Intelligence Quotient, IQ

Historically, I.Q. tests have become more difficult over time. There is a phenomenon named the Flynn Effect, named after James L. Flynn, which is the world-wide continuing increase in average scores on intelligence tests all over the world. The average results of IQ tests are set to 100, and periodically adjusted to reflect any shift in the average intelligence. There has been a continuous and almost linear increase in the IQ average since the beginning of testing. Test scores are thus increasing across the planet, but whether or not intelligence itself is increasing is debatable. Some of the analysis has demonstrated that most of the gains are in the lower half of the distribution.

You can learn more about this effect and the proposed explanations at Wikipedia.org. That same reference also states "The Flynn effect may have ended in at least a few developed nations, possibly allowing the national differences in IQ scores to diminish if the Flynn effects continues in nations with lower average national IQs."

There are a significant number of high IQ societies. What follows is a partial list showing a representative society in various percentile categories:

• Tensa Society, the top 10%
  
• International High IQ Society, the top 5%
  
• Alta Capacidad Hispana, the top 3%
  
• Mensa International, the top 2% (the most widely known IQ society)
  
• Top One Percent Society, the top 1%
  
• Genius Society, the top 0.5%
  
• Infinity International Society, the top 0.37%
  
• One-in-a-Thousand Society, the top 0.1%
  
• Olympiq Society, top 0.00003% (currently only 14 members)

Note that each society may have different requirements of acceptance, such as a proctored IQ test, a PhD, etc. For a longer list of IQ societies, visit Wikipedia.org.

There are many sites on the Web where you can take IQ test. One of them is IQtest.com. They claim to be "the most scientifically valid IQ test available on the web today." Another site where you can take the test is intelligencetest.com

Mensa offers an online test too, their Mensa Home Test (U.S. site). I don't believe Mensa gives you an actual test result number upon completiong of the test, but they will explain if you are in the ballpark to qualify for their organization. Even if you take a proctored test and join Mensa, they don't give you the test results. I assume it's to prevent any "My IQ is higher than yours" bickering within the society. You can either take their test online or request that a paper be mailed to you. Either way they charge $18 for the service.

There is also a Mesa Workout Test available online for free. Mensa has about around 110,000 Members in 100 countries. View the Mensa Membership Benefits.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. ~Arthur Schopenhauer

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information. ~Winston Churchill

Genius is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one. ~Ezra Pound

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. ~Albert Enstein

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish. ~Albert Einstein

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them ~Albert Einstein

I used to say that whenever people heard my Southern accent, they always wanted to deduct 100 IQ points. ~Jeff Foxworthy

When a member of the House moves over to the Senate, he raises the IQ of both bodies. ~Everett Dirksen

Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration. ~Thomas Alva Edison

The function of genius is to furnish cretins with ideas twenty years later. ~ Louis Aragon

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot. ~Charles Bukowski

Genius is a nuisance, and it is the duty of schools and colleges to abate it by setting genius-traps in its way. ~Samuel Butler

In the U.S.A., pre-draft assessments of prospective football players in the National Football League (NFL) require that the players take an IQ test. State Governors, members of Congress, the President and other politicians, are not. I infer from this that we have more regard for evaluating and selecting a good football player than we do a political leader who makes decisions that affect all of us. Idiots like Adi Amin come to mind. If you watch any of the videos about this man (follow the link), I think you'll come to the conclusion that his own words brand him as someone sorely lacking in intelligence (among other things).

Everything else being equal, when faced with a new problem and new facts outside a person's experience, a person with a higher IQ is more likely to reach the correct conclusion(s) than a person with a lower IQ.

If you have a high IQ, consider yourself lucky & don't look down on others who may not. Most of your IQ probably wasn't something you earned; it was given to you by your parents and your environment.

Don't get so annoyed at people you think are stupid; be glad you're not in that position.What would your world be like if everyone were more intelligent than you?

As far as the IQ of the human species goes, we're intelligent enough to kill each other off in large numbers, possibly to the point of our own extinction. We've certainly developed the weapons to do so and although the thought of a nuclear winter is horrifying, countries continue to develop and manufacture weapons of mass distruction. I don't think this qualifies as intelligent.

