Performance and Culture-Fair Tests

Some intelligence tests may discriminate against members of certain cultural or ethnic groups. Culture bias enters testing design when tests reflect subject matter that is primarily known to white middle-class adults or children, and when the tests rely on verbal items. Examples of culturally-biased tests could be paper/pencil, those requiring reading or written responses, speed tests, verbal content tests, tests of recall of past-learned information. Examples of culturally-reduced tests are performance tests, pictorial tests, oral responses, nonverbal content tests, and solving novel problems tests. The Seguin Form Board, the Porteus Maze, and the Bayley Scale of Infant Development are performance tests. The Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test and the Progressive Matrices are examples of culture-fair tests.

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