on the Extent and Quality of Intelligence Research
research about the
nature vs. nurture debate uses psychometric, statistical, quantitative
intelligence, which we know from common sense, corresponds only to a
extent, but not entirely, with our conceptions of what intelligence is.
the main criticism of the research in this debate is that the
tests do not actually capture the true meaning of intelligence. People
better education can score higher on IQ tests even though they might
actually be smarter than other people who have scored lower.
In sum, the critics of this
debate do not attack either side of the debate, but instead they attack
test, which is the primary measure of intelligence used by either side
debate. Critics attack the IQ test itself as being too narrow,
unrelated to anything in the real world. Cognitive abilities such as
speech, vision, spatial abilities, attention, verbal fluency, and so
are measured by IQ tests, are related to intelligence, but they are not
thing in itself. This fact about IQ tests, according to experts, causes
analysis of the effects of environment and heredity on intelligence.
believe that because IQ tests do not actually represent intelligence,
should not be the chief method of measuring intelligence.
intelligence have reliable statistical relationships with important
phenomena, but they are a limited tool for deciding what to make of any
individual. Repeat it we must, for one of the problems of writing about
intelligence is how to remind readers often enough how little an IQ
you about whether the human being next to you is someone whom you will
cherish." Herrnstein and Murray
(1994, p. 21)