ABSTRACT
Weir makes a number of poin “control” than on any substantive disagreement between us concerning the meaning of MA and IQ. As should be clear from the total context of the paragraph cited by Weir, it may well be that in the MA-matched paradigm one takes into consideration the different rates of cognitive development (IQs) of the nonretarded and retarded persons. This procedure controls for known past differences in rate, and thus guarantees that, at the point in time at which the comparison is made, the two types of subjects are at the same cognitive level. The semantic confusion possible when one attempts to distinguish between rate and level of cognitive development is demonstrated in Weir's view that the IQ score, which is a measure of rate, is “a rough index of the amount of information accumulated in a given number of years of life.” This is erroneous, because the amount of information at any point is a level phenomenon. How long it took to acquire that amount of information is a rate phenomenon.
