re: #167 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

IQ tests measure how well a person performs on an IQ test. Those results might be related to their relative intelligence, but not directly enough to draw definitive conclusions.

Quite true, but that distinction is lost on many who want IQ tests to measure intelligence. One of my profs in graduate school used IQ tests as an example of reification — making something abstract (a score on an exam) into something real (that person’s “intelligence”). In addition, IQ tests can only measure a small section of a person’s native intelligence, and while they try to avoid it the test are inevitably culturally biased. And guess which culture is predominantly represented in IQ tests.

The Burt-Shockley-Murray school of reifying IQ tests just puts a thin scientific layer on innate prejudice and bigotry.