ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the results of the analysis of the conceptual levels reached in the object sorting. The problem of ‘culture-free’ and ‘culture-fair’ tests is largely the problem of the testee’s familiarity with test materials. This problem has been particularly acute in psychological testing outside Western countries, especially Africa. This chapter analyses the effect of familiarity with test materials on equivalence grouping by using two sets of materials that differed in the degree to which they were familiar to two different groups. The ability to ‘shift’ one’s bases of sorting in a sorting task is considered indicative of the degree to which an individual possesses classificatory ability: ‘a change of criterion or “shifting’’ is simply another expression of operational and reversible mobility, this being the hallmark of a complete classificatory structure’. The verbalized bases of sorting were assigned to levels of abstraction according to three different levels of abstractness.
