Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment by Dawn P. Flanagan

Author:Dawn P. Flanagan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2013-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

Of particular note is the fact that the data were analyzed by groupings generated on the basis of the number of years of residence in the United States. It seems reasonable that this was perhaps related to Yerkes's concerns about the impact of language proficiency; otherwise, it would be extremely curious to arrange the analyses using a variable of no particular significance. Whatever the case, the results seem rather straightforward: The longer a recruit had lived in the United States, the higher his mental age on the Stanford-Binet. Obviously, the causal relationship between these variables was not due to breathing the air or drinking the water in the country; rather it was related directly to the amount of time spent in the United States, which offered increased opportunities for learning about the culture and for developing better proficiency in English, much as Yerkes seems to have suspected. But Brigham (1923) took a decidedly different slant on the results, which he reported in his own book, A Study of American Intelligence, and rendered this analysis:

Instead of considering that our curve indicates a growth of intelligence with increasing length of residence, we are forced to take the reverse of the picture and accept the hypothesis that the curve indicates a gradual deterioration in the class of immigrants examined in the army, who came to this country in each succeeding 5 year period since 1902....The average intelligence of succeeding waves of immigration has become progressively lower. (pp. 110–111, 155)

The degree to which Brigham had to twist and convolute his hypothesis to fit the data is dramatic but not surprising. As noted previously, early psychologists tended to reject outright any differences in mental performance or intelligence that could be ascribed to extrinsic differences. The power of the genetic argument and the purpose for which it was being applied (i.e., institutionalization, involuntary sterilization, immigration restriction) meant that environmental or circumstantial influences could not exist or at best had to be of minimal importance. And where such factors actually might be permitted to stand, they invariably had little to do with reasons for relatively poorer performance of diverse individuals. For example, Brigham (1923) allowed that whereas the Army Alpha may be affected by education, “examination Beta involves no English, and the tests cannot be considered as educational measures in any sense” (p. 100). In addition, perhaps spurred by the war effort, there was a strong “patriotic” theme underlying these efforts. Brigham's thoughts along these lines are readily apparent in some of his other assertions, for example:

If the tests used included some mysterious type of situation that was “typically American,” we are indeed fortunate, for this is America, and the purpose of our inquiry is that of obtaining a measure of the character of our immigration. Inability to respond to a “typically American” situation is obviously an undesirable trait. (p. 96)

At the very outset of the development of mental testing and of the IQ test that lay at the heart of the entire endeavor was the issue

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