Meaning of IQ [split from Personality thread]

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:52 pm

IQ TESTS ARE A CONSPIRACY TO MAKE ME THINK I'M STUPID!

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:51 pm

guy07 wrote:IQ TESTS ARE A CONSPIRACY TO MAKE ME THINK I'M STUPID!

Well, seeing how we're yet to detect a conscious thought in you, I would say they failed even at doing that.

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:34 pm

Otohiko wrote:
guy07 wrote:IQ TESTS ARE A CONSPIRACY TO MAKE ME THINK I'M STUPID!
Well, seeing how we're yet to detect a conscious thought in you, I would say they failed even at doing that.

Hey, i think. Sometimes i think so much that i can move stuff with my mind! (Or maybe i just think i can ...) Either way, i think.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 10:21 pm

I guess your logic here would be "I am, therefore I think"

godix · Post by **godix** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:46 am

A Dictionary wrote:intelligence quotient
–noun Psychology.
an intelligence test score that is obtained by dividing mental age, which reflects the age-graded level of performance as derived from population norms, by chronological age and multiplying by 100: a score of 100 thus indicates a performance at exactly the normal level for that age group. Abbreviation: IQ

It appears the meaning of IQ has already been discovered.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:36 am

Dictionaries often simplify things and have this strange habit of defining words as the majority of people believe them to be. When that majority of people happen to be misinformed (I'm not saying that's the case here, but bear with me) the information in a dictionary changes to make that definition the "correct one."

Savia · Post by **Savia** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 3:52 pm

That is a definition of IQ; it's not the only one. For example, the standardised IQ test used by most psychologists is a normalised distribution that uses Z-scoring to give a population with a mean IQ of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. So about 2/3s of people have an IQ in the 85-115 range, and about 99.8% fall between 55 and 145. MENSA generally accepts the top 2% for membership- about 135 and up.

Furthermore, modern IQ tests (Stanford-Binet et al) consist of a battery of separate tests that are added to the battery iff they have a statistically significant correlation with scores on the other tests. So for example there's a general knowledge section in there- why? Because general knowledge correlates with the other test scores so, the story goes, it measures the same underlying factor- which is known as 'G' or the General Intelligence.

Other models, such as Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, divide intelligence into categories and score separately in each. Sadly these categories are mostly defined by What Howard Gardner Thinks They Should Be.

In my opinion the reason that middle class caucasian males tend to do better on IQ tests is that they are overwhelmingly designed by middle class caucasian males. It's a systemic error in the whole thing.