Linda S. Gottfredson, professor or Educational Studies, Univ. Delaware, and co-director of the Delaware-Johns Hopkins Project for the Study of Intelligence and Society, is a defendant of IQ testing and author of a recent article in "Scientific American," "The General Intelligence Factor." She says that "Despite some popular assertions, a single factor for intelligence, called g, can be measured with IQ tests and does predict success in life." ... No matter their form or content, tests of mental skills invariably point to the existence of a global factor that permeates all aspects of cognition." ..."the vast majority of intelligence researchers take these findings for granted. Yet in the press and in public debate, the facts are typically dismissed, downplayed or ignored. This misrepresentation reflects a clash between a deeply felt ideal and a stubborn reality. The ideal, implicit in many popular critiques of intelligence research, is that all people are born equally able and that social inequality results only from the exercise of unjust privilege. ...People are in fact unequal in intellectual potential-- and they are born that way...." "Although subsequent experience shapes this potential, no amount of social engineering can make individuals with widely divergent aptitudes into intellectual equals." ..."differences in mental competence are likely to 'result in social inequality'" [' ' represents author's underscore].
She goes on- "Moreover, research on the physiology and genetics of g has uncovered 'biological correlates of this psychological phenomenon'." [' ' indicates author's underscore]. She correlates speed of nerve conduction, brain energy used in problem solving, speed and efficiency in neural processing, etc., etc.

Dr. Watson undoubtedly had the application of these studies to different groups of people in mind when he spoke to the reporters; no way were they capable of placing his comments in context. These studies are for the future; most people are not mature enough to even consider them.

Intelligence