University of Texas Supreme Court case

[33girl]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaGreek

Though, I have noticed that names used in word problems are way more often traditionally ethnic names ("Ming, Raj and Lupita each have a bag of marbles...").

This is known as overcompensation for Sally, Dick and Jane readers and everyone having similarly WASPy names up until around the 1970s-80s. (It doesn't really help promote diversity when the teachers can't pronounce the names, just FYI.)

I laugh at the "regatta" example since the Three Rivers Regatta here is basically a yinzerfest with boats and tribute bands. In other words, hardly an "upperclass" event.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I laugh at the "regatta" example since the Three Rivers Regatta here is basically a yinzerfest with boats and tribute bands. In other words, hardly an "upperclass" event.

Yinzerfest? Yep -- regional.

[WhiteRose1912]

Okay, I'll bite, and I won't even use the word regatta in my example since y'all are turning your nose up at it. This is from Ji, Zhang, and Nisbett, 2004.

Let's say on a children's intelligence test they were given a list of words and asked to pick the two that "go together", a pretty straight-forward task:

A. Seagull
B. Squirrel
C. Tree

A. Monkey
B. Panda
C. Banana

A. Cow
B. Milk
C. Pig

A. Foot
B. Shoe
C. Hand

European American students are more likely to group based on taxonomic categorization: seagull and squirrel, monkey and panda, cow and pig, foot and hand.

East Asian students are more likely to group based on thematic categorization: squirrel and tree, monkey and banana, cow and milk, foot and shoe.

Of course, when people are talking about cultural biases in testing, they're usually less concerned with testing children. You'll see some of it in admissions testing, but a lot of the problems revolve around employee and personnel selection. Spearman's g, for instance, is a general intelligence measure that typically correlates highly with work performance, but using it will cause adverse impact for pretty much anyone who isn't a white male.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by WhiteRose1912

East Asian students are more likely to group based on thematic categorization: squirrel and tree, monkey and banana, cow and milk, foot and shoe.

Interesting. I'm not EVEN close to being considered East Asian (definitely European) but I identified these groups thematically. It took me a second looking at each group to figure out how I was categorizing them, but I definitely separated them this way...

[carnation]

Do they mean East Asians who were raised over there or are they saying it's a racial thing? Because 4 of my daughters were born there and raised here from infancy and I have no idea how they'd respond.

[Tulip86]

Originally Posted by shirley1929

Interesting. I'm not EVEN close to being considered East Asian (definitely European) but I identified these groups thematically. It took me a second looking at each group to figure out how I was categorizing them, but I definitely separated them this way...

Me too. I would absolutely be considered European and I identified thematically as well.