Culture Fair Intelligence Test

Raymond B. Cattell was a scientist who wanted to create an intelligence test that measured an individual’s IQ in a manner that was devoid of all sociocultural and environmental influences. He believed that someone’s IQ was a cumulative measure of their fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. When measuring these two factors, it is possible to retest someone and measure how much of their fluid intelligence was lost over a certain number of years, or how well set their crystallized intelligence is after years of experience and study. To Cattell, intelligence is founded partially on biological and partially on environmental factors, and he also believed that nonverbal assessment was the best way of discerning someone’s true IQ. With that, since the test was designed to be as free of sociocultural and environmental influences, it serves as a great utility of analysis for most age ranges.

The Culture-Fair test is comprised of three stages of questions; their breakdown is as follows:

Stage I

• Mazes
• Copying Symbols
• Identifying Symbols
• Nonverbal Tasks

Stage II & III

• Sequence of Drawings
• Classification Subtest
• Matrix Subtest
• Conditional Subtest

Of the three stages listed, the first is the easiest and most applicable to individuals of all ages, whereas stages two and three are best suited to adolescents and adults. Since the Culture-Fair test was designed to work without verbal input, it measures intelligence as someone’s ability to use their understandings to navigate increasingly complex scenarios. That said, since it does possess great accuracy in predicting an individual’s intelligence, even without verbal input, it is still accepted by most high-IQ societies for accepting members.