culture-fair test
a test based on common human experience and considered to be relatively unbiased with respect to special background influences. Unlike some standardized intelligence assessments, which may reflect predominantly middle-class experience, a culture-fair test is designed to apply across social lines and to permit equitable comparisons among people from different backgrounds. Nonverbal, nonacademic items are used, such as matching identical forms, selecting a design that completes a given series, or drawing human figures. Studies have shown, however, that any assessment reflects certain socioethnic norms to some degree and hence may tend to favor people with certain backgrounds rather than others. For example, an item that included the phrase “bad rap” could be unclear, as the phrase could refer to unjust criticism or to rap music that was either not very good or rather good, depending on an individual’s common use of the word “bad.” See
also cross-cultural testing.