LESSONS FROM THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT - A REPLY

Macmann and Barnett argue that the Wechsler scales are probably best suited to serve as measures of ''g,'' and that the Verbal and Performance factors are ''truncated or degraded versions of the general factor.'' These arguments carry impressive empirical weight when viewed with tunnel vision, but they lose power when put into a more clinical, practical context. In many ways, the Macmann-Barnett approach resembles the apocryphal story about the blind men trying to describe an elephant. Macmann and Barnett have given a wonderful description of the elephant's tail, but they've ignored its legs, hide, trunk, and tusks. This paper explores alternative empirical foundations on which the Verbal and Performance dichotomous constructs rest.