Schools, universities and employers and the general population rely on IQ tests. People say intelligence is important and call successful people or people who know lots intelligent. What exactly is it? Is it doing well on an IQ test? Having lots of knowledge or cognitive ability? Is there any way to measure it, considering that it doesn't have anything to do with applying intelligence? Is it a meaningless word?
It's important to understand that IQ tests do not necessarily measure intelligence, they merely measure particular aspects that we believe to be important components to intelligence as we understand it. That said, I personally believe that intelligence is the capacity to learn.
It's assumed that if someone takes the time to take a test, they'll general comply with the expectation of taking it seriously.
It is indeed, but is that assumption correct? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13156817 So IQ tests measure motivation - not just intelligence. Is motivation therefore an aspect of intelligence?
Yes that assumption is correct. It's beyond the realm of a test to measure the motivation to take said test. A test is not self-aware.
Intelligence has been expanded to the physical as well, so with that in mind some basketball players may rank very low on an IQ intelligence test but rank very high on a physical intelligence test. It's basically a meaningless word.
Then it's always worthless. If incentives can increase or decrease a score then there's no way we can determine what the motivation on the test was.
There is no "incentive". It's simply a measurement. For any measurement to be accurate people have to accommodate the measurement itself. It's like saying measuring height is worthless because some people have no motivation to stand up straight.
This is how I've always defined intelligience. The problem with IQ tests is they only measure limited types of intelligience..verbal, spacial, mathematical... Intelligience comes in many different forms. Some people might be completely incapable of carrying on an intelligient conversation about, just for example, philosophy or the impact of historical events, but they might possess the ability to take a car or a radio or a television apart and figure out how it works within 10 minutes. That type of intelligience isn't tested for on IQ tests. I remember my high school chemistry teacher was a mathematical and scientific genius, yet he couldn't spell for shit and he had absolutely no social skills. You just couldn't carry on a conversation with him unless it somehow involved numbers, chemical interactions, or balancing equations. Intelligience is almost always limited.
For 10 1/2 yrs I worked for the state as an evaluator, vocational evaluator specifically; however, psychometric testing was primary...this included intelligence testing. It is a known fact that according to the test admistered, a supposedly "smart" person is subject to do "barely educable" ....lol ....but I'm serious. Othertimes a person whose skills lead one to feel they are "challenged" test well. One cannot go by one singluar "IQ test". It is also documented that the more one takes certain "IQ tests", the better one does. Ideally, this should not be, eh? All that being said, a person with at least average intelligence is not going so score in the mentally challenged category. I don't think so, anyway...but the "testing" should be legimate...NOT this internet stuff. Hell, I'm a genius, according to them at times. LOL - and I'm not kidding. And of all the things I am and are....I do not have delusions of grandeur. lol I'm not a genius.
I've found internet IQ tests that test only for verbal accuity or mathematical smarts. I always test in the genius level on verbal but damn close to retarded on math or spacial reasoning lol. That just goes to show that there is no set measurement for intelligience. There are far too many different types of intelligience to be able to define what intelligience truly is. My results as far as that goes actually hold true to life. I can meet and conversate with someone in certain situations and leave them thinking I'm the biggest idiot in the world. But if I meet someone in a different context and have a completely different conversation with them, they might find me very intelligient. I've also come across IQ tests that are too culturally biased and rely more on facts than abstract intelligience. A person's IQ should not be brought down just because they don't know a certain fact that is only pertinent to certain cultures. Did you find that the tests you adminstered in school to be free of cultural bias?
But going back to my original reply, mustn't there be certain traits that are fundamental to any type of intelligence?
You defined intelligience as the capacity to learn. That is the simplest definition and would be fundamental to any type of intelligience. Would a child that is taught from a very early age not only how to read but other areas of learning like mathematics and mechanics, have a higher capacity of learning than a child who is exposed to these things later in childhood? Is IQ elastic? Can a person increase their capacity for learning the more they learn and challenge their brains? If two children test with similiar IQs and pick up on new concepts at a similiar speed, but one is challenged and exposed to new concepts throughout childhood while the other is not, would their IQ tests show drastically different results as adults?
You are right about how culturally biased many IQ tests are, particularly those used in schools, sadly enough. The ones we used, well the main one used, was the Revised BETA II test, which administered correctly, was amazingly accurate. One did not have to be able to read nor perform math. It was broken up into 8 sections (or 6?), if I remember correctly. At any rate, in that particular situation of being tested as these people were, the clients were "lucky" in that they were given a battery of different types of tests, both written and some hands-on, and their overall vocational aptitude (and IQ) was based on the compilation of the results of these tests.
