<p>I'd probably reframe your question to be slightly broader, such as "why do vocabulary tests correlate so highly with estimates of general intelligence (i.e., <em>g</em>)?".</p>

<p>Anyway, here are a few thoughts:</p>

<ul>
<li>Verbal ability measures, including vocabulary tests, are often part of IQ tests. Thus, some of the correlation may flow from our conceptualisation of intelligence as requiring verbal aptitude.</li>
<li>Ability tests tend to intercorrelate; these correlations are generally greater within a domain (e.g., verbal, spatial, etc.), but even across domains, correlations are observed. Thus, whatever drives correlations between any ability test and general intelligence may also partially explain the vocabulary-IQ correlation. However, this isn't the complete story, because certain tests (from memory, e.g., Raven's Progressive Matrices and Vocab) correlate more with g than others. </li>
<li>People with greater intelligence may be more likely to seek out verbal stimuli, be provided with verbal stimuli, and retain and understand verbal stimuli, all processes which over many years would accumulate into a greater vocabulary. Similarly perhaps, relatively stable environmental factors might simultaneously increase intelligence and vocabulary.</li>
</ul>

<p>I'd be keen to read any specific studies which involved a vocabulary based intervention and see whether (a) this was successful in increasing vocabulary test scores, and (b) whether the intervention lowered the correlation with vocabulary and intelligence.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-19T02:25:00.367Z
2017-05-25T00:18:05.897Z
2017-05-25T00:18:05.897Z
Jeromy Anglim
<p>WORDSUM is a measure of vocabulary ( <a href="http://unpleasantfacts.com/wordsum-sample-test" rel="nofollow">see sample items here</a>) where the test taker has to select which of a set of words has the most similar meaning to a target word.
There's been some discussion of how the test is <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/05/wordsum-iq/" rel="nofollow">strongly correlated with IQ</a>.</p>

<p>However, I think that it wouldn't be <em>that</em> difficult to lower the correlation between vocabulary and IQ, if you got higher-IQ people to study less vocabulary words, or lower-IQ people to study high vocabulary words. It seems like "an accident of history" (although some "accidents of history" do have high probabilities of happening).</p>

<p>Thus, what hidden latent variables could be responsible for the high correlation between WORDSUM and IQ?</p>

<intelligence>
What hidden latent variables could be responsible for the high correlation between WORDSUM and IQ?
InquilineKea
# What hidden latent variables could be responsible for the high correlation between WORDSUM and IQ?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-01-18)

WORDSUM is a measure of vocabulary ( [see sample items here](http://unpleasantfacts.com/wordsum-sample-test)) where the test taker has to select which of a set of words has the most similar meaning to a target word.
There's been some discussion of how the test is [strongly correlated with IQ](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/05/wordsum-iq/).

However, I think that it wouldn't be *that* difficult to lower the correlation between vocabulary and IQ, if you got higher-IQ people to study less vocabulary words, or lower-IQ people to study high vocabulary words. It seems like "an accident of history" (although some "accidents of history" do have high probabilities of happening).

Thus, what hidden latent variables could be responsible for the high correlation between WORDSUM and IQ?

**Tags:** intelligence


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2012-01-19. Score: 5

I'd probably reframe your question to be slightly broader, such as "why do vocabulary tests correlate so highly with estimates of general intelligence (i.e., *g*)?".

Anyway, here are a few thoughts:

* Verbal ability measures, including vocabulary tests, are often part of IQ tests. Thus, some of the correlation may flow from our conceptualisation of intelligence as requiring verbal aptitude.
* Ability tests tend to intercorrelate; these correlations are generally greater within a domain (e.g., verbal, spatial, etc.), but even across domains, correlations are observed. Thus, whatever drives correlations between any ability test and general intelligence may also partially explain the vocabulary-IQ correlation. However, this isn't the complete story, because certain tests (from memory, e.g., Raven's Progressive Matrices and Vocab) correlate more with g than others.
* People with greater intelligence may be more likely to seek out verbal stimuli, be provided with verbal stimuli, and retain and understand verbal stimuli, all processes which over many years would accumulate into a greater vocabulary. Similarly perhaps, relatively stable environmental factors might simultaneously increase intelligence and vocabulary.

I'd be keen to read any specific studies which involved a vocabulary based intervention and see whether (a) this was successful in increasing vocabulary test scores, and (b) whether the intervention lowered the correlation with vocabulary and intelligence.


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