From: "Patricia Hausman" Subject: Re: AFQT and WIC Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 21:48:53 -0500 Harry Erwin wrote: >Is this IQ or AFQT that you're talking about? I knew a doctoral student >(in German) who was a Cat IV. The AFQT was quite practical, and he simply >had never been exposed to the knowledge that was being evaluated. Harry, Your friend may be confusing the AFQT with the ASVAB (Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery). The AFQT is a composite score; for some time it's been derived from 4 of the 10 ASVAB subtests. The questions on these 4 are common to IQ tests--reading comprehension, vocabulary, arithmetic reasoning, and math knowledge. The correlations between these subtests and g are similar to that found with common IQ tests. I don't know what the situation was in the 1940s, but the ASVAB has been the standard test for enlistees for a couple of decades. The military calls the AFQT a measure of trainability. I don't have a problem with the idea that it's essentially an IQ test. I think it is an impressive tool. When I used it in my dissertation, the main drawback I found was that it isn't designed to detect differences at the higher end of the curve. Three of the ASVAB subtests measure what I think you're calling "practical" knowledge-- electronics, mechanical comprehension, and auto/shop. You're right that most of this is not college prep material. But performance on these subtests does not affect the AFQT score. Nonetheless, the subtests are far from inde- pendent of g. The correlations with g are substantial, though not as high as for the tests used to calculate the AFQT. See Ree and Carretta, Educational and Psychological Measurement 54: 459-63, 1994. >One thing noted in WWII was the degree to which poor performance on the AFQT >reflected childhood malnutrition, which led to the WIC program.) A sad commentary on the speed of government!! WIC did not begin until 1972, when it was launched as a pilot program. It became permanent in '74. Even then it took legal action to get things rolling. When I came to DC in 74 there was a lawsuit pending against USDA for sitting on the funds Congress had appropriated to run the program. Cheers, PATTI .