ABSTRACT
The published writings of Arthur Jensen on the topic of test bias in mental measurements span the years 1970 to the present (1986), with most of the arguments summarized in his tomic Bias in Mental Testing (1980). The essential point of the book is to provide evidence for the notion that the popularly used standardized tests of mental abilities-IQ, scholastic aptitude, and achievement tests-are not fraught with obvious or even subtle culturally sensitive cues which may differentially effect true score estimates. In popular argot this situation is generally described with the term ‘bias’. Bias is the focus of the accusation that tests are unfair, inconstant, contaminated by extraneous factors, and subject to misuse and abuse. Although Jensen writes variously on many aspects of bias in several types of mental measurements, most attention is given to technical criteria for investigating potential biases. He describes Bias as primarily about ‘psychometric methods for objectively detecting bias in mental tests…’ (p. x). It seem only reasonable therefore to examine the psychometric validity for test bias in the work of Jensen.
