[Home]History of IQ

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Revision 15 . . December 2, 2001 11:06 pm by Robbe [inject some modern views]
Revision 14 . . (edit) November 28, 2001 7:39 pm by (logged).253.64.xxx
Revision 13 . . September 18, 2001 6:12 am by Lee Daniel Crocker
  

Difference (from prior major revision) (no other diffs)

Changed: 1c1
IQ, an abbreviation for "intelligence quotient", is a measure believed to be of general cognitive ability derived from a set of [standardized tests]?. It is expressed as a number normalized so that the average IQ in the population is 100. The exact value of such tests for the purpose of measuring intelligence is a subject of much debate among psychiatrists and other specialists.
IQ, an abbreviation for "intelligence quotient", is a score beliefed to measure general cognitive ability derived from a set of [standardized tests]?. It is expressed as a number normalized so that the average IQ in an age group is 100 -- in other words an individual scoring 115 is above-average when compared to similarly aged people. The distribution of IQ scores is more-or-less Gaussian, that is it follows the famous "Bell curve".

Changed: 3c3
Down syndrome children may show IQ in the range 40 to 60. IQs between 130 and 150 are above are often referred to as "high intelligence" or "highly gifted" level, and IQs of 150 as "Genius" level. Generally, individuals that are successful in a socio-economic sense have an IQ in the range 125-140.
Modern ability tests produce scores for different areas (e.g. language fluency, three-dimensional thinking, ...), with the summary score being the most meaningless. It is much more useful to know which are the strenghts and weaknesses of a person than to know that he or she beats n percent of the populace in some "general intelligence" measure. Two persons with vastly different ability profiles may score the same IQ, but may exhibit different affinity to a given task, or may not be valued equally intelligent by other people.

Changed: 5c5
Gary Kasparov and Judit Polgar are said to sport IQ above 180.
IQ scores are sometimes proposed as an objective measure of intelligence, but of course a test encodes its creators beliefs about what consitutes intelligence. What various cultures dub "intelligence" differs. Most people also think that creativity plays a significant role in intelligence; creativity is almost unmeasurable by tests.

Added: 6a7,8
(The following numbers apply to IQ scales with σ=15.)
Scores between 90 and 110 are considered average -- so a person scoring 95 is simply average, not below-average. For children scoring below 80 special schooling is encouraged, children above 125 are "highly gifted". IQ scores outside the range 55 to 145 are essentially meaningless because there are not enough people to make statistically sound statements.

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