Culture Fair Intelligence Test

Ø  Author:

Culture Fair Intelligence Test was named after the English-born US psychologist Raymond B(ernard) Cattell (1905–98) who first published it in the Journal of Educational Psychology in 1940, describing it as ‘culture-free’. (Cattell Culture-Fair Test) This test was originally called the “Culture Free Intelligence Test” but was changed when it became evident that cultural influences cannot be completely extirpated from tests of intelligence. (Gregory, Culture Fait Intelligence Test (CFIT), 2004)

Ø  Theoretical Perspective:

Cattell and horn (Gregory, R. Cattell and the Fluid/Crystallized Distinction, 2004) used factor analysis to study the structure of intelligence. They argued that general intelligence exists and consists of two factors: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

Abbreviated as Gf, Fluid intelligence is a largely nonverbal and relatively culture-reduced form of mental efficiency. It is related to a person’s inherent capacity to learn and solve problems. Thus, fluid intelligence is used when a task requires adaptation to a new situation. For these reasons, Cattell believed that measures of fluid intelligence were culture-free. Based on this assumption, he devised the Culture Fair Intelligence test in an attempt to eliminate cultural bias in testing.

Ø  Purpose:

Cattell Culture Fair Test is an intelligence test designed specifically to measure the fluid intelligence in a manner avoid the test bias assumed to affect scores on more conventional tests, such as the Wechsler scales and the Stanford-Binet test, by excluding items requiring linguistic skills and general knowledge.

Ø Applications:

Some high-IQ societies, for example The Triple Nine Society, accept the CFIT-III as one of a variety of old and new tests for admission to the society. A combined raw score of 85 on forms A and B is required for admission. CFT 3 also informs about the intellectual capability of the examinee. It helps in the identification of emotional or learning problems. It is helpful in assessing an applicant’s potential to perform job relevant tasks that involve cognitive ability. It is also used in selecting students with regards to their probable success in college in chance of attaining scholarships, and increasing the effectiveness of vocational guidance decisions both for students and adults.

Ø  Reason of Selection:

For our final project, we were given the domain of “Intelligence testing.” For this reason, we made a list of the main and common intelligence tests used today. Out of that list, each group member selected a kind of test. This is the method and reason of why I selected the “Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test.”

This test may be selected by test takers because of its claim to be “culture fair”, and thus may be able to give accurate IQ scores, although it is seen that this claim may be wrong as the goal of producing a culture-fair test has not been achieved by CFIT.

Ø  Developmental Phases (Orna, 2013):

Cattell got interested in the measurement of intelligence in late 1920. This work resulted to the publications of the Cattell Group and Intelligence test in 1930. After 5 years, several of the scales were revised into non-verbal form to diminish the unwanted and unnecessary effects of verbal fluency in the measurement of intelligence.

Another version of the test appeared in 1940. At this stage, items had become completely perceptual and were organized to six subtests, three of which have been retained in the present format. Of the 159 items analyzed, 72 of satisfactory validity and reliability were retained for the published edition.

In 1949, CFIT underwent another revision and adopted the format. This format has been retained since, consisting of four subtests (series, classification, matrices and conditions) at each of two difficult levels.

In 1961, there was a slight adjustment in the difficulty level sequencing for a few items. Norm samples were expanded to achieve better national representation. This resulted in its current form.

Ø  Mode of Administration:

There are three scales of Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test (Orna, 2013):

·         Scale 1, ages 4-8, and cognitively impaired adults (has eight subtests and requires individual administration)

·         Scale 2, ages 8-13 and average adults

·         Scale 3, 13-17 and superior adults

·         Scale 1 involves considerable interaction between tester and the examine – four of the subtests must be administered individually (Gregory, Culture Fait Intelligence Test (CFIT), 2004). Thus, in some respects, scale 1 is more of an individual intelligence test than a group test.

·         The scale 2 and 3 contain two equivalent forms as A and B (Orna, 2013). Each form can be administered individually or with combination of the other form. When it is administered individually, it is called short intelligence test. However, when the both forms of a scale are combined, it is called a full scale test.

·         Scales 2 and 3 have four subtests (four kinds of IQ Problems):

·         Series: In this subtest, the individual has to select the item that completes the series. He is presented with an incomplete, progressive series.

·         In scale 2, series has 12 items to be completed in 3 minutes. In the series portion of scale 3, 13 items have to be completed in 3 minutes.

·         Classification: In this subtest, that item in each row has to be marked that does not belong with the others. This subtest differs slightly in scale 2 and 3. In scale 2, the individual is presented with 5 figures. He must select 1, which is different from the other four.

