africans averaged IQ 93.27. However because this study was published 18 years after the UK WAIS-III was published, we should adjust for the Flynn effect.
The single best source on recent Wechsler Flynn effects is Weiss et al., 2015 which found that full-scale IQ has been increasing by 0.31 points per year, at least in U.S. children. If we assume it’s the same for UK adults, then the UK students have an adjusted IQ of 101 and the South African students have an adjusted IQ of 88.
What’s more interesting to me is how they did on the culture reduced tests since that’s the more fair comparison.
| Test: | Digit Span scaled score | Flynn adjusted Digit Span scaled score | Flynn adjusted Digit Span IQ equivalent | Block Design scaled score | Flynn adjusted Block Design scaled score | Flynn adjusted Block Design IQ equivalent | Compoite IQ based on adjusted scores on both tests |
| UK undergrads | 9.5 | 9.32 | 97 | 10.66 | 9.76 | 99 | 98 |
| Black South African undergrads | 9.35 | 9.17 | 96 | 8.67 | 7.77 | 89 | 91 |
So on a composite score of the most culture reduced spatial & non-spatial test (Block Design & Digit Span), Black South African undergrads average IQ 91. This is 11 points higher than the average Black South African seems to score on the same culture reduced tests.
As of 2013, only 16% of South Africa’s black young adults were attending higher education (compared to about 55% of whites, 47% of Indians and 14% of Coloureds). Thus, simply attending university puts one in the top 16% of this demographic, with the median South African university student being in the top 8%. If there were a perfect correlation between IQ and education, the median South African black university student would have an IQ 21 points higher than the average black South African. In reality his IQ is only 11 points higher, suggesting a correlation of 0.52 (at least on the most culture reduced tests).
This is similar to the 0.57 correlation between IQ and education observed in the United States.
Pumpkin Person 
There’s no flynn effect on digit span though, right? http://www.unz.com/jthompson/digit-span-bombshell/
I doubt UK undergrads are not at least a few points above the average white IQ. Did you take into account that the average UK undergrad in that study was 27 years old?The average South African was 21 years old.
The tests are normed for age. I was surprised by how low the UK students scored; perhaps I overcorrected for the flynn effect. The source I cited found a small flynn effect on digit span but maybe it was sampling error.
PP says:
“What’s more interesting to me is how they did on the culture reduced tests since that’s the more fair comparison.”
“the most culture reduced spatial & non-spatial test”
Cockcroft et al say:
“Cultural biases were also evident in two of the PO subtests (Block Design and Picture Completion), as well as Picture Arrangement. This supports the view that non-verbal tests are not necessarily culturally fairer than verbal ones (Rosselli and Ardila, 2003; Shuttleworth-Edwards et al., 2013). Past cross-cultural research on the Block Design subtest has yielded mixed results. Some identified it as discriminating against individuals from non-Western cultures and/or deprived educational backgrounds (Ardila and Moreno, 2001; Shuttleworth-Edwards et al., 2004, 2013). Other studies have found no significant differences between Anglo-Americans and fluent English-speaking individuals from ethnically diverse (Hispanic, Asian, and Middle-Eastern) backgrounds on Block Design and Matrix Reasoning (Razani et al., 2006). These differences may be due to differing levels of acculturation in the various samples. Most differences between the UK and SA samples in the current study were found on verbal and non-verbal measures that draw on acquired knowledge and learned problem solving strategies.”
“In conclusion, the findings from this study add to existing evidence that the majority of the subtests in the WAIS-III hold cross-cultural biases. These are most evident in tasks which tap crystallized, long-term learning, irrespective of whether the format is verbal or non-verbal. This challenges the view that visuo-spatial and non-verbal tests tend to be culturally fairer than verbal ones (Rosselli and Ardila, 2003). Subtests tapping PS also appear to hold biases. Differences on the latter subtests may reflect cultural and/or experiential background.”
Cultural loading on tests of ability are inevitable and, in my opinion, impossible to overcome. In any case, digit span comes closest to being “reduced “, and what a surprise: a miniscule gap. In any case, black design, too is biased as they show.
Face it: which ever test an IQ-ist proposes for cross-cultural research is bound by culture and therefore true cross-cultural comparisons cannot be made.
Cockcroft et al say:
keep your “lifestyle” to yourself.
Also, Stephen Ceci, in his book “On Intelligence: A Biological Treatise on Intellectual Development” notes that block design tests, the ability to differentiate between a figure and the ground, and ability to “use information such as depth perception cues in two-dimensional pictorial representations … all have been shown to be enhanced through the schooling process (Berry, 1976; Dawson, 1967; Fahrmeier, 1975; Greenfield and Childs, 1972; Hudson, 1960; Kilbride and Leibowitz, 1975; Myambo, 1972; Stevenson et al., 1978; Wagner, 1977, 1978; Witkin and Berry, 1985).
