Can IQ Testing Be Improved

¶ … Cultural Fairness of the Stanford-Binet-5 (SB5) Intelligence Scale This paper reviews the literature to determine whether the Standford-Binet-5 (SB5) Intelligence Scale can be regarded as being culturally fair. A discussion concerning how creativity can be measured is followed by an assessment concerning whether people should be told their IQ scores and their rationale in support. Finally, a summary of the research concerning these issues is presented in the conclusion. The SB5 can be used with virtually any age range spanning 2 years through 90 years+ (Machek, 2006).

The updated SB5 also provides a number of useful measures, including a Full Scale score, Visual-Spatial Processing, Fluid Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning Knowledge, and Working Memory together with scales for verbal and nonverbal performance comparisons (Machek, 2006). Even one of the designers of the SB5, though, concedes that the results of this intelligence quotient (IQ) test must be carefully evaluated and interpreted by recognizing that intelligence is multifaceted and comprises more than a single "Full Scale score" (Roid & Shaugnessey, 2009).

Moreover, standardized tests such as the SB5 has been widely criticized for being inherently biased towards minorities and lower-income individuals (Mendoza-Denton, 2014) which reflects a fundamental cultural unfairness Fortunately, there are other ways to measure creativity besides standardized tests and other paper-and-pencil examinations. Creativity can be an elusive quality that defies quantification and codification, but the historical record confirms that it exists in virtually everyone, varying only in quality and quantity. In order to measure something, though, it must first be quantified, making this type of enterprise especially challenging.

Indeed, gauging an individual's level of creativity is a highly subject affair, and what may appear creative to one observer might appear as mere repetition or derivative by others. Nevertheless, like the Supreme Court justice who rationalized that he could not define pornography, but "he knew it when he saw it," creativity is in fact measurable in a number of ways. For instance, individuals' level of prolificity in their career fields could be used as a rough gauge of their creativity, but even here there are constraints.

After all, one masterpiece by a truly creative individual can outweigh the collective creativity of a life's work by a hack, so other ways to measure creativity as well. For this purpose, some researchers have broken the creative process down into individual constituent elements so that they can be assessed quantitatively such as problem-based learning exercises (Wynder, 2008). In addition, increasing numbers of educators are using the case study approach to encourage creativity in students by making them "think outside the box" in developing solutions to real-world problems (Wynder, 2008).

The major concern with using these approaches, though, is that in an attempt to develop students' sense of creativity, the testing process will only serve to stifle it (Wynder, 2008). Finally, people should be told their IQ scores because they are in the best position to know how to use this information.

Not telling people their IQ scores is tantamount to withholding medical tests results because people can take action to improve their testing ability (which is not the same thing as IQ of course) just as they could take action if informed of alarming medical test results. Conclusion The research showed that one of the most commonly used intelligence tests today is the Standford-Binet-5 (SB5) Intelligence Scale. The research also showed that even one of the designers of this test concedes that intelligence is multifaceted and it is not possible.