International Student Assessments Measure Cognitive Ability: A Response to Rutkowski et al. (2024)

Heiner Rindermann

Published: 2025/09/01

Abstract

Rutkowski et al. (2024) questioned whether international comparative student assessments (e.g., PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS) also measure intelligence. In addition, they framed the research of other scholars as being on the side of political evil (e.g., the “holocaust”) and accused them of having sinister intentions (e.g., “eugenics”). To determine what a diagnostic instrument measures, one can choose a content-cognitive-psychological or an empirical-correlative approach. To begin with, however, it is necessary to define terms and constructs. We define intelligence as the ability to think and the broader cognitive ability (or cognitive competence) as the ability to think, the disposal of knowledge, and its use in an understanding way. Analyses show that the cognitive demands of the tasks in intelligence tests and student assessment tests are similar and can be solved using similar cognitive processes and strategies (e.g., finding information and reasoning). Correlative and factor analytic analyses at different data levels show a high empirical similarity and a strong common factor. The causal factors for individual development and for individual, national, and historical differences in IQs and ILSA (international large-scale assessments) are also similar. Rather than distinguishing between intelligence tests and student assessments, it is recommended to distinguish between thinking and knowledge. Finally, the introduction of political ideology is not helpful; science is damaged when hatred and agitation are spread. The Nazis, for example, also denigrated intelligence research, which from their perspective was part of a Jewish-modernist ideology.

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