Conceptual and methodological errors that invalidate Luciano et al’s claim to have tested Robinson’s theory of personality and intelligence

Luciano, Leisser, Wright, and Martin (2004) claim to have tested a “prediction by Robinson (1989) that ambiverts (moderate neural arousal) would score higher on IQ tests than extraverts or introverts.” They also claim that the results described in their report are inconsistent with this prediction because they found that “introverts” have higher IQs than “ambiverts”. The present article demonstrates that Luciano et al’s classification of “introvert”, “extravert” and “ambivert” groups is incorrect and that their data would support rather than falsify the hypothesis that ambiverts should have higher IQ scores than either introverts or extraverts. The article also demonstrates that the Luciano et al. report is conceptually flawed since the specific prediction described by the authors was not made by Robinson and cannot be derived from his theory.