Uses and Abuses of Intelligence

Studies Advancing Spearman and Raven’s Quest for Non-Arbitrary Metrics. Edited by Jean and John Raven, this new book is a compilation of 26 papers that raise fundamental issues in psychometrics. In particular, it looks at the use of arbitrary metrics and arbitrary measures in assessment of human abilities.

Some of the papers focus on the assessment of “meaning-making ability” across cultures and through time, and explore how that ability is a valid construct which can be measured scientifically. From this perspective, it is possible to identify fundamental problems in current approaches to the measurement of change in human abilities. Most conclusions, drawn from intervention outcome studies comparing treatment effects in the “more” versus “less” able educational enrichment programs, are flawed.

Included are papers that show how most evaluations of people and programs are unscientific, most often because they pay too little attention to the comprehensiveness of assessments. Chapters concerned with these issues develop an alternative framework which captures variance that is typically lost, and summarizes research showing how a diversity of talents can be nurtured, recognized, and utilized in developmental environments in homes, schools, and workplaces.

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