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While it is probably impossible to remove all cultural bias from IQ tests, there are ways to ensure that the test is relevant to as broad a sample of people as possible. This is especially important in highly diverse societies such as the United States. The WAIS-IV includes non-verbal tests such as Block Design and Matrix Reasoning that are not dependent on language and not too dependent on education. Further, the use of abstract, geometric shapes avoids culturally meaningful images. It is also important to exclude items that depend on knowledge that is relevant to only a small percentage of the population. For example, early intelligence tests included items on the make and model of specific cars, which would only be relevant to people who care about and who drive cars. Another important way to reduce cultural bias is to provide norms for different segments of the population. The WAIS-IV includes norms for different age groups and many other cognitive tests provide separate norms for people with different levels of education. Finally, translation of tests into several languages is also very important.

Are IQ tests useful?

The IQ, as measured by the WAIS, does a good job of measuring the kinds of cognitive skills that are useful for functioning in a complex, industrialized, modern society. These include abstract and verbal problem-solving skills and complex attention skills. The IQ gives a good general sense of the person’s overall intellectual performance. But when the data is interpreted, close attention must be paid to the subtests because an individual’s performance may vary widely, with very high scores on some tests and low scores on others. The IQ is also vulnerable to many cultural biases. However, the subtests and the functional indices are very useful for providing a profile of an individual’s cognitive skills. This profile can be helpful in diagnosing various neurological or psychiatric conditions, such as intellectual disability, depression, or attention deficit disorder. Thus, regardless of the person’s IQ score, the profile of subtests can be enormously helpful for clinical purposes.