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

Recapitulation 361
equal demands on attention, persistence, and effort, such as various
memory tests, Negroes do perform quite well relative to whites.
When various diverse tests and test items are ordered in terms of
the degree to which they discriminate between Negroes and whites,
the one feature which is common to the most discriminating tests
and items is the conceptual and abstract nature of the test material,
or the degree to which they accord with the classic definitions of
the psychological nature of g. Data from other minority groups
who are more environmentally disadvantaged than Negroes support
an opposite conclusion, in accord with the environmental interpretation.
Language Deprivation
This is an unconvincing explanatory hypothesis in view of the
fact that Negroes perform best on the most verbal parts of intelligence
tests and poorest on the least verbal materials. All other
disadvantaged minority groups within the American population
show the opposite trend. Children who are born deaf are the most
verbally deprived subjects we can study. They show marked
deficits on verbal intelligence tests. Yet they perform at an average
level on non-verbal tests, thus showing a pattern of abilities
opposite to that of Negroes.
Poor Motivation
There is no consistent evidence that Negroes are less motivated
in a test situation than are other groups. Some groups (e.g.,
Indians) whose general educational aspirations and self-concepts
are poorer than those of Negroes actually perform better on tests
and in school work. Also, on performance tests specially devised
to maximize the influence of motivational factors and to minimize
the tests’ dependence upon abstract or complex cognitive functions
which would involve g, Negroes do not perform significantly below
whites. The ‘expectancy’ or ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ theory has
not been empirically demonstrated, and when put to proper test
it has failed to be substantiated.
Non-cognitive Tests
Certain perceptual-motor tests such as choice reaction time and
pursuit rotor learning (which has a very high heritability) show
large Negro-white differences even under very highly controlled