I made good test scores. In all humility, I made very good test scores. In all of the variants of the Stanford-Binet – IQ, SAT, ACT, GRE, ASVAB, et.al. – the high scores go to the person who can see the pattern quickly and respond with the “correct” answer. (Achievement tests are a different animal). A simplified pattern might be: 3,6,9 – what number comes next. If the part of the pattern we see is just increasing by 3, the answer is 12. If we are only seeing part of the series, and a longer range is: 1,2,3,6,9 – well obviously we aren’t just increasing by 3 – there is a different pattern in play. The cognitive abilities tests pay off on pattern recognition.
In research, once we see the pattern, we make our hypothesis. At that point we need to test the hypothesis. For example, what comes next in this pattern: 1, Q, 2, J, 3, 10. First, the test taker has to recognize that the list is of playing cards, ranked 1 through 13. Then the pattern shows up. 1, Q, 2, J, 3, 10, 4, 9. We’re figuring out that the pattern is a simple 1, 2, 3, 4 interspersed with the card that, added to the initial number, gives the sum of 13. That’s my hypothesis, and I have to test it – first by inserting the 4 and 9 to confirm the hypothesis, and once it’s confirmed, I’ll need to check if entering 8 and 5 will also work. If those numbers work, my hypothesis is wrong – it has been falsified.
The problem is, our tests reward people who can intuit the pattern. Then it’s over and they have scored well. And we need people who not only recognize the patterns, but test their hypothesis. That’s a little harder to get. It’s also something that is not often included in the tests.
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