Methods for Detecting and Evaluating Cultural Bias in Neuropsychological Tests

Abstract

Since the early 1900s, near the time of Binet’s first offering, intelligence tests have been scrutinized for cultural biases in a variety of forms. Indeed, the issues of bias (or its potential) in psychological testing have been a source of recurring, characteristically intense, social controversy throughout the history of mental measurement (e.g., see Reynolds & Brown, 1984, for a review of early to mid-1900s controversies). Discussions of cultural bias in tests, especially aptitude and ability measures such as are common to neuropsychological examinations, frequently are accompanied by strongly emotion-laden polemics decrying the use of mental tests with members of ethnic minorities. Courts, legislatures, and the media have all become involved in the questions surrounding potential cultural bias in testing (e.g., see Brown, Reynolds, & Whitaker, in press; Elliott, 1987; Spitz, 1986).KeywordsDifferential Item FunctioningGroup MembershipItem Response TheoryNeuropsychological TestLatent TraitThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.