The Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT) was constructed by Raymond B. Cattell, PhD, DSc in an attempt to produce a measure of cognitive abilities that accurately estimated intelligence devoid of sociocultural and environmental influences. Scholars have subsequently concluded that the attempt to construct measures of cognitive abilities devoid of the influences of experiential and cultural conditioning is a challenging one. Cattell proposed that general intelligence (g) comprises both Fluid Intelligence (Gf) and Crystallized Intelligence (Gc). Whereas Gf is biologically and constitutionally based, Gc is the actual level of a person's cognitive functioning, based on the augmentation of Gf through sociocultural and experiential learning (including formal schooling). In addition to Gf and Gc, as Gregory John Boyle commented (p. 267), "At the second-stratum level, several major factors (Gf, Gc, Gm, Gps, Gr, Gv, Ga) have been well replicated in numerous studies....Gf is the constitutionally and endowed (innate) intellectual potential which interacts with environmental experience...to produce Gc."
Contents
- Cultural and age differences
- Question items
- Current use
- Direct concept validity
- Convergent validity
- References
Unlike the most widely used individual tests of cognitive abilities, such as the current editions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale, which report cognitive ability scores as "deviation IQs" with 15 IQ points corresponding to one standard deviation above or below the mean, Cattell built into the CFIT a standard deviation of 24 IQ points, thereby allowing for a greater spread of scores and concomitantly greater discrimination. This means that about 68.2 percent of test-takers would obtain IQ scores on the CFIT that lie somewhere between 76 and 124, while scoring between 85 and 115 on most other IQ tests.
Cultural and age differences
Crystallized intelligence (Gc) refers to that aspect of cognition in which initial intelligent judgments have become crystallized as habits. Fluid intelligence (Gf) is in several ways more fundamental and is particularly evident in tests requiring responses to novel situations. Before biological maturity individual differences between Gf and Gc will be mainly a function of differences in cultural opportunity and interest. Among adults, however, these discrepancies will also reflect differences with increasing age because the gap between Gc and Gf will tend to increase with experience which raises Gc, whereas Gf gradually declines as a result of declining brain function.
Question items
The Culture Fair tests consist of three scales with non-verbal visual puzzles. Scale I includes eight subtests of mazes, copying symbols, identifying similar drawings and other non-verbal tasks. Both Scales II and III consists of four subtests that include completing a sequence of drawings, a classification subtest where respondents pick a drawing that is different from other drawings, a matrix subtests that involves completing a matrix of patterns and conditions subtests which involve which out of several geometric designs fulfill a specific given condition.
Current use
The Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test (like the Raven's Progressive Matrices) is not completely free from the influence of culture and learning. Some high-IQ societies, such as The Triple Nine Society, accept high scores on the CFIT-III as one of a variety of old and new tests for admission to the society. A combined minimum raw score of 85 on Forms A and B is required for admission. The tests are used by many including Mensa, which offers a place in their society to anyone scoring in the top 2% IQ scores
Direct concept validity
Direct concept validity (sometimes called construct validity) refers to the degree to which a certain scale correlates with the concept or construct (i.e., source trait) which it purports to measure. Concept validity is thus measured by correlating the scale with the pure factor and this can only be carried out by performing a methodologically sound factor analysis. The relatively high loading of the Culture Fair Intelligence Test on the fluid intelligence factor indicates that the CFIT does, in fact, have a reasonably high direct concept validity with respect to the concept of fluid intelligence. The Culture Fair Intelligence Test was found to load more highly on a "General Intelligence" factor than on an "Achievement" factor, which is consistent with the concept that the CFIT is a measure of "fluid" rather than "crystallized" intelligence.
Convergent validity
Convergent Validity is the extent to which the Culture Fair Intelligence Test correlates with other tests of intelligence, achievement, and aptitude. The intercorrelations between the Culture Fair Intelligence Test and some other intelligence tests have been reported, as shown in the Table below.