IQ tests measure mathematical, spatial reasoning, logical ability, and language comprehension. They do not measure life experience, wisdom, or personal qualities. Factors such as malnutrition, fetal alcohol syndrome, and lack of education can lower scores. Brain size, specifically the frontal lobe, is indicative of higher scores. Men and women have roughly equal scores, but men show greater variance. IQ scores can predict academic and occupational success, but there is debate about their use in predicting behavior and potential biases.
IQ stands for intelligent quotient and refers to a score assigned to various standardized tests of intelligence. The first of them was developed by the French psychologist Alfred Binet in 1905. He constructed the IQ test, as it would later be called, to determine which children might need additional help in academic pursuits. Today, this test is commonly based on some model of the Stanford Binet Intelligence scale.
Not all intelligence can be measured with an IQ test. Indeed, primarily, this test measures mathematical and spatial reasoning, logical ability and understanding of language. So a person who speaks English as a second language might score low on the language comprehension aspects of a test and it would not be an adequate measure of intelligence.
Also, an IQ test doesn’t measure things like life experience, wisdom, or personal qualities like being a good friend or devoted spouse. Thus it is not a predictor of a person’s quality or worth, although it has occasionally been used as such.
Some things can have a negative impact on your IQ score. These include malnutrition in the children tested and fetal alcohol syndrome or maternal dependence. Mental retardation or conditions that impair the brain’s ability to remember, such as Alzheimer’s disease, also cause lower scores. IQ can also be affected by a lack of proper education, often due to disparities in education funding. If these disparities are corrected, scores typically increase.
People can also train to take IQ tests, which can boost scores. However, it is not known whether a person who scores higher due to repeated training or testing is actually smarter. It is verifiable that the trained person gets better results in the test than the untrained person.
There have been some studies on brain size, development, and scores. Specifically, the frontal lobe of the brain appears to be the most indicative method for predicting scores. Larger frontal lobes tend to produce larger IQs.
Men and women appear to have roughly equal scores on IQ tests, although men show greater variance on tests and have higher and very low scores than women. The American Psychological Association has conducted studies on IQ and has drawn the following conclusions:
IQ score was a good predictor for academic performance.
The score can also predict quite well the degree to which a person can be successful in occupations.
Scores tend to show some racial bias.
Test scores can be influenced by personal genetic history.
There is a highly controversial debate in IQ test scoring, whether nature or nurture affects scores more. Additionally, there is debate about how many scores should be used as a predictor of behavior. Some fear they could negatively affect perceptions of colleges, private schools, or employers when used to determine employability or acceptance into schools.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
