The assessment of conceptual development through the dimensions of meaning

Current definitions and interpretations of the concept intelligence and its measurement are described and analyzed. Three major limitations to the generalizability of results obtained on intelligence tests are shown: 1. Lack of theoretical foundation. 2. Imperfect criteria. 3. Bias due to environmental variales. A new approach to intellectual assessment is therefore proposed, after establishing theoretically the interrelationship between linguistic development and cognitive development: The assessment of cognitive development through analysis of linguistic meaning: Subjects' verbal responses to simple verbal stimuli have been analyzed and scored along a concrete, particular-abstract, general continuum, the latter assumed to be indicating a higher level of cognitive development. A group of black students was compared to a group of white students. The white students scored significantly higher on a widely used intelligence test. No significant difference, however, was found in the linguistic development task, thus raising a question as to the validity of current measures of intelligence which classify members of minority groups as cognitively inferior.