Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

4. Most forms of retardation have no identifi able biological 
cause. True or false?
5. People with high intelligence are generally shy and so-
cially withdrawn. True or false?
R E T H I N K
1. Why do you think negative stereotypes of gifted individu-
als and people with intellectual disabilities persist, even in 
the face of contrary evidence? How can these stereotypes 
be changed?
2. From a school administrator’s perspective: What advantages 
and disadvantages do you think full inclusion programs 
would present for students with mental retardation? For 
students without mental retardation?
Answers to Evaluate Questions 
1. false; the term is used to describe a wide range of people with various 
degrees of mental impairment;
2.
Down syndr
ome; 3.
mainstreaming;
4. tr
ue; 5. false; the gifted ar
e generally more socially adept than those 
with a lower IQ
 
Module 27 
Variations in Intellectual Ability 
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Kwang is often washed with a pleck tied to a:
(a) rundel
(b) fl ink
(c) pove
(d) quirj
If you found this kind of item on an intelligence test, you would probably complain 
that the test was totally absurd and had nothing to do with your intelligence or 
anyone else’s—and rightly so. How could anyone be expected to respond to items 
presented in a language that was so unfamiliar? 
Yet to some people, even more reasonable questions may appear just as nonsen-
sical. Consider the example of a child raised in a city who is asked about procedures 
for milking cows, or someone raised in a rural area who is asked about subway 
ticketing procedures. Obviously, the previous experience of the test-takers would 
affect their ability to answer correctly. And if such types of questions were included 
on an IQ test, a critic could rightly contend that the test had more to do with prior 
experience than with intelligence. 
Although IQ tests do not include questions that are so clearly dependent on prior 
knowledge as questions about cows and subways, the background and experiences 
of test-takers do have the potential to affect results. In fact, the issue of devising fair 
intelligence tests that measure knowledge unrelated to culture and family background 
and experience is central to explaining an important and persistent fi nding: Members 
of certain racial and cultural groups consistently score lower on traditional intelligence 
tests than do members of other groups. For example, as a group, blacks tend to aver-
age 10 to 15 IQ points lower than whites. Does this variation refl ect a true difference 
in intelligence, or are the questions biased with regard to the kinds of knowledge 
they test? Clearly, if whites perform better because of their greater familiarity with 
the kind of information that is being tested, their higher IQ scores are not an indica-
tion that they are more intelligent than members of other groups (Templer & Arikawa, 
2006; Fagan & Holland, 2007; Morgan, Marsiske, & Whitfi eld, 2008). 
There is good reason to believe that some standardized IQ tests contain elements 
that discriminate against minority-group members whose experiences differ from 
those of the white majority. Consider the question “What should you do if another 
child grabbed your hat and ran off with it?” Most white middle-class children answer 
that they would tell an adult, and this response is scored as correct. However, a 
reasonable response might be to chase the person and fi ght to get the hat back, the 
answer that is chosen by many urban black children—but one that is scored as incor-
rect (Miller-Jones, 1991; Aiken, 1997; Reynolds & Ramsay, 2003). 
Furthermore, tests may include even subtler forms of bias against minority 
groups. For example, assessments of cognitive ability developed in the United States 
may favor responses that implicitly refl ect North American or European values, cus-
toms, or traditions. At the same time, such tests are biased against African and other 
cultural value systems (Helms, 1992; Byrne & Watkins, 2003).