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| Testing The Nation | |
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The BBC are going to determine the nation's IQ in a live television programme,
with the studio audience, interactive TV viewers and internet users returning
answers in real time so we'll know just how bright the country is by the
end of the programme.
Although this is the sort of thing one expects to see on Tomorrow's World, the
fact that this is being broadcast on a Saturday evening may create a large
enough, and diverse enough, audience to make the results meaningful. I however
doubt it. Hosted by Anne "That Surly Cow" Robinson and Phillip "Dreamcoat" Schoffield, it
is more likely that "Test the Nation" will be an adventure in cheap
entertainment rather than a serious study into intelligence.
That IQ tests are arguably flawed anyway is compounded by the format of the
programme and its pre-broadcast advertising.
The studio audience will be split into sections to try and determine which
group of society is most intelligent, but how they are defining the
boundaries has not been stated. Although this is meant to be an investigation
into the intelligence of the British public, the BBC couldn't resist turning
it into yet another Quiz Show challenge.
The advertising trailers aren't much better; "Mum, which is the odd one out; a
Pekinese, a Chihuahua, a Rottweiller, or Anne Robinson ?"
It looks like the BBC are deliberately targeting the "I'm better than you"
element of our characters; "I knew the answer, you didn't".
Turning what could be an interesting opportunity into a quiz, where groups
are competing to see who is better than the others, and backing the result up
with some mumbo-jumbo of scientific support isn't what we need.
Although the associated web site does explain the failings of IQ tests and their
rather chequered past, this hasn't stopped them jumping on the bandwagon of
racist and supremacists before them - "Are blondes really dumb ? !". Well they
will be so classed if they happen not to be the sort of people who can answer
the questions posed, and with just 70 questions, it's not going to be a very
fair challenge. The BBC have split their results into 5 age groups, but those under 16 can only
play non-interactively, or are told to register in the 16 to 19 age group. There
is a warning that their results may be lower than the average result for that
age group, but no acknowledgement that those at the academic height of
schooling may have their levels pulled down by younger members with
unsurprisingly lower IQ's. The BBC do address the question, "What if I get a low score ?". Resisting the
urge to say, "You're a completely thick no hoper, you're destined for a life of
visiting the dole office", they do admit that IQ scores are not a definitive
measure of intelligence, and even suggest ways of being able to improve your
IQ score. Rather patronisingly they suggest that, "If your idea of mental exercise is
counting the number of beers you had last night then you need to get in shape
and train your brain for the big event". It reminded me of a letter in Viz
which went along the lines of, "In reply to the previous letter which says
excessive drinking doesn't make you big or clever; I'm a professor in atomic
physics at UMIST, am 6'3" tall, and drink 18 pints of lager every night".
But if we must get our minds into shape, then so be it. Let's see what the
BBC have to limber us up with. Will these be challenging pre-event questions,
will they be a fair test of IQ, are they scientifically valid ?
No, as can be shown by Teaser Number 10 ( 2002-05-02 ) from the BBC web site -
Question : Which five letter word is pronounced just the same if its first four
letters are removed ? Answer : A little thought will show that these words must sound like letters
of the alphabet. The words are QUEUE (Q) and AITCH (H).
Wrong, wrong, wrong ! Noticing that the question's "which word" phrase implies there is only one, why
then do they give two answers ? Because one of the answers is completely
incorrect. Take away the first four letters of queue and you are left with
E, not Q. So the question itself is correct, and there is only one answer; aitch.
If such an error can make its way onto the BBC's web site for the whole world
to see, and they are aware of the error but have chosen not to comment upon it,
nor correct it, it doesn't look promising for the accuracy of the televised quiz
show itself. The Teaser the BBC presents, if we ignore the queue error, also
highlights the problems of IQ tests generally, which are admittedly influenced
by upbringing, social surroundings and race. By everyone who
doesn't have an unhealthy interest in eugenics that is.
Is the letter H represented by the word aitch, or is it haitch ?
