GimmedaBall
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There's a long history of concern regarding psychometric tests like the SAT, ACT, and in our case, the Wonderlic. Back in 1969, an educational psychologist Arthur Jensen, set off a firestorm of criticism over IQ tests when he suggested that there may be a genetic difference that was the root cause for the differences in IQ tests between different racial/ethnic backgrounds. His notion that it was genetic and 'nature.' The opposing view was that the tests are cultural and until the educational opportunity was equalized, IQ test were measuring that difference and not anything innate between the races, the 'nurture' side of the equation. That debate is still alive (even here in this football forum).
One clever twist on the tests like the SAT that came out during the Jensen firestorm in the 1970's was the test developed by black Professor Robert Williams who created the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity (or BITCH-100). The test was written using black cultural terms (at the time---some are dated today).
When we administered the test to black kids in St. Louis they averaged a 87/100 whereas the white kids in St. Louis got a 51/100.
Some sample BITCH questions here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110715...Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity.htm
The problem now with tossing the Wonderlic into
the cultural bias bin is that the test itself has been in use for so many years that the cultural group that is exposed to the test and is most fully prepared----are college football athletes. It is as much of getting ready for the draft as hitting the gym and running 40 yard sprints and tossing up 225lb bench presses. The college athlete knows the test is coming and knows what type of questions are on the test.
The whole notion of cultural bias depends on being from a culture that is not represented by the test. Now, the 'college football player with aspirations to go pro' is the 'cultural group' most alert and familiar with the test.
You can still argue that the test is not a valid way to measure anything to do with playing pro-ball. The problem with that argument is that it is still in use by the NFL. Every player knows it is coming, every player has opportunity to get familiar with the test, every player is then graded by the same measuring tool. It is like saying that a tape used to measure my height is 'unfair'---but the same tape is used to measure the height of every player.
(Wonder how different the scores on the BITCH test would be today with the acceptance of Rap, hip-hop, movies, cultural awareness, etc??)
