Sunday, October 06, 2019
Not even valid
Vintage.es has a feature on Australian yoots in 1946, originally published by the Aussie equivalent of Life magazine. This picture caught my attention. Three students, obviously dressed for a serious occasion, are using some kind of stylus to poke buttons on a wooden apparatus. The serious dress and faces ruled out a game, so it must have been a mental test, perhaps reaction time? Fortunately the full article with text is available elsewhere online, verifying my guess.
After WW2 "social" "science" was fully dominant, offering false and evil "solutions" to every problem. But aside from the purpose, this machine wasn't even valid by "social" "science" standards. It was crudely built with sharp metal edges and raised parts, so a cautious student would work slower than a risk-taker. In the picture, two boys and one girl are taking the test. The boys are wearing suitcoats with sleeves that could catch on the edge of the box, while the girl is wearing a short-sleeved blouse. She had an extra advantage beyond the innate female tendency toward finer motor skills.
The school system would have been using this device as a supposedly cheat-proof and unbiased correlate of IQ. Risk-takers who rolled up their sleeves would automatically have a higher IQ than cautious and modest students, and would qualify for better scholarships.
Later thought: Despite the invalid correlation to IQ, this test would have correlated beautifully with later status and success. Psychopaths, immune to pain and rules, win every time. Cautious and meticulous people lose every time.
Labels: Blinded by Stats, NOT defensible times
¶ 7:01 AM
