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E-Letter responses to:

perspective:
Frank J. Sulloway
PSYCHOLOGY: Birth Order and Intelligence
Science 2007; 316: 1711-1712 [Summary] [Full text] [PDF]
*E-Letters: Submit a response to this article

Published E-Letter responses:

[Read E-Letter] IQ Tests Measure Development, Not Intelligence
Ronald E. Worthington   (5 October 2007)

IQ Tests Measure Development, Not Intelligence 5 October 2007
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Ronald E. Worthington,
Assistant Professor
SIUE School of Phamacy

Respond to this E-Letter:
Re: IQ Tests Measure Development, Not Intelligence

Binet's original protocol and Terman's modifications have little to do with the complex ideas of intelligence we think about today. Science makes a huge error in allowing the reduction of these findings to the intelligence of the individual people studied. The publishing of F. J. Sulloway’s paper ("Birth order and intelligence," Perspectives, 22 June, p. 1711) could lead ill-informed people to discriminate against the second-born. I do not understand why such a paper would be published in Science when almost every school counselor understands that IQ tests measure developmental achievement, not some vague notion that fails to capture the multiple dimensions of human intelligence.

Ronald E. Worthington

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, School of Pharmacy, Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)