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Path: utzoo!watmath!csc
From: csc@watmath.UUCP (Computer Sci Club)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: tests and ability
Message-ID: <7843@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-May-84 15:11:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.7843
Posted: Thu May 24 15:11:23 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 26-May-84 13:22:55 EDT
References: <495@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 30

Lisa Chabot attempts to find a difference between test score and the
ability to take a test, by showing an example where a population
mean is incorrectly estimated due to a poor choice of sample! 
Does Lisa Chabot suggest that the age of mencarche of the women
studied was incorrectly determined because they were not from
a representative sample?

I agree that there is a big difference between saying that
the sample of women (men, monkeys, wombats) we tested had a mean
of x, and saying the mean of all women is x.  Also even if
sampling technique is good, results of a survey can only apply
to the population from which the survey was drawn.  (Good sampling
techniqe and population are related here.  Good sampling technique
means that each member of the population has an equal chance of
being selected)  Extrapolations to other populations are dangerous
(even though they are quite often valid).

There is a difference beween the term I.Q. as it is sometimes used
and the score on some specific I.Q. test.  That is because research
has led us to believe there is some specific set of attributes of
human beings which we can call I.Q.  This I.Q. is highly correlated
to scores on certain tests, but not identical.  That is one might
raise ones score on a test by training in the methods of this test
yet not be said to have raised ones I.Q.  When I talk about I.Q.
I mean the score on some specific I.Q. test.

What does all this have to do with saying there is a difference
between a persons tallness and their ability to take tallness tests?

                                              William Hughes