Criticism either focuses on whether such tests are fair (i.e. incorrectly giving lower scores to some groups compared to others) or whether they are inherently biased (i.e. group differences are present but for more complex and nuanced reasons than it would appear). Is intelligence testing USEFUL?
Today, most people consider the construct of IQ as valid and believe that intelligence testing does indeed tap into a universal cognitive capacity. However, intelligence testing has not escaped criticism. Is intelligence testing VALID?
However, the response to this is that g is only a measure of cognitive ability, and so it cannot be judged as invalid for excluding non-cognitive abilities. A more serious criticism lies in the question of whether IQ testing does in fact test human cognition in the way it claims to.
It has been more than 100 years since Charles Spearman observed the correlations between different cognitive test results and introduced the world to his general intelligence factor, g. Today, most people consider the construct of IQ as valid and believe that intelligence testing does indeed tap into a universal cognitive capacity.
Since the dawn of IQ testing, critics have resisted the application of tests to populations other than those they have been developed and normed for. Robert Sternberg showed how culture-dependent cognition is, and how definitions of intelligent behavior in modern IQ tests have an implicit Western bias.
Besides cultural considerations, criticisms of bias in intelligence testing more generally questions which worldview is being promoted and measured through their use, and which worldview is ignored. Criticism either focuses on whether such tests are fair (i.e. incorrectly giving lower scores to some groups compared to others) or whether they are inherently biased (i.e. group differences are present but for more complex and nuanced reasons than it would appear).
Adaptive, appropriate intelligence is something that IQ tests simply do not capture, raising serious questions of their validity.
Though IQ tests have useful application in educational contexts, the unfortunate truth is that they are also the tool of choice for discrimination. Because of the reductive nature of tests, they can be used to perpetuate stereotypes or rationalize judgments that are ultimately unfair or invalid.
The Western conception, however, heavily emphasizes the individualistic computational power that comes with reasoning and problem-solving. This Western conception of intelligence is a little more egocentric, and lacks the more “common sense" elements of wisdom, conscientiousness or correct comportment.
A more serious criticism lies in the question of whether IQ testing does in fact test human cognition in the way it claims to. The work of Kahneman and Tversky won the Nobel Prize for showing that real-world human judgment is prone to irrational errors of reasoning. What’s more, some researchers have discovered that some people are more prone to this irrationality than others – but this difference is something that is not measured by any current IQ test.
Scores on IQ tests have been shown to have high error margins and can vary considerably depending on the day, the testing conditions, and even the rapport with the person administering the test.