CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 284Cognitive Abilities and TestingPsychometric Methodologies and TestingIntergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 310 of the 310 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The nature of the black–white difference on various psychometric tests: Spearman's hypothesis

Jensen, Arthur R.·1985·Behavioral and Brain Sciences
DOI 10.1017/s0140525x00020392
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Although the black and white populations in the United States differ, on average, by about one standard deviation (equivalent to 15 IQ points) on current IQ tests, they differ by various amounts on different tests. The present study examines the nature of the highly variable black–white difference across diverse tests and indicates the major systematic source of this between-population variation, namely, Spearman's g. Charles Spearman originally suggested in 1927 that the varying magnitude of the mean difference between black and white populations on a variety of mental tests is directly related to the size of the test's loading on g , the general factor common to all complex tests of mental ability. Eleven large-scale studies, each comprising anywhere from 6 to 13 diverse tests, show a significant and substantial correlation between tests' g loadings and the mean black–white difference (expressed in standard score units) on the various tests. Hence, in accord with Spearman's hypothesis, the average black–white difference on diverse mental tests may be interpreted as chiefly a difference in g , rather than as a difference in the more specific sources of test score variance associated with any particular informational content, scholastic knowledge, specific acquired skill, or type of test. The results of recent chronometric studies of relatively simple cognitive tasks suggest that the g factor is related, at least in part, to the speed and efficiency of certain basic information-processing capacities. The consistent relationship of these processing variables to g and to Spearman's hypothesis suggests the hypothesis that the differences between black and white populations in the rate of information processing may account for a part of the average black–white difference on standard IQ tests and their educational and occupational correlates.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s0140525x00020392

Cites

310 of 310 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 289 references

Research works printed but not linked: 60

  1. Oceam, 1965, Gulielmi Ockham opera omnia philosophica et theologica
  2. Brand, 1984, Psychological Survey, 5
  3. Roth, 1964, Die geschwindigkeit der Verarbeitung von Information und ihr Zusammenhang mit Intelligenz, Zeitschrift für experimentelle und angewandte Psychologie, 11, 616
  4. Fraser I. C. (1984) The psychophysiological measurement of adult intelligence. Thesis, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh. [CB]
  5. 10.1037/0012-1649.13.3.184 · DOI
  6. 10.1037/0022-0663.75.2.207 · DOI
  7. Frederiksen, 1980, Aptitude, learning, and instruction. Vol. 1: Cognitive process analyses of aptitude
  8. Schechter, 1984, Attention selectively modulates parallel visual processes. Abstract, 10
  9. 1982, Profile of American youth: 1980 nationwide administration of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
  10. McGurk, 1951, Comparison of the performance of Negro and white high school seniors on cultural and noncultural psychological test questions
  11. 10.2307/1129977 · DOI
  12. Parmellee, 1983, Handbook of child psychology, infancy and developmental psychobiology, 2
  13. Ogbu, 1982, The language of children reared in poverty
  14. Hunter, 1982, Project SOAR: Teaching cognitive skills in a pre-college program, Journal of learning Skills, 2, 24
  15. Spearman, 1927, The abilities of man
  16. Baker, 1974, Race
  17. Sharp D. M. (1984) Inspection time, decision time and visual masking. Thesis, Department of Psychology, University of Aberdeen. [CB]
  18. Garrett, 1935, The age factor in mentalorganization, Archives of Psychology, 176
  19. 1970, Manual for the USES General Aptitude Test Battery
  20. Bouchard, 1982, 1983 Yearbook of science and the future
  21. Posner, 1982, Perspectives on mental representations
  22. Cole, 1968, Some experimental studies of Kpelle quantitative behavior, Psychonomic Monograph Supplement, 173
  23. Harlow, 1959, Psychology: A study of a science, 2
  24. Hendrickson, 1982, model for intelligence
  25. 1950, The Culture Fair Intelligence Test Series
  26. Horn, 1966, Short period fluctuations in intelligence
  27. Welford, 1980, Reaction times
  28. Noble, 1978, Human variation: The biopsychology of age, race, and sex
  29. Scarr, 1981, Race, social class, and individual differences in IQ
  30. Sternberg, 1984, Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of intelligence
  31. Heber, 1973, Exceptional infant, 3
  32. Karrer, 1984, An analysis of input, central, and motor segments of response time in the mentally retarded
  33. Whimbey, 1984, Mastering reading through reasoning
  34. Jensen, 1979, g: Outmoded theory or unconquered frontier?, Creative Science and Technology, 2, 16
  35. 10.3102/00028312010004263 · DOI
  36. Gorsuch, 1974, Factor analysis
  37. Sisco F. H. (1982) Sex differences in the performance of deaf children on the WISC-R Performance Scale. Doctoral dissertation. University of Florida. University Microfilms no. DA 8226432. [taARJ]
  38. Veroff, 1971, Measuring intelligence and achievement motivation in surveys
  39. Ryan, 1981, Reading research: Advances in theory and practice, 3
  40. Whimbey, 1983, Analytical reading and reading
  41. Scarr, 1982, A handbook of human intelligence
  42. Whimbey, 1982, Problem solving and comprehension: A short course in analytical reasoning
  43. Bardis, 1969, The principle of instrumental parsimony, Revue Internationale de Sociologie, 92
  44. Carr, 1984, Learning and cognition in the mentally retarded
  45. McGurk, 1975, Race differences-twenty years later, Homo, 26, 219
  46. Stankov, 1983, The role of competition in human abilities revealed through auditory tests, Multivariate Behavioral Research
  47. Blau, 1981, Black children/white children
  48. Tierney, 1984, Handbook of reading research
  49. Hennessy J. J. (1974) Structure and patterns of mental abilities in several ethnic groups. Doctoral dissertation, New York University. University Microfilms no. 74–24, 997. [taARJ]
  50. Cooper, 1982, Handbook of human intelligence
  51. Ombrédane, 1956, Résultats d'une application répétée du matrix-couleur á une population de Noirs Congolai [Results of a repeated administration of the coloured matrices to a population of Congolese Blacks], Bulletin du Centre d'Etudes et Recherches Psychotechniques, 5, 129
  52. Butterfield, Intelligence and cognition in special children
  53. Klahr, 1976, Cognitive development
  54. Schafer, 1984, Habituation of evoked cortical potentials correlates with intelligence, Psychophysiology, 21, 597
  55. Fitts, 1967, Human performance
  56. Bock, 1981, The profile of American youth: Data quality analysis of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
  57. Vavrus, 1983, Component skill profiles of reading ability: Variations, tradeoffs, and compensations
  58. Whimbey, 1981, Competency in comprehension (and scientific literacy) as reasoning
  59. Humphreys, 1983, Review of Ability testing by A. K. Wigdor and W. R. Garner, American Scientist, 71, 302
  60. Paul S. (1985) Speed of information processing: The semantic verification test and general mental ability. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. [rARJ]

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 284

Related

Metadata

Authors
Jensen, A. R.
Affiliations
University of California System (US)
Corresponding author
Jensen, Arthur R.
Venue
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
1985-07
Volume
8
Issue
2
Pages
193-219
ISSN
  • 0140-525X (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-1825
DOI
10.1017/s0140525x00020392
OpenAlex
W1994167260
Cited by
284
References
289
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
FWCI
20.12
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 8984 d)
Locations
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
Keywords
Spearman's hypothesis, general intelligence factor, g-loading, racial differences in intelligence, processing speed, psychometric tests

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review