Eight-year-old Carlos is a likeable child with good social skills. His teacher, Ms. Fortier, describes him as a "sponge" who absorbs and remembers much of what he studies in school. Yet she worries about his difficulty in learning how to read, and so she refers him to a school psychologist for evaluation. The psychologist administers several tests, including an intelligence test that yields a

Question

score of 70.

a. Explain how IQ scores are derived and what a score of 70 definitely indicates.
b. Decide whether Carlos's IQ score is an accurate reflection of his intelligence. If it is, explain why you think so. If it isn't, give at least two different explanations as to why Carlos might have gotten the score that he did.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Responses to the two parts of the question are as follows:
a. An IQ score reflects how a child's performance on a test compares with that of his or her peers. A score of 70 reflects performance in the bottom 2 to 21/2 percent of the child's peer group.
b. Although a score of 70 is often associated with mental retardation, Carlos clearly does not have mental retardation, as he shows no deficits in learning or adaptive behavior. (A more likely explanation for his poor reading skills is a learning disability.) Following are possible explanations for his poor performance (the response should include at least two of these or other reasonable explanations):
? If the test was heavily dependent on reading skills, Carlos would have been at a significant disadvantage.
? We know nothing about Carlos's background. If he grew up in a cultural environment very different from mainstream Western culture, he may have been unfamiliar with the content of some of the test items.
? He may have had little motivation to perform well on the test. (Stereotype threat is also a possible explanation here, although existing research documents this phenomenon primarily with older children and adults.)
If Carlos does have a learning disability, he may possibly have difficulty keeping his attention on a single task for any length of time.