Cultural Influences on Ability
Culture influences people through experience. Profound.
There are two main ways in which culture will affect ability scores (a) through values and therefore motivation, and (b) through practice and relevant experience in doing something that affects the ability to solves certain types of problems.
Values
Hopi or other American Indians -- saving face
Solving arithmetic problems at the board in front of the class. Several students approach the board at once. The teacher reads the problem (e.g., 10 plus 2) the students copy the problem on the board and solve it. Some indians refuse to solve such problems because if they are correct and some of their fellow students are wrong, their fellows will look bad or lose face. The strong collective orientation of these people makes them avoid social harm to others and they therefore fail to solve such problems.
Kpelle
Kpelle functional vs formal groups of objects -- survival value? Kpelle farmers were asked to group objects into classes that "go together." Adults, according to Piaget, should group objects according to formal properties
Age and general intelligence -- older folks get bored
Practice
Many cultures -- telling stories vs lists; shows up as test taking technique
Acrobats and conservation -- stealing clay
Shilluk and block design -- color and shape in ceremony
Samoan Morse Code sending -- experience with music
Western Culture -- abstract reasoning
Q: How different are cultural experiences within the United States? What factors tend to homogenize our culture?
Q: What cultural differences in value and practice between poor and wealthy people in the U.S. could have an impact on tests of general ability?
Q: Why is general academic ability so important in our culture?
Suppose an academic ability test is given in English to someone who moved from a non-English speaking country at the beginning of the twelfth grade. Suppose this person had 3 years of English in high school. Suppose they arrive from Denmark, and take the SAT in October, having been here about 3 months.
Q: Will their scores be higher or lower than others applying for college?
Q: Will the SAT paint an accurate picture of their ability?
Q: If they go to college, will they do better or worse than those who got similar scores on the test but who grew up in the U.S?
Q: If they had come to the U.S. a year earlier, what about (a) the size of the score, the accuracy of the prediction, and the comparability of the score to others?