Excellent. I like you overview of wisdom. I was thinking about this yesterday, how in today's climate of vociferous voices one needs to be able to stand back and look and listen attentively and not just run with the herd. There are too many noisy angry herds in the world!
Fascinating topic. Speaking of assessment, my father was in Dr Raymond Cattell's Illinois Personalty Assessment & Testing (IPAT) group in the early sixties when they were developing assessment instruments like the 16PF and the RPM. All of us faculty children were guinea pigs and were tested with all kinds of tests like the stanford-binet, weschler-bellevue, Minnesota multiphasic inventory, etc. etc. I'm reciting these from memory so forgive me on any mistakes. Generally my sisters and i did pretty well on our scores. Which was validated by later assessments in high school, college, and the Army (my scores were high enough in the AFQT that I was offered a posting in a DoD communications trailer near Nixon's White House- true story) in my seventies I developed a neurocognitive disorder that prompted st third great wave of testing of my declining mental functions. Here are some of the tests they administered:
TESTS ADMINISTERED:
Brief Visual Memory Test-Revised (BVMT)
California Verbal Learning Test-Third Edition, Brief Form (CVLT)
Thanks for that really good review of mental testing Michael! Very cool that you were in Cattell's research program. The Army built one of the best assessment programs for sorting thousands of people into the right jobs/positions; better than our public schools do.
I recall that below 60 is what used to be called the “retarded” range and 60-70 was mildly retarded. The Army would probably not induct (or discharge) someone that scored in that range. They would just struggle too much with the reality of military life. Reminds me of certain scenes from the movie Forrest Gump with “Sargent Dan”!
Yes, the AFQT was administered at the end of Basic Training. I had never scored below 98 percentile on any standardized test before (PSAT, SAT, NMSQT) so I assume my army scores were high. They interviewed me in a little room at Fort Lewis and offered two jobs (1.) orderly to the fort commandant, some major general. This job would be a general go-fer and dogs-body for the general and his family, "other duties as assigned" etc. Didn't sound even remotely tempting. (2.) A posting, after appropriate training, at the WH communications trailer the enticement was that it would be a 9 to 5 duty day, uniform would be civilian clothes and housing off post. Specific duties were not discussed. I turned both offerings down for my own reasons.
Well thank you so much! Coming from someone as able as yourself that's praise I cherish. But the decline is real, the BVMT-R component showed marked impairment and it is definitely getting more difficult to write. The "Angel" whimsy wss in the drafts for a couple of months! I've reached the state of the great mathematical genius Gauss, whose production was slow but profound..his own motto was "Pauca sed Matura"
Excellent. I like you overview of wisdom. I was thinking about this yesterday, how in today's climate of vociferous voices one needs to be able to stand back and look and listen attentively and not just run with the herd. There are too many noisy angry herds in the world!
Thanks very much Michelle! Getting some clarity about "wisdom" was the most challenging and fun part of writing this.
I like your vision of "too many angry herds in the world". Such a sad reality of things.
Fascinating topic. Speaking of assessment, my father was in Dr Raymond Cattell's Illinois Personalty Assessment & Testing (IPAT) group in the early sixties when they were developing assessment instruments like the 16PF and the RPM. All of us faculty children were guinea pigs and were tested with all kinds of tests like the stanford-binet, weschler-bellevue, Minnesota multiphasic inventory, etc. etc. I'm reciting these from memory so forgive me on any mistakes. Generally my sisters and i did pretty well on our scores. Which was validated by later assessments in high school, college, and the Army (my scores were high enough in the AFQT that I was offered a posting in a DoD communications trailer near Nixon's White House- true story) in my seventies I developed a neurocognitive disorder that prompted st third great wave of testing of my declining mental functions. Here are some of the tests they administered:
TESTS ADMINISTERED:
Brief Visual Memory Test-Revised (BVMT)
California Verbal Learning Test-Third Edition, Brief Form (CVLT)
Category Fluency - Animals
Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT)
Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB), Form 1: Naming, Figure Copy, Visual Discrimination
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9)
Trailmaking Test (TMT)
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS): Digit Span, Coding
Wechsler Memory Scales-Fourth Edition (WMS): Logical Memory, Brief Cognitive Status Exam (BCSE)
This should give interested readers the range and sophistication of the assessment of mental functioning available today.
Thanks for that really good review of mental testing Michael! Very cool that you were in Cattell's research program. The Army built one of the best assessment programs for sorting thousands of people into the right jobs/positions; better than our public schools do.
And didn't the US army discover that below a certain IQ they could find no work for a person to do? I forget what the score was, 70?
I recall that below 60 is what used to be called the “retarded” range and 60-70 was mildly retarded. The Army would probably not induct (or discharge) someone that scored in that range. They would just struggle too much with the reality of military life. Reminds me of certain scenes from the movie Forrest Gump with “Sargent Dan”!
Yes, the AFQT was administered at the end of Basic Training. I had never scored below 98 percentile on any standardized test before (PSAT, SAT, NMSQT) so I assume my army scores were high. They interviewed me in a little room at Fort Lewis and offered two jobs (1.) orderly to the fort commandant, some major general. This job would be a general go-fer and dogs-body for the general and his family, "other duties as assigned" etc. Didn't sound even remotely tempting. (2.) A posting, after appropriate training, at the WH communications trailer the enticement was that it would be a 9 to 5 duty day, uniform would be civilian clothes and housing off post. Specific duties were not discussed. I turned both offerings down for my own reasons.
Not at all surprised you score in the 98+% range Michael. It's reflected in your writing!
Well thank you so much! Coming from someone as able as yourself that's praise I cherish. But the decline is real, the BVMT-R component showed marked impairment and it is definitely getting more difficult to write. The "Angel" whimsy wss in the drafts for a couple of months! I've reached the state of the great mathematical genius Gauss, whose production was slow but profound..his own motto was "Pauca sed Matura"
Quality over quantity at this stage for sure. 🙏🏻