Educability-and-Group-Differences-1973-by-Arthur-Robert-Jensen

272 Educability and Group Differences
sensitivity to teacher and experimenter differences than is found
with intelligence or achievement tests. The Making Xs test was
given to all the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders in an urban school
system (1,588 whites and 1,242 Negroes). At each grade level, the
Negro mean score was equal to or slightly higher than the white,
and the gain from Part I to Part II was significantly higher for
Negroes than for whites. Thus, on this non-cognitive, motivationsensitive
test there is no evidence that Negro children perform less
well than white children; if anything, just the opposite is true. The
same tester, in the same session, also administered a standard
verbal and non-verbal intelligence test to all these children. The
average white-Negro differences in sigma units (based on the
white SD) were 1-63 for the verbal IQ and 1*70 for the non-verbal
IQ (Jensen & Rohwer, 1970, pp. 55-71). (These differences are
equivalent to about 26 and 27 IQ points.)
It is sometimes claimed that lower performance on IQ tests results
from poor attention, distractability, carelessness, inability to follow
directions, and the like. So a test was devised to measure these
factors independently of intellectual ability per se. The test makes
no demands on knowledge, g, or memory. It is called a Listening-
Attention Test. It is administered in the classroom by means of a
tape recorder. High scores on the Listening-Attention Test
indicate that the subject is able to hear and distinguish correctly
the numbers spoken by the voice on the tape, and to follow
directions, keep pace with the examiner, and mark the answer
sheet properly. The procedure is quite simple. The child is provided
with a two-page answer booklet containing columns of paired
numerals, ten pairs to a column; each column is headed by a
capital letter, alphabetically beginning with A. A clear male voice
from the recorder says, ‘Put the point of your pencil on the letter
A. Now, I am going to say one number in each pair, and you
should cross out the number I say - cross it out with an X. Ready
2 -4 -8 - 9 - 3 - ,’ etc. The numbers are spoken at a 2-second
rate. At the beginning of each series (ten in all), the subject is told
to put his pencil on the letter at the top of the list. This test, too,
was given to all fourth, fifth, and sixth graders (1,423 whites,
1,214 Negroes) in an urban school system. There was no significant
white-Negro difference in mean scores on this test at any grade
level (Jensen & Rohwer, 1970, pp. 58-60).
It might be argued, however, that children perceive whether a