What is the IQ or Intellectual Quotient?

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Sherman Hoover
What is the IQ or Intellectual Quotient?

The intellectual quotient or IQ (IQ in English) is a value that results from the completion of a standardized test to measure the cognitive abilities and intellectual capacity of a person in relation to their age group.

Contents

  • How to get the IC number
  • Origin of intelligence tests
      • WAIS tests measure
    • Ranges of scores established to measure IQ
  • Factors that influence the IQ
  • Age and IQ
  • Criticisms of the concept of IC

How to get the IC number

Many times we have seen or heard that the IQ is the IQ, but in reality that would not be the correct term, although it is considered valid, since the figure obtained to measure the IQ derives from the arithmetic operation that is obtained by dividing a quantity (dividend) by another (divisor), so the result is the quotient.

The IQ is obtained by dividing between the mental age of an individual (which are the results offered by intelligence tests) and his chronological age, multiplied by one hundred.

The average IQ of an age group has been established at 100 points, and all those scores between 90 and 110 are considered within normal parameters. The tests are designed so that the distribution of the results is a Gaussian distribution. , that is, follow the curve of the Gaussian Bell.

Origin of intelligence tests

In 1905, the French psychologist Alfred Binet published the first modern intelligence test: the Binet-Simon intelligence scale. Its main objective was to identify students who needed special help to meet school demands. With the collaboration of Theodore Simon, Alfred Binet published revisions of his intelligence scale between 1908 and 1911, with the last one appearing just before his death..

In 1916 the first adaptation of the Binet-Simon scale was published by Lewis M. Terman, from Stanford University. The Terman test, which is called the "Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale", formed the basis of one of the modern intelligence tests commonly used today. They are known colloquially as the IQ Test.

For children under 16 years of age, the test most used to measure IQ is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), a scale that measures the intelligence quotient in children from 6 to 16 years old based on the results of the fifteen blocks that make up this test, created by David Wechsler in 1949 and with successive reissues (the last, the WISC-IV, dates from 2003).

It is one of the most used instruments in school psychology to detect learning disorders that can lead to school failure, but it has been widely criticized for reducing intelligence to several parameters and not taking into account the extreme variability that can arise in individuals from these ages when undergoing psychometric tests. There is also the equivalent of the WAIS test for adults.

WAIS tests measure

  • Linguistic competence: word definitions, synonyms, reading comprehension, general culture questions or guessing words from clues
  • Perception: following shape patterns, matching pictures, completing shapes
  • Memory: repeating sequences of numbers and letters, mental math
  • Mental processing capacity: marking the figures that respond to a certain characteristic in a limited time, locating drawings among other figures

Ranges of scores established to measure IQ

140 or more: geniuses or near geniuses
120 - 139: gifted intelligence
110-119: brilliant intelligence
90-109: normal intelligence
80 - 89: unintelligent
70 - 79: border area with cognitive deficit
60 - 69: mild cognitive deficit
50 - 59: moderate cognitive deficit
25 - 45: severe cognitive deficit
0 - 24: profound cognitive deficit

Gaussian bell

Factors that influence the IQ

Historically there has been a great controversy about the role of genetics in intelligence and the influence of the environment, especially education. Most studies affirm that there are certain innate capacities, but that they can be stimulated or repressed according to the environment in which the person develops and the learning experiences they have. There are also physical factors that affect intelligence, such as proper nutrition in childhood or not consuming certain drugs that damage the brain..

No evidence has been found linking gender or ethnicity with a given IQ, although there is more dispersion among men than among women. What seems to differ in this regard are specific abilities: men excel visually and spatially and women tend to use more detail to aid memory. Regarding the cultural role, they tend to be more present in sectors in which verbal skills predominate and they in mathematics, but these biases seem not to be the result of IQ deviations, but of gender stereotypes.

IQ scores in a population have evolved upwards throughout history (the so-called Flynn effect), so these tests require continuous adaptation if the standards are to remain reliable..

Age and IQ

Apparently the IQ can vary throughout our lives, especially during childhood. In general, there are small variations in the score (within a few margins) until the entrance of adulthood, where it begins to decline slowly. .

It has been observed that fluid intelligence varies more over time and crystallized intelligence remains more stable..

Criticisms of the concept of IC

Many scientists claim that IQ, and even intelligence measurement systems themselves, are invalid for a number of reasons. On the one hand, they indicate that intelligence tests do not really measure intelligence, but rather proximity to an established canon of knowledge with eminently cultural and social content, without a real relationship with cognitive abilities. On the other hand, they affirm that intelligence is not a measurable quality, but a relationship between the individual, the community and the environment..

At present, the IQ cannot be used as a synonym for intelligence, but it is an estimator of it. And it has been shown that human intelligence is related to various factors such as the social status of parents (due to access to better education, food and health) as well as genetic inheritance. Although the inheritance mechanisms of intelligence have been investigated for almost a century, controversy still exists regarding the extent to which intelligence is inherited or environmental.


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