Análisis de resultados

In c o n tra s t, in te llig e n c e tests are u su a lly d e s ig n e d to sa m p le skill c o m p e te n c e s and are b a sed on m o d els of in d iv id u a l d iffe re n c e or deviation from a reference m ean. The reference m ean is usually adjusted for the sig n ific an t in flu e n ce o f o th er v aria b le s (eg. age, sex, so c io ­ econom ic status, sch o o lin g , a c c u ltu ra tio n , etc.). S ta n d ard p sy ch o m etric tests (eg. WAIS-R and W M S) often tap only gross brain function and may be in sen sitiv e to localised d am ag e such as fro n to -te m p o ra l dysfunction found in head injury or chronic alcohol abuse (Shores, Kraiuhin, Zurynski, Singer, Gordon, M arosszeky & Fearnside 1990, citing Stuss 1987, Walsh 1985, L ezak 1988). For this reaso n they have been used to estim ate p rem o rb id in te lle ctu al fu n ctio n a g ain st w hich c u rre n t NP p e rfo rm an ce can be com pared (Lezak 1983; Ross 1984; W alsh 1987; Parsons, Butters, N athan 1987; Lecours et al 1987). H ow ever, the m eaning of western psychom etric test scores in cross-cultural application rem ains uncertain.

C o m b in ed A p p ro a ch : Im p a irm en t Index

L u r ia 's q u a li t a t iv e m e th o d o f N P e n q u ir y has b een c o n s i d e r e d fu n d am en tally d ifferent to the q u a n titativ e NP test battery approach of the p sy ch o m etric school (G ilandas, T ouyz, B eum ont & G reenbern 1984). A c o n tro v e rsia l attem pt to co m b in e the two ap p ro ach es in the Luria- N ebraska NP Battery produced an index of cog n itiv e im p airm en t which incorporated norm -referencing (G olden 1981, cited in Lezak 1983). Ross (1 9 8 4 , c itin g H o r a n l9 6 6 ) th o u g h t the p s y c h o m e tric Q u e e n s la n d T est could be sim ilarly used for aboriginals as "a usefu l index f o r organic c en tra l im p a irm e n t, p o ten tia l, a n d also a p o s s ib le index f o r rem edial health m easures" (p374). How ever, D avidson (1983) considered the test too i n s e n s i ti v e to d i f f e r e n t i a t e n e u r o lo g ic a l i m p a i r m e n t fro m the p erfo rm an ce of norm al ab o rig in als, given the co n fo u n d in g in flu en ce of social, cultural and theoretical considerations on its scores.

P r o b l e m S o l v i n g

H ierarchy o f Tactics

M cElw ain (1976, p 133) proposed that when an individual is faced with a problem to solve he or she has a 'hierarchy o f tactics' f o rm a lly a v aila b le to approach the problem. W ithin any culture the m ost capable individuals may have larger tactic hierarchies available to them than the less capable (or less intelligent). The tactics or strategy at the top of such a hierarchy is likely to be used first and for the m ost cap a b le ind iv id u al it will p ro b ab ly be the m ost e ffe ctiv e or e ffic ie n t tac tic for the p res crib ed problem . The order of tactics in a hierarchy may be culture bound with those at the top evolving to m eet the com m on environm ental dem ands of that culture. Outside the individual’s own culture, his tactic of first choice may n o t be ap p ro p riate. T his w o u ld e x p lain p e rfo rm a n c e d ifferen c e s between cultures. On the other hand, even when perform ance on similar activities is the same for individuals from d ifferen t cultures, they may have ev o k ed d ifferent tactics to solve the same p ro b lem s (D avidson &

Klich 1984). For example, aboriginals may use d ifferent verbal coding strategies to solve unfam iliar p roblem s (R oss 1984; Foggitt, M angan & Law 1972). M oreover, sim ilar p e rfo rm an c e by in d iv id u als w ithin the same culture does not n ecessarily m ean that they have used the same cognitive processing tactics in an equiv alen t context. Klich and Davidson (1984) found both their aboriginal and w hite ch ild ren used a range of tactics to solve the p roblem s p o se d by the Q u e e n s la n d T est (QT). M cElw ain believ ed the problem s p o sed by w estern p sy ch o lo g ical tests were usually not suited to aboriginals. If info rm atio n about the task and its operation is ambiguous and subjects are unable to check the accuracy of their response, their tactic of first choice may be inappropriate. Even with explicit goals and m inim um c o m m u n icatio n requirem ents, M cElwain & K earney (1970) found a b o rig in al p e rfo rm a n c e on th e ir QT to be dependant on degree of western contact.

