Learning, Knowledge and Human Development MOOC’s Updates
Usage & Dangers of IQ tests
Comment: Dangers & Usage of IQ tests
IQ tests are useful in regards to helping a society understand what aspects of itself need to be more explicit or have more resources funneled into. It shows us where people may be falling into the cracks. The dangers come from the innate bias of whomever creates the test. Thus these tests are more likely to be subjective to the creators relatability, making the communities the creator's apart of the demographic with the highest scores which can unfairly branding outsiders to those communities as unintelligent. For example, If I created a IQ test with questions related to my identity and daily experience as a Caribbean-American woman in NYC and gave it to an European-American man from a rural area, he would be more likely to fail just for not being exposed to the same things I am. These tests do not always consider culture, class, or even language barriers of the testee's subjective experience.
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Update:
"2. Select two words that are synonyms, plus an antonym of these two synonyms, from the list of words below.
choke, force, thrive, toil, wither, burgeon, strive" (Page 14).
This example from an IQ test is measuring comprehension of the English language at a certain level of educational maturity through critical thinking skills. The overall test is measuring pattern recognition. These are the perceived usages for these types of questions, though it's limits would be levels of education, proficiency in the English language, and lack of inclusitivioty for learning/reading disability such as Dyslexia. If the subject tested spoke a language where some of these words didn't exist, hadn't completed at least secondary education, or struggled to visually recognize what's in front of them their scores wouldn't be accurately reflective of what they truly could comprehend.
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Sources & Links:
Carter, P. (2014). Advanced IQ tests. Philadelphia, PA, USA.
https://www.tuition.picasite.com/pdf/Advanced_IQ_Tests.pdf
This source backs up the information I spoke about in my comment, but forgot to include: https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-6/supporting-material/chomsky-on-iq-and-inequality
Hi! Interesting reflection on the IQ test of English language comprehension. From my experience working in recruitment, logic tests are used to evaluate a candidate's ability to recognize and iterate on mathematical and visual patterns. However, when sending out the test, we as HR professionals need to be trained to read the results in context as there are many variables that can influence a candidate's performance. For example, in the Nordic countries, students are trained with similar logical tests from school years, which is different from most Mediterranean countries. This might lead to lower scores from candidates coming from different countries. Therefore the test represents a valuable tool to have a first grasp on the ability of the candidates to recognize patterns and iterate, but a follow pair discussion about the results should be provided.
Comment: Dangers & Usage of IQ tests
IQ tests are useful in regards to helping a society understand what aspects of itself need to be more explicit or have more resources funneled into. It shows us where people may be falling into the cracks. The dangers come from the innate bias of whomever creates the test. Thus these tests are more likely to be subjective to the creators relatability, making the communities the creator's apart of the demographic with the highest scores which can unfairly branding outsiders to those communities as unintelligent. For example, If I created a IQ test with questions related to my identity and daily experience as a Caribbean-American woman in NYC and gave it to an European-American man from a rural area, he would be more likely to fail just for not being exposed to the same things I am. These tests do not always consider culture, class, or even language barriers of the testee's subjective experience.
I appreciate Skinner's ideas. I think there is an extent to which we can condition and automate responses in education. For example, students can be trained to be quiet when you turn the lights off. Free will is the limit,
Skinner's comment about Free will posited that the concept of free-will is an illusion. Skinner was a radical Behaviourist who believes that all human actions was a direct result of previous actions. This assertion is to a reasonable extent, supported by me in the sense that some people will not do certain things unless there is a reward or sanction. Some students do their homework just because it forms part of their requirements and the and the consequences of non-compliance.https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-knowledge-human-
development/peer/i3YNf/essential-peer-reviewed-update-1/submit
Skinner's comment about Free will posited that the concept of free-will is an illusion. Skinner was a radical Behaviourist who believes that all human actions was a direct result of previous actions. This assertion is to a reasonable extent, supported by me in the sense that some people will not do certain things unless there is a reward or sanction. Some students do their homework just because it forms part of their requirements and the and the consequences of non-compliance.