Comments on: WORDSUM & IQ & the correlation

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 09 May 2010 04:12:25 +0000

That correlation figure (0.71) has a suspiciously high precision given that it came from a 10 question test. I’m no statistician, and I’m only browsing through, but I’d approach this whole matter with a healthy dose of scepticism.

By: JL

JL — Wed, 05 May 2010 10:02:16 +0000

Apparently the ten WORDSUM words have always been the same. The list of words and the six options for each can easily be found with Google. I got 10/10, even though I am not a native English speaker, and my IQ is not off the charts by any means.

By: WORDSUM and IQ, and their Correlation « Martial Culture

WORDSUM and IQ, and their Correlation « Martial Culture — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:13:40 +0000

[...] may have seen it yourself, but wondered why people believe there is a correlation between the two. Razib Khan wrote up a nice post that explains it. Every time I use the WORDSUM variable from the GSS people will [...]

By: Divalent

Divalent — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:04:01 +0000

“Obviously since the WORDSUM test was not given to those under 18 you can’t calculate the correlation between childhood IQ and WORDSUM score.”

Why not? You don’t give the WORDSUM test to children, you give it to an adult, then correlate to their childhood IQ. (Just like when you examine the correlation between Adult IQ and Childhood IQ). Or am I missing something here?

By: LongMa

LongMa — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:19:54 +0000

Is it possible to get the Wordsum test somewhere online?

By: Jason Malloy

Jason Malloy — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:39:21 +0000

IQ tests in general are just as correlated with maternal education levels. I can’t think of a scenario where they wouldn’t be, given that a) intelligence is heritable, and b) intelligence correlates with education level.

wordsum-degree = .44
wordsum-ma degree = .24
wordsum-pa degree = .24
wordsum-spouse dg = .35

By: Joshua Zelinsky

Joshua Zelinsky — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:25:58 +0000

Wordsum as a rough correlation seems ok but it has other problems. In particular, wordsum score is very highly correlated with maternal education levels (this is straight from the GSS data) . This is a serious potential confounding issue.

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:32:38 +0000

tom, wordsum obviously sucks at the tails of the distribution.

By: Tom Bri

Tom Bri — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:14:30 +0000

I would say that WORDSUM is useful but very limited. I easily scored 10 of 10 on it. My IQ, estimated from GRE scores, is probably in the 125 to 130 range. WORDSUM is crude. It shows that I am above average, but no more than that. Averaged across groups it gives a measure of their group intelligence. I wouldn’t want to rely on it to judge an individual.

By: Jason Malloy

Jason Malloy — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:06:09 +0000

I've linked this paper before as well. The WORDSUM is an IQ test, and not simply a "proxy" for IQ, as many have called it. This is determined by its construct validity. It's clearly tapping a cognitive dimension; vocabulary strongly correlates (.83) with the general intelligence factor: content validity. The WORDSUM correlation with the AGCT is within the range that IQ tests correlate with each other: concurrent validity. It is a reliable independent predictor and predicts external outcomes in a similar manner as other IQ tests: criterion validity. I wouldn't recommend it for clinical or admissions purposes, but the GSS is an adequate cognitive test for the purposes of the GSS.