Describe the idea behind culture-fair tests and how it is applied to intelligence testing

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Culture-fair tests are equally appropriate and fair for members of all cultures. If members of different cultures have different ideas of what it means to be intelligent, then the very behaviors that may be considered intelligent in one culture may be considered unintelligent in another. Take, for example, the concept of mental quickness. In mainstream U.S. culture, quickness usually is associated with intelligence. To say someone is "quick" is to say that the person is intelligent. Indeed, most group tests of intelligence are strictly timed. Even on individual tests of intelligence, the test-giver times some responses of the test-taker. For example, one set of researchers observed a positive relationship between measures of quickness and scores on the Graduate Record Examinations. Many information-processing theorists and even psychophysiological theorists study intelligence as a function of mental speed. In many cultures of the world, however, quickness is not at a premium. In these cultures, people may believe that more intelligent people do not rush into things. Even in our own culture, no one will view you as brilliant if you rush things that should not be rushed. For example, it generally is not smart to decide on a marital partner, a job, or a place to live in the 20 to 30 seconds you normally might have to solve an intelligence-test problem.

Because perfectly culture-fair intelligence tests do not exist, how should we consider context when assessing intelligence? Several researchers have suggested that providing culture-relevant tests is possible. Culture-relevant tests measure skills and knowledge that relate to the cultural experiences of the test-takers. Designing culture-relevant tests requires creativity and effort, but it is probably not impossible. For example, one study investigated memory abilities—one aspect of intelligence as our culture defines it—in our culture versus the Moroccan culture. It found that the level of recall depended on the content that was being remembered. Culture-relevant content was remembered more effectively than nonrelevant content. For example, when compared with Westerners, Moroccan rug merchants were better able to recall complex visual patterns on black-and-white photos of Oriental rugs. Sometimes tests just are not designed to minimize the effects of cultural differences. In such cases, the key to culture- specific differences in memory may be the knowledge and use of metamemory strategies, rather than actual structural differences in memory.