Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

100 PRETEND INTELLIGENCE

Th ere is another irony in the “cognition from experience” view. Many
psychologists, including Linda Gottfredson and Frank Schmidt, argue
that intelligence, or g, is basically learning ability. But it will always be
quite impossible to mea sure such ability with an instrument that depends
on learning in one par tic u lar culture. We may call this the g paradox, or
a general mea sure ment paradox. It must haunt some IQ testers.

IQ TESTS ALSO TEST NONCOGNITIVE FACTORS

It is likely that other causes of diff erences in IQ test per for mance are not

really ones of cognitive ability at all. As mentioned above, the concept of

g or general intelligence arose from Galton’s intuitions and from Spear-

man’s observation that pupils who do well on one school test tend to do

well on others. Th is has been confi rmed with IQ test per for mances many

times. However, as Nicholas Mackintosh explained in his book, IQ and

Human Intelligence, “We have little idea of the reason(s) for this multiple

association.”

Aft er all, surveys consistently show that the biggest infl uence on school

per for mance is parental support. For many reasons (see below), parents

vary enormously in many aspects of relations with their children. Th ese

include their interest in and support for development, their educational

and occupational aspirations, involvement in play, provision of opportu-

nities for learning, and their familiarity with the appropriate cultural

tools. Not surprisingly, these aspects are highly correlated with IQ

(0.6–0.7). It seems obvious that a child who is being motivated or pushed

by parents will tend to put in above- average eff ort in all school subjects,

and conversely for those who are poorly motivated. Th is factor alone

could explain intercorrelations across subjects. Why invent a mysterious

mental factor that no one can prove the existence of?

Other noncognitive factors can also explain IQ score diff erences.

David Wechsler acknowledged the role of personality factors like com-

petitiveness or compliance with authority in per for mance on his IQ test.

But levels of self- confi dence, stress, motivation and anxiety, as well as

general physical and mental vigor, all aff ect cognitive test per for mances.

Th ese factors tend to aff ect all tests, so the scores will intercorrelate.

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