Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero!bby.oz.au From: zvs@bby.oz.au (Zev Sero) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: IQ tests (Was Re: sexist space) Message-ID: <1991Jan23.024954.21311@melba.bby.oz.au> Date: 23 Jan 91 02:49:54 GMT References: <11119@helios.TAMU.EDU> <664152739@grad17.cs.duke.edu> <1991Jan18.174824.21081@odin.corp.sgi.com> <1991Jan21.014257.16464@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Sender: nadel@aerospace.aero.org Organization: Burdett, Buckeridge and Young Ltd. Lines: 25 Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org Status: R Helen = hmj@miranda.caltech.EDU (Helen Johnston) Helen> When I took the GRE to come to school here, I remember one Helen> of the logic questions - one of those tests they are so fond of, that Helen> have a whole set of conditions (A hits before C does, B hits two Helen> places after F etc.) which you then have to come up with a solution Helen> for. They gave a set of rules that included things like "Once a Helen> pitcher has been removed from the lineup, he cannot pitch again". I Helen> dutifully read through all these rules several times and solved the Helen> problem. The point was, of course, that any American, and in Helen> particular any American male, would have only needed to glance at the Helen> rules to check whether they are the right ones. I of course was Helen> treating them as abstract conditions, and so presumably took much Helen> longer on the problem. Perhaps the rules given were deliberately not the `right' ones, and that by automatically treating them as abstractions you were actually at an advantage over a baseball fan who would misread the rules or not read them at all, and get the wrong answer. Such `trick' questions are fairly common in that type of test, since what they are trying to measure is your ability to understand and correctly apply information that you are given. -- Zev Sero - zvs@bby.oz.au This I say unto you, be not sexist pigs. - The prophetess, Morgori Oestrydingh (S.Tepper)