Lecture Review: Craniology, Intelligence Testing, and the Fallacy of Biological Determinism

Vocabulary flashcards covering the lecture notes on craniology fallacies, the history and reification of IQ testing, the analogy to strength, and the critique of biological determinism in The Bell Curve.

Three-Part Science Analysis Division

The analytical framework used to critique craniology, divided into three components: assumptions, data collection, and interpretation.

Fallacy of Presentism

A bias in which researchers passively adopt the unexamined norms and cultural power structures of their own time, such as early white male scientists assuming the existence of a racial hierarchy.

Cherry Picking Fallacy

The practice of selectively eliminating data points as supposed outliers without established upfront principles, manipulating the data to fit a preconceived hunch.

Ad Hoc Fallacy

The error of continually inventing new hypotheses or shifting goalposts after initial tests fail (e.g., switching from measuring the front of the skull to the back) to preserve a preconceived conclusion.

Reify (Reification)

To regard an abstract concept—such as intelligence—as a concrete physical thing or a single measurable entity.

Hodgepodge

An informal mixture of varied cognitive tasks (such as spatial tasks, memory tests, and sequencing exercises) used by Alfred Binet to assess student skills broadly rather than through a single precise instrument.

Analogy to Strength

The conceptual comparison showing that, like physical strength, human intelligence comprises distinct skills and cannot be aggregated into a single numeric score without obscuring reality.

Stephen Jay Gould

The scientist and author of The Mismeasure of Man who critiqued scientific fallacies, craniology, and the misuse of intelligence testing.

The Bell Curve (TBC)

A late twentieth-century book authored by Herrnstein and Murray that argued white people are by nature more intelligent than nonwhites based on aggregated IQ score distributions.

Bell Curve

A common statistical distribution found across nature and society where the majority of measurements cluster around a central average and few fall at the extreme ends.

Fallacy of Confusing Correlation and Cause

The logical error of assuming that because two variables show a statistical relationship or pattern together, one variable directly causes the other.

Meaningful Non-Causal Correlation

A real statistical pattern between two variables (such as race and IQ test scores) that is explained by underlying environmental, economic, and historical mechanisms rather than a direct biological cause.