IQ Tests

This essay is about the infamous IQ test administered by most school districts and some therapists. There are probably several themes under this topic which are just itching for an essay. In particular one might ask: "what is intelligence, anyway?" or "does changing intelligence to an adjective and appending quotient alter the meaning?" To clarify, consider water as an example. We have a device called a thermometer calibrated between 0-250. There is a special mark on the device at "32" and another at "212." After a number of experiments, we make the statement: For any reading below "32," water is a solid; for any reading about "212," water is a gas. One might conclude that ice has no practical value and steam has unusual and valuable properties, but water is just water behaving about the same throughout the range 33-211 except that as the reading rises, the water "feels" hotter.
... But, I digress...

I don't know what an IQ test is. I feel comfortable making this statement because if I were a potential witness in a police lineup and were asked to pick an IQ out of five similar tests, I would certainly fail. However, I do know what it purports to measure: human intelligence. There is no scientific definition of intelligence, but we laymen "know" what it is: The ability to use our brains to solve problems.

After a typical IQ test is "graded," the testee is assigned a number between 0 and 200. A person with a score less than 80 is labeled an idiot, a person with a score over 150 is labeled a genius, and the rest of us (80-150) are said to be "normal." Interestingly, the IQ test does not claim to rank either the idiots or the geniuses according to rising scores, but when two normal people are compared a la IQ, the one with the higher IQ is considered smarter; i.e, somehow more capable of solving problems a la the brain.

Finally, we get to the "moral" of this essay. It is not true that an IQ test measures intelligence, at least not for us normal people. I have had occasion to observe a very large number of people with an IQ between 80-150 and I have observed no difference whatsoever in their ability to solve problems. But what I have noticed is a vast difference in how fast they can solve problems. Furthermore, the speed is proportional to their IQ. The reason that people with an IQ less than 100 appear to be less capable than those with an IQ above 100 is that they won't spend the time they need to learn how to do something. You notice the incredible capability of people with low IQ when they set out to learn something they want to do.

Summing up, all I really had to say here is that an IQ test measures the speed at which a person can learn a task and has nothing to do with his innate capacity to solve a problem. All humans have the capacity to use their brains to solve problems. Perhaps, this capability might one day be used to define "what is human" rather than the popular "race, creed, etc."

... in closing, I have three more abouts ...
1. A genius is a person who can solve any problem and occasionally is incredibly creative.
2. An idiot is not a buffoon, but instead is a person who is embarrassingly slow at learning how to do something and must also endure the ridicule of normal people during the learning process.
3. We normal people could benefit by observing that the preferred definition of "idiot" is a person with a mental defect (or deficiency), "buffoon" coming in a distant second; and noting that a genius rarely wastes time ridiculing an idiot.

Date Stamp:
   original - 04 Apr 2003 (temp - updates only)
   rev #000 - none
URL: https://ihttsat.com/kcb/iqtests.html