The Oxford English Dictionary specifies only aitch as the correct
spelling, and omits haitch entirely. So if you thought aitch
should have been haitch, you are a complete plonker, as thick as s--t.
But that doesn't take account of the fact that an awful lot of people in the
UK, and other English speaking parts of the world, do say haitch, and
have even been taught that it is the correct way to pronounce the letter H.
The origins of haitch appear to be Irish, and has mainly survived
through teachings in Roman Catholic schools. It's also in quite common usage
amongst Londoners, who while prone to dropping the H from the front of most
words, are want to add it in haitch.
Admittedly it does seem to be rather regional, but if the OED is happy enough to
take on colloquial words, and many which most of us have never even heard of,
be they from before the Ark or newly invented, then why doesn't haitch
have its place also ? Having rejected haitch as an acceptable spelling, it condemns all those
who use it to the dustbin of the illiterate and uneducated. Those who hear
people using the, alleged, incorrect form, can get on their high-horses, point
to the OED and show the 'less well educated' just how wrong they are. Of
course, what they're really wanting to show is just how much better they are.
The fact that haitch kept its roots primarily in Roman Catholic education
and has now been entirely rejected by the OED, and anyone half respectable,
couldn't have anything to do with Protestants thinking themselves to be better
than the Pope worshipping mingers in the past could it ?
Suppression and repression can be found in the most surprising of places. But
then again, is it so surprising that the higher classes have chosen such a tool
by which to demean those lower down the class system ?
Most IQ tests favour those with a good all-round education, and while they will
reveal a few 'inspiring examples' from the bottom rungs, they do nothing but
enforce class and racial stereotypes.
As the Indian Curry ( in its English form ) is the most popular eat-out and
take-away food in Britain, here's a question which everyone in the UK should be
able to answer in under five seconds -
Don't know ? I guess that some questions can be culturally and racially biased
then.
You do now. But has your IQ gone up ?
It's a simple challenge; which is the odd one out ?  According to the article, the odd one out is that at the Top Right. The argument is probably that the two bottom images are all rotations of the Top Left image. After rotating, placing the wheels at the bottom of the images, all three train engines will face left, the odd one out faces right. True, but the Bottom Left image is the only one which has to be created by a rotation and cannot be created by mirroring. So which is the more correct answer ? That probably depends on which answer you chose. Is there any argument that rotation is less unique than mirroring ? Hardly scientific, or fair, is it. On The Night ...Well, not quite on the night, I decided to enjoy my Saturday night properly, without hearing Robinson droning on and on, so I went out for a beer. But I did do the online test later.Did they f--k up as predicted ? Yes, in Question 65, big time ...  The World's Worst Screen Capture of the BBC's Worst Question The official answer is B. But that's wrong, or maybe the question's wrong ? In which case the answer is still wrong. If your mind can't think in three dimensions, draw the shapes on a piece of paper, exactly as they are shown, concentrating on the direction of the diagonal stripes in particular, but don't worry about colouring in the chequered squares exactly. Write the letter of each answer in one of the blank squares, cut out the shapes, fold them into a cube, and place them so the chequered face is to the front and the diagonals are to the right, as in the image of the target we've been given. Now note the direction of the diagonal stripes. On A, they run upwards away from the bottom right corner of the chequered face, As they do on B and D. Only C has the diagonal stripes running down from the top right corner as in the target image. So C's the right answer then ? No, the question is, "... which does not form the solid shape". That means the correct answers are A, B and D. But, only one answer is being accepted as correct. This was a hard enough problem to solve without having to second guess what the question was. How many people assumed that as only C matched the target, the question was wrong ? How many floundered because they didn't know which of the correct answers to choose ? My prediction is that most people guessed, and didn't know anyway, or couldn't work it out in the time allowed. There is a suggestion that the questions in the online quiz are different to those which appeared on television. I can't comment on that, but Question 65 is being hotly debated on the Test The Nation message board, and it appears that the same flaw existed in the live broadcast. The overall problem is that if Question 65 is flawed, then to what extent are the results also flawed, and