Remembering Arthur Robert Jensen (August 24, 1923—October 22, 2012)

Abstract

Presents an obituary of Arthur Robert Jensen (1923—2012). Jensen was an educational psychologist who ignited an international firestorm with a 1969 article suggesting that the gap in intelligence-test scores between Black and White students might be rooted in genetic differences between the races and then he became a controversial figure in the public domain. Jensen was not a geneticist and so his conclusion in regard to the mean Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of Blacks and Whites in USA could not be based on his research on genes. He did a fine statistical analysis of the various components that could constitute the proportion of genetic inheritance, environmental variability and the error factor. Jensen became aware of the advancements in the science of genetics and redefined his overall program of research on intelligence as mental chronometry, a biologically based speed of mental processing. Ironically, the tentative suggestion that probably the racial difference in IQ was due to heredity landed Jensen in difficulty. As a person, Jensen was a remarkable man and an entertaining companion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)