Critical Appraisal
Critical Appraisal of ‘Intelligence and General Knowledge: validation of new measurement instruments.’
The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the validity of intelligence and general knowledge measurement instruments and therefore assess the extent to which these measures are an effective and accurate psychometric indication of one’s intelligence and general knowledge abilities. Arguably, the ability of researchers to accurately measure intellectual abilities is somewhat limited as, although a general perspective may be put forward, there is also two main contradicting approaches to adult intelligence. For example Gilbert (1935) suggested that intelligence declines during early adulthood; however Bayley (1955) later put forward that the IQs of individuals were stable and enduring throughout adulthood. Thus, the present experiment also aims to address the validity of new measurement instruments as previous work is now, perhaps, outdated. Various researches have been conducted in this area to investigate the validity of various measures of intelligence and have found number of issues that may be raised questioning the true accuracy. For example …show more content…
Though the study had high levels of control by timing individuals, participants were aware of the experimenter sitting in the room timing them and so may have put additional pressure on them when answering the questions. Therefore, some participants may not perform as well as they could have due to knowing they were being timed and watched, thus even if the test items satisfied various psychometric properties, this might still be an inaccurate measure of one’s intellect and general knowledge. Additionally, the conditions in which participants were being tested may have affected their ability to retrieve information they already knew but could not remember at the
The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the validity of intelligence and general knowledge measurement instruments and therefore assess the extent to which these measures are an effective and accurate psychometric indication of one’s intelligence and general knowledge abilities. Arguably, the ability of researchers to accurately measure intellectual abilities is somewhat limited as, although a general perspective may be put forward, there is also two main contradicting approaches to adult intelligence. For example Gilbert (1935) suggested that intelligence declines during early adulthood; however Bayley (1955) later put forward that the IQs of individuals were stable and enduring throughout adulthood. Thus, the present experiment also aims to address the validity of new measurement instruments as previous work is now, perhaps, outdated. Various researches have been conducted in this area to investigate the validity of various measures of intelligence and have found number of issues that may be raised questioning the true accuracy. For example …show more content…
Though the study had high levels of control by timing individuals, participants were aware of the experimenter sitting in the room timing them and so may have put additional pressure on them when answering the questions. Therefore, some participants may not perform as well as they could have due to knowing they were being timed and watched, thus even if the test items satisfied various psychometric properties, this might still be an inaccurate measure of one’s intellect and general knowledge. Additionally, the conditions in which participants were being tested may have affected their ability to retrieve information they already knew but could not remember at the