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Needlesstosay,theWechslerscalesareregularlyupdatedandmodified.Therecent
(fourth)edition,WAIS-IV,wasreleasedin2008.Thebatteryincludestestsofcultural
knowledge,forexample,Vocabulary,ComprehensionandInformation,therefore,in
ordertoensuretestvalidity,itmustbeculturallyadapted.Theaimofculturaladaptation
ofatestistoachievealanguageversionthatisconceptuallyequivalentinthetarget
culture(Hornowska,2004,p.39).Thetestisalsostandardisedandnormalisedtosuitthe
conditionsofthetargetcountry.
Furthermore,itisafactthatallabilitytestshavetheirlimitations;accordingly,are-
searcherhastobearinmindthatintelligencetestsareconstrainedtoactualperformance
ofthesubjectandtheirprognosticvaluegenerallyreferstodomainswherededuction
andreasoningareimportant.Nomeasuresofintellectcanbetreatedassufficientpredic-
torsofacademicorprofessionalsuccess,whichisoftenanoutcomeofavarietyoffac-
tors.AsKaufman(2000)cautionsus,despitetheirhighprognosticvalue,especiallywith
respecttoschoolachievement,allabilityandaptitudetestsbetterreflecttheformerra-
therthanthefutureachievementsofaperson.Anotherimportantproblemwithtesting
intelligenceisthechoiceofaqualifiedresearcher.Inordertoobtainvalidresults,the
interpretationmustbedonebyaprofessionalpsychologistasnotonlythescores,but
alsootherfactorssuchasbiographicaldata,education,healthconditionandobservation
ofthebehaviourofthepersonwhileperformingthetest,mustbetakenintoconsidera-
tion(ThePsychologicalCorporation,2002).
Accordingtocontemporarypsychologists,thereisnoescapingthefactthatthereare
significantgeneticcontributionstocognitiveabilities.TousethewordsofPlomin:"ge-
neticinfluenceonIQtestscoresisnotonlysignificant;itisalsoverysubstantial”(1997,
p.89).Advancesinmolecularbiologyduringthepasttwodecadeshaveusheredin
aneweraingeneticresearchoncognitiveabilitiesbycreatingpossibilitiesforidentifi-
cationofspecificgenesresponsibleforspecificabilities.Ontheotherhand,thereis
ageneralconsensusamongresearchersthatenvironmentinteractswithgeneticendow-
mentcontributingtoindividualdifferencesincognitiveabilities(Scarr,1997).Thear-
gumentsofbehaviour-genetictheoristsandsocialisationtheoristswillbediscussedin
thefollowingsections.
1.4.Biologicalbasisofabilities
Thegeneticsourceofvariationinhumanabilitieshasalwaysbeensurroundedbycon-
troversy.Basically,thedebatebetweenbehaviour-genetictheoristsandsocialisation
theoristsreferstothenever-endingnatureornurturequestion.Themostradicalgenetic
deterministssuchasJensen(1997)andPlomin(1997)provideabundantevidenceforthe
heritabilityofabilities.Mostknowledgeaboutcognitiveabilitiescomesfromquantita-
tivegeneticresearchstudiesontwinsandadoption(Bouchard,1997;Jensen,1997;
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