IQ ranges follow a typical gaussian or bell curve. There are a few ways of looking at the breadth of IQ scores; one is by using one standard deviation from the norm and another is to use the middle 50% of the population. One standard deviation is an IQ range from 85 to 115, and 50% of the population ranges from 90 to 110. For purposes of discussion I'll use the narrower 50% range.

Twenty IQ points, from 90 to 110 is a large difference. To put that difference into perspective, if we add 20 IQ points to the upper end we get 130 and we're getting into the 'gifted' range. I think, but am not absolutely certain, that 132 is the bottom line to qualify for the Mensa Society. Mensans have IQ's in the top two percent. Likewise, if we subtract 20 points from the lower end of the 50% group, we have an IQ of seventy. Here we get into an area where people have great difficulty making decisions that improve their life. (Not to say that they can't still be a rock star or an artist or whatever else might lead them to success.) Here we're somewhere near the bottom two percent. So twenty IQ points is a very significant difference, and that's the breadth of 50% of the population.

Unfortunately we end up with large numbers of people with lower IQ scores and the associated problems that occur as a result. If you look at the normal IQ range as 50% of the population, then one of four people fall into the lower 25% (and one in four in the upper 25%). If you consider one standard deviation to be the normal range, then use one of five people.

There's a trap in this thinking in that the same interpretation could be made regardless of the IQ range (assuming a bell curve is maintained). For example if the total range of human IQ's were 90 to 100, then it could still be broken down similarly (but the differences would be significantly less). And many of our problems are caused by intellectuals; they are not immune to feeling hate and bigotry or any other normal human emotions. I was once a moderator on one of the larger of the web's chess sites. I'm not trying to make a correlation between the ability to play good chess and a high intelligence or IQ score, but I can say that based on that experience, some of the higher scoring adult players were lacking in patience, civility and emotionally maturity. And some were just the opposite and a pleasure to work with. In other words, it was to me a fairly typical cross section of attitudes.

The engineers and scientists develop the guns, bombs, and weapons of mass destruction. These individuals are typically educated and in the upper intellectual range, but these weapons are available for anyone to use if they can get their hands on them. And if one can afford them then brains can always be employed to make more potentially lethal weapons. The human race excels at destruction (as well as construction).

If only we could both narrow the IQ range, shift the whole range upwards, provide everyone with a decent education, improve the social norms, eliminate religious, racial and other forms of bigotry, and hold our leaders more responsible, then our chances for a brighter future would be clearer.

If only.

Immanuel Kant proposed that genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.

Wikipedia states "A genius (plural genii or geniuses, adjective ingenious) is a person, a body of work, or a singular achievement of surpassing excellence. More than just originality, creativity, or intelligence, genius is associated with achievement of insight which has transformational power."

Robert J. Sternberg (with ten honorary doctorates, who did poorly in elementary school, yet graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University) wrote "I prefer to refer to it as `successful intelligence.' And the reason is that the emphasis is on the use of your intelligence to achieve success in your life. So I define it as your skill in achieving whatever it is you want to attain in your life within your sociocultural context - meaning that people have different goals for themselves, and for some it's to get very good grades in school and to do well on tests, and for others it might be to become a very good basketball player or actress or musician."

Sternberg also said "Viewed narrowly, there seem to be almost as many definitions of intelligence as there were experts asked to define it." His Triarchic Theory of (Successful) Intelligence contends that intelligent behavior arises from a balance between analytical, creative and practical abilities, and that these abilities function collectively to allow individuals to achieve success within particular sociocultural contexts.

According to Terman, unusually precocious children were more likely to turn out well than poorly in their later lives. Terman found, among other things, that the gifted were taller, healthier, physically better developed, superior in leadership and social adaptability, dispelling the often held contrary opinion. Terman's points of view regarding gifted youth include:

• They are the top 1 percent in intelligence
  
• They should be identified as early as possible in childhood
  
• They should be accelerated through school
  
• They should have a differentiated curriculum and instruction
  
• They should have specially trained teachers
  
• They should be viewed as a national resource for the betterment of society
  
• They should be allowed to develop in whatever directions their talents and interests dictate

Ref: Plucker, J. A. (Ed.). (2003). Human intelligence: Historical influences, current controversies, teaching resources. Retrieved January 9, 2011 from http://www.indiana.edu/~intell

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