The Case for Fair Testing: Moving Beyond Culturally Biased Intelligence Assessments

IQ Research
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Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2024.101873

This study examined whether intelligence tests give fair results to children from migrant backgrounds by analyzing the German IDS-2 intelligence test across 132 migrant and 1,898 non-migrant children and teenagers. They tested measurement invariance, and the researchers found that while most of test worked fairly across groups, three verbal subtests systematically disadvantaged migrant children (even those who were educationally proficient in German and come from highly educated families). This resulted in about 4 IQ points being deducted from migrant children’s overall scores, not due to actual IQ differences, but because of cultural and linguistic factor in the test design.

I think what’s interesting about this is how they challenged fundamental assumptions in intelligence testing and called for reform in practice. They showed that language proficiency (not cognitive complexity) drove general intelligence differences in a group (they kind of refuted Spearman’s hypothesis in terms of group differences).

They emphasize that practitioners must exercise cultural competence when interpreting results and consider migration experiences. They also advocate for developing truly culture-fair, language-free intelligence tests and to call for all major IQ tests to undergo rigorous bias testing across demographic groups.

Apart from that, the research called for a “paradigm shift” in how we understand and measure cognitive ability across diverse populations. Rather than accepting group differences as reflections of inherent ability, it demonstrates that what we often attribute to intelligence differences may actually be cultural and linguistic advantages built into our testing instruments.

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The 4-point deduction is significant, especially since it’s not measuring actual cognitive ability but test bias. What really stands out is that this affected even highly educated migrant families so it’s not just about education or language proficiency, but something deeper about how verbal subtests are constructed. The fact that they found partial measurement invariance (not full) means we’ve been systematically underestimating migrant children’s intelligence for decades using these tests. This has real consequences for gifted program placement, special education referrals, and educational tracking. The call for non-verbal, culture-fair tests isn’t new, but this study adds compelling evidence that we actually need them.

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This basically confirms what critics have been saying forever, IQ tests aren’t culturally neutral, even when translated. The verbal subtests aren’t just measuring reasoning; they’re measuring cultural knowledge, idiomatic language use, and familiarity with Western educational contexts. A kid who’s fluent in German but comes from a Turkish or Syrian household might miss cultural references or metaphors that native German kids absorb automatically. The solution isn’t to throw out IQ testing entirely, but to use non-verbal measures (like Raven’s) when testing diverse populations and interpret verbal scores with extreme caution. Until tests are properly validated across cultural groups, we’re basically penalizing kids for having different life experiences.