Oh boy.
I assume most people who'd read my tweets can already spot a whole bunch of cultural assumptions here.
What's interesting is this idea that is something doesn't use formal language it doesn't represent a culture and hence can't have cultural biases.
I assume most people who'd read my tweets can already spot a whole bunch of cultural assumptions here.
What's interesting is this idea that is something doesn't use formal language it doesn't represent a culture and hence can't have cultural biases.
Molyneux isn't even making the right claim about this style of IQ items - the more sensible claim is that such items reduce LANGUAGE biases. That claim is also flawed but at least it makes more sense than Molyneux's.
Presenting a task without verbal clues* and expecting somebody to complete it correctly is itself a cultural bias. A person who already fully understand what is expected of them has an advantage
*[there would be some broader instructions but the task itself is wordless]
*[there would be some broader instructions but the task itself is wordless]
Think about a basic task in a strange city, like catching public transport. You are surrounded by people who manage it almost unthinkingly but you the tourist have to seek out help & guidance. You don't know the rules!
Understanding what kind of thing this is essential to answering it. If you are familiar with such tests, the visuals alone are enough for you to know that this is an image from an IQ like test & you know what such tests are used for.
If you recognise 'an IQ' test then you already know a heap of cultural knowledge about them: the status some people attach to IQ, the decisions an educator or employer might make using them. That knowledge affects your motivation.
MOTIVATION & other aspects of the affective domain have BIG BIG impacts on test performance! Plenty of data to back that up but a moments introspection will confirm that. It's easy to do badly in a test that you don't want to do well in!
The better you understand the unwritten rules, the conventions of the genre & what kind of thing culturally the test is, the more you can maximise your score. Sure, how smart you are matters *as well* but the comparison of scores is only sensible against people equally in tune...
...with the cultural setting & the consequences. Thinking this is culturally neutral because it doesn't use words is like thinking how you dress is culturally neutral if your clothes don't have words on them.
Diving in further, it's worth looking at the question used. It's not flawed and hence answering it requires a kind of creative empathy i.e. "What kind of answer does the creator this question WANT me to give?" Even knowing that's how you should approach such questions is cultural
I redrew the question. Here's the set-up: 
One circle becomes/is equivalent to/matches (whatever that double-headed arrow is supposed to mean) three overlapping circles. The question wants the same but for triangles. The options are:
All four of the options are THREE triangles. So at one level all four options are correct! They all do one aspect of the problem! So, you can pick any one of them and be right! No? No. Because the question only has ONE permissible answer...
This a game & participants who are familiar with multiple-choice style tests already know that rule - they probably don't even have to think about that rule, its so ingrained (more so US than UK)
So what's the right answer? Here you go:
3 triangles overlapping to create 7 regions, just like the circles!
Yay! I win the game! Except...
3 triangles overlapping to create 7 regions, just like the circles!
Yay! I win the game! Except...
...that answer isn't one of the options! Why not? Because it is a pain to draw three triangles that overlap that way. It's even harder if you unthinkingly adopt a hidden but pervasive rule of drawing triangles in our culture...
...that rule is that by default triangles 'sit' on a page with one side horizontal as if the page had gravity and the 'bottom' of the page was literally downward. True of other shapes as well...
...many people will regard these two shapes as different even though they are congruent. Ask kids (probably lots of adults) many will call the second square a diamond. Orientation is not an inherent property of a square but we get a cultural quirk that makes it matter
...that quirk is obvious in the options and why a better answer isn't there. So we can deduce the number of regions can't matter but overlaps do. Oh but TWO options have overlapping sets of triangles. Again, we know CULTURALLY, two options can't both be right.
Really we can't fault the option that is three triangles aligned vertically. It's not a good answer but so what? The GOOD answer isn't there. Still we can guess that the writer of the question wants the other answer...
...interestingly it is one of the non-overlapping answers that reinforces it. The top left option points to the arrangement being relevant to the writer. So I'd guess the bottom right image...
...of course if I was doing the test for reals my thinking would be less overt but underneath it is still this weird thinking about another person. "They drew this with circles, what will they draw with triangles?"
...the idea that this is a pure case of abstract reasoning is bunk. There's reasoning but that reasoning is also cultural and psychological (guessing what another person is thinking)
Punchline: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A CULTURE FREE IQ TEST. The example used may have its uses (eg a cognitive test with low reading load can help identify specific learning issues) but it ain't culture free.
Just appending a couple of pictures that I drew in side threads.
1. a neater solution that still has the triangles 'pointing up'
2. a 'what if it was squares' solution
3. a surplus point: I enjoy problems like this one, that's an extra cultural bias which would advantage me
1. a neater solution that still has the triangles 'pointing up'
2. a 'what if it was squares' solution
3. a surplus point: I enjoy problems like this one, that's an extra cultural bias which would advantage me
