SPEARMAN'S HYPOTHESIS TESTED COMPARING SAUDI ARABIAN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH VARIOUS OTHER GROUPS OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS ON THE ITEMS OF THE STANDARD PROGRESSIVE MATRICES

J Biosoc Sci. 2017 Sep;49(5):634-647. doi: 10.1017/S0021932016000535. Epub 2016 Nov 7.

Abstract

Spearman's hypothesis tested at the level of items states that differences between ethnic groups on the items of an IQ test are a function of the g loadings of these items, such that there are small differences between ethnic groups on items with low g loadings and large differences between ethnic groups on items with high g loadings; this has been confirmed in a limited number of studies. In this paper, Spearman's hypothesis was tested, comparing a group of Saudi children and adolescents (N=3209) with other groups of children and adolescents from Denmark, Cyprus, Croatia, Bosnia, South Africa, Estonia, Ukraine, Ireland, Russia and Chile (total N=9333). The analyses were carried out on twelve comparisons between the Saudi Arabian children and the other children. Spearman's hypothesis was confirmed less strongly than in other large-scale studies with a mean weighted r value of 0.44. The relevance of these findings for the discussion on the causes of group differences is discussed.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Cross-Cultural Comparison*
  • Ethnicity / psychology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intelligence Tests / statistics & numerical data*
  • Male
  • Psychometrics
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Statistics, Nonparametric*