how does this affect the maps and league tables the BBC have carefully crafted based upon those results ? Okay, it's only one question which is wrong, but it does create a differential of nearly 3% in results between those who may have got the question right, but couldn't, and those who got it right by guessing. Enough perhaps to shuffle league table positions and the colouring on the maps. There's been no official comment from the BBC, the production company who made the program, or the psychologist who set the test, but persistent questioning of the flaw to the BBC does appear to be paying off. At least some people within the BBC are starting to agree there is a problem. Another problem for some, although not nearly as bad as Question 65, was Question 37 - Picasso is to Constable as Bus is to (A) Train, (B) Brush, (C) Travel, or (D) Stagecoach. The two most obvious answers are train and stagecoach; both are forms of transport ( like a bus is ), and both Picasso and Constable were artists. Determining the correct answer relies upon knowing that Constable pre-dates Picasso, and the stagecoach pre-dates the bus. Unless this correlation is made, it's almost impossible to guess between the two possible answers as the seconds tick down. The question also highlights a problem of age groups; many youngsters only know Stagecoach as the name of a bus and coach company, making that answer meaningless to them in the context of the question. Question 51 has also been the subject of some interesting discussion ...  Another World's Worst Screen Capture The order of ease, by which the wheelbarrow can be lifted, would appear, from all practical experience, to be B, followed by A then D, with C being the hardest. For those who paid attention in physics class, it's all about levers, and B is indeed the answer expected. However, this is only the case if we are making assumptions; we aren't considering the weight of the handles. Is it possible that the weight of the handles has an effect ? Yes. With the 50kg weight in the same position, and so close to the front wheel, in both A and B, minimal effort is required to raise the wheelbarrow in both cases; we've only got to get the back legs off the ground. If the weight of the extra length of handles in B is significantly more than in A, then most effort will be exerted in lifting the weight of the barrow itself, and its handles. If the weight had been directly over the wheel, the weight itself would have had very little effect at all. As it's not quite, there's no simple way to say whether A or B is the easiest, especially as we don't know the weight of the handles. I've used lightweight wheelbarrows, but also those which seemed to have handles built from scaffolding poles made from lead. Although I'd argue that B is the correct answer, there is a valid argument in favour of A. There has also been a debate about how the online test results were used when the live broadcast was in progress; it appears that the online test was running some ten minutes behind the television programme, allowing people to cheat to some degree. I'm not convinced that this has been done, or that small-scale cheating would influence the results much anyway, however, it is another nail in the coffin of Test The Nation being a credible, scientific experiment. The programme only illicited some 90,000 entries used to compile the result data, which is a pretty small sample for the population of the UK, so the extrapolation of the results into regional and other demographic groupings is a bit dubious. Comparisons of the BBC's IQ ratings for people who are really into this sort of thing, who have done ( and keep doing ) MENSA tests, reveals some large discrepencies as well. If Test The Nation was just entertainment, I can't really judge it as I didn't see it. If I'd been in, I'd have probably considered it to be a boring waste of time. If it was meant to be a serious, scientific study, then the flaws and other problems seem to have undermined its credibility, and IQ testing generally. If it was just meant to be a glorified pub quiz, as many have told those who, "are taking it all too seriously", then why are the BBC trying to prove, or disprove, so many correlations and league tables in its aftermath ? For the record, Test The Nation reckons I have an IQ of 123, which is apparently up near the top end, but short of a Nobel Prize. Which is probably why I can't ever put a name to a face in the photograph round at the pub quiz, have to use a spelling checker, and have a memory like a sieve when it comes to my past; my autobiography would be about six pages long. The arithmetic and number sequences were my undoing in this test, but at least I can still say I'm good at IQ tests. BBC ones anyway. I got Question 65 right. But only because I guessed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Confucius says, "One's a vicious dog" |
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First published on Thursday the 9th of May, 2002 at 18:18:56
Last upload was on Sunday the 22nd of August, 2004 at 02:43:26 |
