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• Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2026). 14. IQ Testing, Education, Reification, and “Race” in Norway’s Social Democratic Welfare State. I Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Red.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. s. 443–458. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.14. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This chapter discuss a few examples of emerging and more overarching perspectives on the Norwegian history of IQ testing that appear throughout the book. The comparative observations focusing on the Norwegian educational system and its connection to the social democratic welfare state, introduced by Jim Porter in the previous chapter, serves as a starting point. Specifically, this includes a discussion of reification and the pragmatic aspect of testing, as well as the relative absence of explicit discussions on “race” when it comes to testing in Norway.

• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2026). 7. IQ Testing Today in Norway’s Educational Psychological Services. I Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Red.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. s. 215–242. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.07. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This chapter looks closer at how the most prevalent IQ test in use in Norway today, the WISC-V, is differently understood within Norway’s Educational Psychological Counseling Services (EPS). Based on ethnographically informed observations and interviews it provides glimpses into how practitioners speak and learn to speak of, use, and critically discuss these tests today. Here it is, perhaps surprisingly, not necessarily the full-scale IQ score that is of most interest, but IQ testing remains a central tool of the trade, both a professional marker and a communicative device. Of note, is how in Norway, it is not only psychologists or psychiatrists who conduct IQ tests. Most employees in the EPS come from a background in education or special needs pedagogy. The chapter elucidates how IQ testing is used, legitimised, and problematised within an important contemporary professional test field.

• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2026). Historicizing IQ Testing in Norway: Introduction. I Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (Red.), Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISSN 9781805116202. s. 1–28. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471.00. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This introduction provides an entry point to historicizing IQ tests and testing in Norway. It introduces key concepts and debates dealt with in the volume, such as the nature of an IQ-test, IQ-testing and their different roles in society. It provides an initial overview an analytical grounding for the rest of the volume’s contributions – that are all joined around the development of IQ-testing in Norway and beyond.

• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2025). Creativity. I Rapport, Nigel (Red.), Anthropology’s Philosophy: How Anthropology Makes Concepts its Own. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783031838194. s. 81–87. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-83819-4_9. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  For decades, creativity has been on ‘everybody’s mind’, as a celebration of modernity and the future, promising (alongside other twenty-first-century skills) to deliver on future prosperity and societal development. Or just to change your life for the better, according to the self-help books that algorithms have bombard me with over the years. This perspective is distinctly different to creativity in the realm of the arts, and the figure of the artist, of the previous centuries: a difference that Margaret Boden (1994) speaks of as that between P-creativity—referring to acts that are novel or original for the individual—and H-creativity—referring to acts or ideas that originate for the first time in history. Think of Kant’s discussions of artistic genius. What both perspectives share, however, is a sense of creativity as virtuous personal attribute. Creativity, in this sense, is not only the ability to solve problems, but the very solution to the problems themselves.

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• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne (2026). Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present. Open Book Publishers. ISBN 9781805116202. doi: 10.11647/obp.0471. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Intelligence testing has shaped modern society in profound ways, influencing education, psychology, law, and governance. This volume offers the first comprehensive study of the history of IQ testing in a Nordic country, shedding new light on its development, adaptation, and societal impact in Norway. By tracing the evolution of intelligence tests—from their role in schools and special education to forensic psychiatry and criminal law—the book uncovers the tensions surrounding their use. Are these tests instruments of empowerment or tools of control? How have they shaped access to education, healthcare, and legal rights? A key focus of this study is the transnational movement of intelligence tests, particularly between Norway, the USA, and other Nordic nations. It explores how tests have been translated, adapted, standardized, and used, raising questions about their claims to measure universal intelligence. This volume challenges assumptions about IQ testing, placing practices of testing and the tests themselves at the center of historical analysis. By examining the Norwegian case, it contributes fresh insights to international scholarship, offering a vital perspective on the global history of intelligence measurement. Essential reading for historians, psychologists, and educators, this book redefines our understanding of intelligence testing in a changing world

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• Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne; Lefkaditou, Ageliki & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2025). Innafor boksen? Måling av intelligens i 100 år (permanent utstilling). doi: https:/www.uio.no/for-ansatte/enhetssider/uv/arrangementer/2025/apning-testutstilling.html. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Denne permanente utstillingen er en lettere omarbeidet utgave av temporærutstillingen med samme navn. Hvordan oppsto IQ-tester? Hva består en IQ-test av? Hvordan har tester påvirket våre oppfatninger om intelligens, evner og personlighet? Utstillingen viser ulike IQ-tester som har blitt brukt i Norge de siste hundre årene. Den ble vist i et offentlig tilgjengelig areal i Kristian Ottosens hus på Universitetet i Oslo, Blindern, i 2023-2024.

• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2025). Hva sier testerne? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2025). Dypdykk: Derfor brukte de IQ-tester. doi: https:/www.historiskmuseum.no/arrangementer/andre/dypdykk-iq-testerne. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Vitenskapshistoriker Ageliki Lefkaditou og sosialantropolog Håkon Caspersen inviterer til et dypdykk i intelligenstestenes historie. Hvordan har IQ-testing blitt forstått og begrunnet av dem som bruker slike tester? Hvordan har disse forståelsene påvirket utviklingen av testene? Foredraget vil ta utgangspunkt både i historiske og samtidige perspektiver på testpraksis, og IQ testenes tiknytninger til forskjellige profesjoner. Illustrert blant annet igjennom en sammenligning av fortellinger fra den tidligste bruken av tester innen skolepsykiatrien i mellomkrigstiden og mer nåtidig praksis og argumenter i den pedagogisk-psykologiske rådgivningstjenesten.

• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot; Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne & Lefkaditou, Ageliki (2025). IQ - Hva forteller testene? / IQ – What Do the Tests Tell Us? doi: https:/www.historiskmuseum.no/english/exhibitions/exhibitions-archive/iq-test/. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2024). Historier om intelligenstesting i Norge: iakttagelser fra «periferien». Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2024). I intelligensens tidsalder. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2024). Intelligenstesting i pedagogisk-psykologisk tjeneste: kontinuiteter og endringer. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2024). Historicizing Intelligence. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2023). IQ tests as tools of a trade: anthropological reflections. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Psychological tests of general intelligence, like tests in general, exists as part of systems of expert knowledge. They have a long history and are institutionalised as an indispensable modern technology in diverse settings, with a wide range of utility value. Not only for the psychological or educational sciences, but as part of governing legibility practices that characterise the high modern state. The WISC-V (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – version V) is one of the most influential tests of general intelligence. It is in daily use as a screening-technology both in psychological-educational counselling services and in the psychiatric services for children and youth. Besides perhaps online “IQ-like” puzzles and ability testing in the army at a later stage, it is the most likely way a child is to encounter a test of general ability directly. This paper will take as its starting point the training of future WISC-V test administrators to tease out a few central characteristics of these tests’ role and function: both as a practical tool and as a marker of professional expertise. “IQ tests are important psychological tools” says the lecturer to her 2nd year psychology students, they help us “reach underneath the skin… we need to dig deeper than outer symptoms”. Why are they counted as important tools? What job, or jobs, are these tests doing? And how do they make the invisible visible? A social anthropologist queries.

• Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2023). Gjennom mer enn hundre år har man forsøkt å måle intelligens med IQ. [Journal]. Uniforum. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2023). IQ-utstillingen som møteplass. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne; Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Vaalund, Anne (2023). Material heritage and the historicization of the present. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The exhibition “Inside the box? Over 100 years of measuring intelligence” shows a selection of psychometric tests. Such tests have been used as a diagnostic tool in the healthcare system, in forensic psychiatric assessments, in medical and psychological research as well as in the military, and the education system. Their long history connects them to debates over the role of heredity and environment, the politics of segregation and integration, and policies related to sorting and accommodation. The exhibition is based on the research project “Historicizing intelligence” which explores the long history of IQ-testing and “intelligence” in Norway. But neither the research project, nor the exhibition would have been possible without historical sources. Such historical sources - the historical heritage of universities - are often in a state of continuous crisis. Universities seldom prioritize material heritage and its preservation is often a matter of an emergency operation. Using this exhibition and the process of making it as starting point, this session will discuss how university material heritage is not only an indispensable resource for research, but also an important moment for institutions and disciplinary communities to reflect on their history, practices and social role. The session includes a guided tour of the exhibition and an open discussion with the curators and researchers.

• Lefkaditou, Ageliki; Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne; Haave, Per & Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2023). Innafor boksen? - Måling av intelligens i 100 år (temporærutstilling). doi: https:/www.muv.uio.no/forskning/forskningsprosjekt/i-intelligensens-tidsalder/utstilling-innafor-boksen/index.html. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Hvordan oppsto IQ-tester? Hva består en IQ-test av? Hvordan har tester påvirket våre oppfatninger om intelligens, evner og personlighet? Utstillingen viser ulike IQ-tester som har blitt brukt i Norge de siste hundre årene. Den ble vist i et offentlig tilgjengelig areal i Kristian Ottosens hus på Universitetet i Oslo, Blindern, i 2023-2024

• Lefkaditou, Ageliki; Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne; Caspersen, Håkon Aamot & Vaalund, Anne (2023). Intelligence Tests In and Out of the Box: University Material Heritage between Disruption and Repair. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Caspersen, Håkon Aamot (2022). Practices, use and function of IQ testing as diagnostic tools in Norway today - a proposed ethnographic exploration. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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