·         In scale 3, the individual must correctly identify 2 figures, which are in some ways different from the others.

·         In scale 2, the classification subtest has 14 items to be completed in 4 minutes. Same is the case for the classification subtest in scale 3.

·         Matrices: In this subtest, that that item has to be marked that completes the given matrix of the pattern.

·         In scale 2, the matrices subtest has 12 items to be completed in 3 minutes. In the matrices portion of scale 3, 13 items have to be completed in 3 minutes.

·         Conditions: The subtest conditions requires the individual to select on the five choices provided, the duplicate conditions given in the far left box.

·         In scale 2, the conditions subtest has 8 items to be completed in 2 ½ minutes. In the conditions portion of scale 3, 10 items have to be completed in 2 ½ minutes.

·         This test can be administered both on the individual and in groups. Total administration time is 12 ½ minutes. The total number of items in scale 2 is 46, and the total number of items in scale 3 is 50. Answers can be marked in the test booklet of eight pages or on a separate answer sheet.

Ø  Scoring:

Percentiles of raw scores are calculated (Gregory, Culture Fait Intelligence Test (CFIT), 2004), and then these percentiles are converted into normalized standard score IQs with the mean of 100 and standard deviation of 16.

Ø Psychometric Details:

Ø  Reliability:

There is an entirely satisfactory internal consistency of the general score (Cronbach’s alpha .80). The part A is slightly lower, but satisfactory nevertheless (Cronbach’s alpha .77 – .81 depending on the sample). There is high test-retest reliability in adults, lower in high school students. The scores are significantly better after 3 weeks. (CFT 3. Culture Fair Intelligence Test – Version 3 Raymond B.Cattell, Alberta K.S. Cattell)

Ø  Validity:

The validity of the CFT 3 as a test measuring fluid intelligence proved by: decreasing of scores with the age, high correlations with the scores of fluid intelligence tests (Raven’s Matrices and Raven’s Matrices Advanced), significant, but lower, with crystallized intelligence tests (Omnibus, APIS, TRS-Z), correlation of CFT 3 scores  with school grades in high school students. (CFT 3. Culture Fair Intelligence Test – Version 3 Raymond B.Cattell, Alberta K.S. Cattell)

Ø  Norms: 

For high school students (3rd graders), university students, adults with higher education level – for the overall score part A, and for the general score (part A + part B). (CFT 3. Culture Fair Intelligence Test – Version 3 Raymond B.Cattell, Alberta K.S. Cattell)

Ø Standardization:

The developers of the culture fair test took considerably large samples of the population to standardize the results. (Features of the Culture Fair Intelligence Test)

The standardized group for the scale 2 was comprised of 4328 people including males and females. The developers included population not only from various regions of the United States but also from the Great Britain. (Features of the Culture Fair Intelligence Test)

The standardized group for the scale 3 of the culture fair intelligence test was comprised of 3140 people. This sample included students from the American High Schools and young adults from all over the America. (Features of the Culture Fair Intelligence Test)

However, critics reject the standardization of the culture fair intelligence test on solid grounds. They rightly claim that the sample was not fully representative. The standardization process has not even described percentages of women, African American, Americans and other sections of the population. Thus the whole process of standardization is faulty and misleading. (Features of the Culture Fair Intelligence Test)

Ø Use of Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test in Pakistan:

Mensa is the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. It provides a forum for intellectual exchange among its members. There are members in more than 100 countries around the world (What is Mensa?). Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test is used in conjunction with Stanford Binet test in the Figure Reasoning Test (FRT) portion of their IQ test. This test is administered all over Pakistan in order to admit people with high IQ in their organization.

Ø  Comments on administration, scoring and interpretation:

The CFIT is an excellent brief, nonverbal measure of general intelligence (Gregory, Culture Fait Intelligence Test (CFIT), 2004). Even when form A and form B are both used to obtain what is referred to as the full test, the CFIT can be administered to large groups in less than an hour. An important caution to test users is that the laudable goal of producing a culture-fair test has not been accomplished by the CFIT. It is doubtful that a truly culture fair test is even possible. 

Even though the CFIT is a worthy test, it is badly in need of revision and renorming (Gregory, Culture Fait Intelligence Test (CFIT), 2004). The test is rather old-fashioned in appearance. Some of the test item drawings are so small that only persons with perfect vision can infer the figural relationships depicted in the item components. Previous standardization samples have been poorly specified and would appear to be convenience samples rather than carefully selected stratified representations of the population at large.