Effect of Acculturation

Acculturation is the process of social change associated with the dominant culture's influence upon the m em bers of a m inority culture and generally involves in flu e n ce during c h ild h o o d by e u ro p e a n s and the learning of w e ste rn w ays (K e a rn e y & F i t z p a tr ic k 1976, c itin g B ru n e r 1956). Fam iliarity with western problem solving tactics and the order in which they occur in M cE lw ain 's h iera rch y w o u ld d e p e n d on the e x ten t of w estern acculturation. This in turn w ould dep en d on degree of western c o n ta c t th ro u g h e u ro p e an m ed ia, e d u c a tio n , w o rk or p ro x im ity to european urban settlem ent (ie. urbanisation). M cIntyre (1976) com pared the problem solving style of rural and urban children of both aboriginal and e u ro p e a n d e s c e n t. He fo u n d p e r f o r m a n c e r e l a te d m o re to u rb an isatio n than culture as there w ere no d iffe re n c e s betw een rural aboriginal and rural white children on literacy or Q T performance. As the QT was designed to predict capacity to learn w estern skills and was made up of basically abstract w estern tasks, its p erfo rm an c e profile could be used as an index of western acculturation (M cElw ain & Kearney 1970).

M o d i f y i n g T e s t C o n t e x t

Clarify M i s u n d e r s t a n d i n g s

Ciborowski (1980) suggested that poor cognitive performance on western tests by i n d i v i d u a l s f r o m a n o t h e r c u l t u r e wa s l a r g e l y due to m is u n d er s ta n d in g b etw een testee and tester. D i f f e r e n t e xp ect ati on s or interpretations of the test experience can advers ely affect psychological test p e r f o r m a n c e . The f o llo w in g studies il l u st r a te how c ha ng in g the c o n t e x t of the test s i t u a t i o n can i m p r o v e ( o r d i s a d v a n t a g e ) the p e r f o r m a n c e of p e o p l e u n f a m i l i a r wi th w e s t e r n tests of co g n it i v e function. Cole called this " e x p e r im e n t i n g with the e x p e r i m e n t " (1971, cited in Ciborowski 1980, p290).

Familiar Stimuli

Price-Williams (1962, cited by Ciborowski 1980 and Klich & Davidson 1984) c h a n g e d the c o n te x t of a P i a g e t i a n h i e r a r c h i c a l cla ss ifi cat ion experiment with Tiv children from Nigeria by using familiar objects from their env ironm ent (ie. various animal toys and plants) instead of objects from western culture. As a result, Tiv children were just as capable of grouping the more culturally familiar objects in different ways as were white children. However, the same Tiv children were not as capable as white c hi ld r en when ab str ac t shapes were used (ie. circle, triangle, square, etc) Co m p are d with natural objects the abstract test material lacked stimulus generality.

The Franklin et al study is an example of po o r stimulus generality for words (see page 4). Black American children recalled more words than white children when lists were made up of categories used by lower class black children (1975, cited in Ciborowski 1980).

Franklin, Fulani, Hen kin d and Cole (1975, cited in Ciborowski 1980) described a no the r study co mp ar in g black and whi te Am erican children

on free recall tasks selected from standard word category lists and a new list m ade up of categories used by low er class black children. Black children perform ed poorly w hen recall was based on the standard lists but did well when it was based on the new low er class black list. The rev e rse o ccu rred for the m id d le to u p p er cla ss w h ite c h ild ren who perform ed poorly when recall was based on the lower class black list but did well when recall was based on the standard lists. For both groups of children poor perform ance was characterised by lack of item clustering, a d e fic it p r e v io u s ly a s s o c ia te d w ith c o g n itiv e d e f i c ie n c y (Je n so n & F r e d e r ic k s e n 1973, c ite d in C ib o ro w s k i 1980). A m o re re a lis tic explanation for this outcom e was that both rec all lists lacked stimulus generality w ithin w estern culture.