He also notes (pg 107):
“Most of the perceptual skills that have been linked to schooling are indirectly important for the successful performance on commonly used cognitive tasks (e.g., mental rotation and “same-different” judgments), and several of these skills are of direct importance for performing on IQ tests (e.g., both abstract and visual-spatial reasoning and the ability to disambiguate figure and ground are important for performance on the Block Design subtest of the WISC-R.“
So (1) vocabulary and (2) block design have the greatest black-white differences in the WAIS-R.
Fagan and Holland take care of (1) (showing that cultural differences in access to information are the cause of differing IQ scores; specifically focusing on vocabulary words); whereas Ceci takes care of (2) showing that it is strongly influenced by schooling.
Further,
So, again, and I’ll say it louder for the kids in the back:
CULTURE-FREE IQ TESTS ARE AN IMPOSSIBILITY AS ALL HUMAN COGNIZING TAKES PLACE IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT!
ONLY IF YOU DEFINE IQ TEST IN A RETARDED PEEPEE WAY.
TAKE SUBJECT SPECIFIC EXAMS LIKE A-LEVELS IN THE UK. NONE CAN DENY THE ABILITIES AND TALENTS TESTED BY THESE HAVE BEEN ACQUIRED. YET A BATTERY OF SUCH EXAMS YIELDS A G-LOADING AS HIGH AS ANY JEWISH SANDWICH MAKING TEST.
SO LET’S JUST SAY: “IQ” SHOULD BE USED TO MEAN “CULTURAL COMPETENCE” OR “KNOWING LOTS OF THINGS AND KNOWING HOW TO DO LOTS OF THINGS OF AN ACADEMIC SORT, AKA COMPETENCE IN THE PROFESSIONAL MIDDLE CLASS CULTURE.”
NOW YOU CAN ARGUE OVER WHY SOME PEOPLE ACQUIRE GREATER COMPETENCE OF THIS SORT THAN OTHERS.
THEN WE CAN EAT HAVE SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS.
TAKE SUBJECT SPECIFIC EXAMS LIKE A-LEVELS IN THE UK. NONE CAN DENY THE ABILITIES AND TALENTS TESTED BY THESE HAVE BEEN ACQUIRED. YET A BATTERY OF SUCH EXAMS YIELDS A G-LOADING AS HIGH AS ANY JEWISH SANDWICH MAKING TEST.
You just have an inferiority complex because you’ve never scored high on an ACTUAL IQ test. And Jews do better on scholastic tests than on IQ tests proper because the former exclusively test verbal + math which are their strongest skills.
it’s like saying, “gary kasparov has studied chess a lot more than me so the fact that i can’t beat him doesn’t mean he’s better at chess than me.”
that’s dumb.
or like saying, “arnold lifted weights more than me, therefore he’s not more muscular than me.”
dumb.
now rr will claim that chess and bodybuilding talent don’t exist it’s all just a matter of the time one spends training.
but that would be dumb.
and then think of all the things kasparov and arnold suck at because they spent so much time training at one thing?
this is where the battery of tests comes in.
Right. They’ve attained mastery of a single domain.
IQ tests are tests of ability and tests of ability are bound by culture therefore IQ tests are bound by culture. Simple stuff.
circular logic^^
P1 If IQ tests are tests of ability and tests of ability are culture-bound, then IQ tests are culture-bound.
P2 IQ tests are tests of ability.
C Therefore, IQ tests are culture-bound.
Where’s the error in my reasoning?
Your error is saying it’s culture bound. If that were literally true you’d become disabled the moment you set foot on a deserted island.
How does that follow?
There is a general or logic culture in all human cultures . IQ works fairly well because it measure these common basic cultural background. The same skill is needed to survive in australian desert, in polar circle or in “civilization ” : logical//convergent thinking., despite many IQ weaknessess i already pointed out here at exaustion
All of these tests have been shown to be biased toward middle class knowledge and skills, not “common basic cultural background.”
All of these tests have been shown to be biased toward middle class knowledge and skills, not “common basic cultural background.”
False. See the blue section at the end of this article:
https://pumpkinperson.com/2019/10/03/cultural-bias-on-iq-tests/
It’s not false; see the ceci citations from the other day, specifically showing they it’s affected by schooling.
“You just have an inferiority complex because you’ve never scored high on an ACTUAL IQ test”
Ignoramus, you’re only an IQist because of what a test told you? Pathetic.
“Your error is saying it’s culture bound. If that were literally true you’d become disabled the moment you set foot on a deserted island.”
Charlatan, you’re merely equivocating on the meaning of “culture-bound”.