| For the past several years, the Sunday
newspaper supplement Parade has featured a column called "Ask Marilyn". People
are invited query Marilyn vos Savant, who at age 10 had tested at a mental level
of someone about 23 years old; that gave her an IQ of 228—the highest score ever
recorded. IQ tests ask you to complete verbal and visual analogies, to envision
paper after it has been folded and cut, and to deduce numerical sequences, among
other similar tasks, so it is a hit confusing when vos Savant fields such
queries from the aver age Joe (whose IQ is 100) as. What's the difference
between love and fondness? Or what is the nature of luck and coincidence? It's
not obvious how the capacity to visualize objects and to figure out numerical
patterns suits one to answer questions that have eluded some of the best poets
and philosophers. Clearly, intelligence encompasses more than a score on a test, Just what does it mean to be smart? How much of intelligence can be specified, and how much can we earn about it from neurology, genetics, computer and other fields? The defining term of intelligence in humans still seems to be the IQ score, even though IQ tests are not given as often as alley used to be. The test comes primrily in two forms: the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales (both come in adult and children's version). Generally costing several hundred dollars, they are usually given only by psychologists, although variations of them populate book stores and the World Wide Web. Superhigh scores like vos Savant's are no longer possible, because scoring is now based on a statistical population distribution among age peers, Rather than simply dividing the mental age by the chronological age and multiplying by 100. Other standardized tests, such as the Scholastic Assessmen: Test (SAT)and the Graduate Record Exam (GRE),capture the main aspects of IQ tests. Such standardized tests may not assess all the important elements necessary to succeed in school and in life, argues Robert J. Sternberg. In his article "How Intelligent Is Intelligence Testing?", Sternberg notes that traditional tests best assess analytica and verbal skills but fail to measure creativity and practical knowl- edge, components also critical to problem solving and life success. Moreover IQ tests do not necessarily predict so well once populations or situations change. Research has found that IQ predicted leadership skills when the tests were given under low-stress conditions, but under high-stress conditions, IQ was negatively correlated with leadership—that is, it predicted the opposite. Anyone who has toiled through SAT will testify that test-taking skill also matters, whether it's knowing when to guess or what questions to skip. |