Warne Russell T, Burton Jared Z, Gibbons Aisa, Melendez Daniel A
Department of Behavioral Science, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT 84058, USA.
Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80210, USA.
J Intell. 2019 Feb 20;7(1):6. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence7010006.
In , Stephen Jay Gould argued that the preconceived beliefs and biases of scientists influence their methods and conclusions. To show the potential consequences of this, Gould used examples from the early days of psychometrics and allied fields, arguing that inappropriate assumptions and an elitist desire to rank individuals and/or groups produced incorrect results. In this article, we investigate a section of in which Gould evaluated the Army Beta intelligence test for illiterate American draftees in World War I. We evaluated Gould's arguments that the Army Beta (a) had inappropriate content, (b) had unsuitable administration conditions, (c) suffered from short time limits, and (d) could not have measured intelligence. By consulting the historical record and conducting a pre-registered replication of Gould's administration of the test to a sample of college students, we show that Gould mischaracterized the Army Beta in a number of ways. Instead, the Army Beta was a well-designed test by the standards of the time, and all evidence indicates that it measured intelligence a century ago and can, to some extent, do so today.
1981年，斯蒂芬·杰伊·古尔德认为，科学家们先入为主的信念和偏见会影响他们的方法和结论。为了说明这可能产生的后果，古尔德引用了心理测量学及相关领域早期的例子，认为不恰当的假设以及将个人和/或群体进行排名的精英主义愿望导致了错误的结果。在本文中，我们研究了古尔德对第一次世界大战期间美国文盲应征入伍者进行陆军乙种智力测试评估的一个章节。我们评估了古尔德的论点，即陆军乙种测试（a）内容不恰当，（b）施测条件不合适，（c）时间限制过短，以及（d）无法测量智力。通过查阅历史记录并对古尔德对大学生样本进行测试的过程进行预先注册的复制，我们发现古尔德在许多方面错误描述了陆军乙种测试。相反，按照当时的标准，陆军乙种测试是一个设计良好的测试，所有证据表明它在一个世纪前能够测量智力，并且在某种程度上今天仍然可以。