A p p r o p r i a t e I n s t r u c t i o n s

Glick (1962, cited by C iborow ski 1980, p283) d e m o n strated the effect of different cultural expectations on a sim ilar c la ssificatio n experim ent with Kpelle tribesm en from the west coast of Africa. U sing standard Piagetian instruction the Kpelle sorted fam iliar objects in ways that they considered to be 'clever' in their cu ltu re (ie. b ased on p e rc e p tu a l or functional rela tio n s). H ow ever, 'i n t e l l i g e n t ' c o n c e p t u a l c l a s s i f i c a t i o n r e q u ir e d taxonom ic groupings of the objects, so the K pelle perfo rm an ce appeared deficient by western standards. W hen one subject was asked to sort in a 'stupid' way, his perform ance im proved d ram atically . It appears that the concept of intelligence in Kpelle and western cultures was not equivalent. The use of w estern tests to m easure the K pelle co n cep t of intelligence w ould have been like trying to m easure the tem p eratu re of the sun with a therm om eter designed for use on earth (Irvine & Carroll 1980).

Story Fo rmat

B ryer (1976, p303) tested A ustralian ab o rig in al c h ild ren from Aurukun on P ia g e tia n m atrices and fo u n d the task u n d e r s ta n d a rd Piagetian in stru ctio n s to be too vague fo r the ch ild ren . W h en she changed the

procedure to a sto ry f o r m a t the c h ild re n p ro d u c e d m ore a p p ro p riate solutions and explanations. A lth o u g h this train in g p ro ced u re m ade the test more acceptable to her children Bryer still thought it was a culturally inappropriate context for ability testing.

Tr ai ned Res ponse

C ole, F ra n k e l and Sharp (1 9 7 1 b , c ite d in C ib o ro w s k i 1980) made m o d ificatio n s to their p ro ced u re for assessing the free recall memory ability of Kpelle tribal children and adults. U nder standard instruction the K pelle re c a lle d very few f a m ilia r item s and sh o w ed no ev id en ce of a b strac t c o n c e p tu a l learn in g c o m p a re d to w e ste rn su b je cts. H ow ever, when p re s e n ta tio n of the o b jec ts in v o lv e d sp a tia l p ro m p tin g for the object category, Kpelle subjects used conceptual clustering to recall more objects than they had previously. Irvine and C arroll (1980) advised that responses required in the test p e rfo rm an ce m ust be learnt, not assumed; and w here necessary these sh o u ld be visually d em o n strated . Cole et al appear to have follow ed these p rin cip le s of sound c ro s s-c u ltu ral data collection with their use of chairs, over which the objects were held to prom pt conceptual learning. T hus, by changing the c o n tex t of the test p rocedure the authors were able to in fer there w ere no differences in cognitive ability between these radically d ifferent cultures.

Gui de-lines f o r Cross- Cul t ural Testing

A c co rd in g to Irvine and C a rro ll (1 9 8 0 ), the e th n o c e n tr is m and self fulfilling prophecy of past deficit research can be avoided when imposing a w estern theoretical fram ew o rk in cro ss-cu ltu ral research . To achieve this they reco m m en d ed re s ea rch e rs adhere to th e o ry -b a s e d propositions of c o g n itiv e d iffe re n c e ra th e r than d e fic it b a s e d in te r p r e ta tio n s of perform ance. M oreover, they suggested research ers adopt more rigourous m u ltiv a r ia te c o n tro l o v e r the m e th o d s they use to a p p re c ia te the influence of "sc ho ol ing , urbanism, work experience and learning" ( p 2 0 6 ) .

T h ey u rg e d re s e a r c h e r s to c o n fo r m to s e v e n h is to r ic a lly d e riv e d principles of data collection. T hese p rin cip les are equally relev an t to r e s e a r c h w ith in c u ltu r e s w h e re th e re is s o m e i m p o s e d w e s te r n theoretical framework. The following is a sum m ary of these principles as they apply to research with sem i-literate, test alien subjects ( p i 96):