ildren as having little connection with IQ. Other criticisms are more serious: there is a long and ugly history of using IQ tests for eugenic purposes. One of the more benign eugenic programs involves sorting people into categories for educational purposes.In these programs ("tracking" in the US, "streaming" in England) children are sorted into "fast" and "slow" learners and placed in classes accordingly, which may seriously impact career and life choices.Another use for IQ tests is to predict outcomes. Eyesenck (1998) cites a study in which all five year olds on the Isle of Wight were given IQ tests and final school grades were predicted. At age sixteen, the children were tested again; IQ scores changed very little and grades had been "very accurately" predicted. Eyesenck takes exception to the idea that IQ tests do not measure anything more than the ability to take IQ tests: he emphatically states that IQ predicts achievement. While it is not difficult to see a relationship between achievement and intelligence, defining intelligence as achievement precludes the possibility that some children of lesser intelligence have greater motivation to succeed. This author can cite several personal examples of brilliant students who lack motivation, and less than stellar students who, through determination, achieve great successes. Lewontin, Rose, and Kamen (1984) dismiss outright the idea that IQ tests alone are good predictors of future social success, preferring to attribute it to family environment.Numerous IQ tests exist; by 1978 there were at least 100 tests described as measuring intelligence or ability (Mackintosh, 1998). All of them are validated by how well they agree with older standards such as the Stanford-Binet (Lewontin, Rose, & Kamen, 1984). The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISCIII) are the most often administered IQ tests today, and are composed of eleven subtests an...
