What does an IQ test mean?

IQ test, which stands for “Intelligence Quotient,” is a standard score that tells you how much smarter or less smart than your peers are. The average score for this group is 100. By giving the same test to a huge group of people from all walks of life and then getting the average, the IQ number is found. 

For the first time, in 1912, psychologist William Stern used the formula “mental age to chronological age x 100” to show IQ. Let’s say someone was 10 years old and thought like a 10-year-old, their IQ would be 100. But if, say, they were 13 years old instead of 10, their IQ would be 130.

What do IQ tests look like?

A normal IQ test includes several tests that measure intelligence. Such as the ability to recognize patterns, remember things quickly, do math, and think critically. People often get the wrong idea about IQ tests, thinking that they test all the information you’ve learned over the years. Instead, they test your ability to learn. 

The first IQ test was made in the early 1900s. Since then, it has changed a lot. In the same way that they tested people’s abilities rather than anything they had learned in the past, their goal has stayed the same, and neither has the way they do it. 

The IQ test has been changed many times, but the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is the one that is most often used. This test, which was made in 1955, was different from earlier IQ tests that looked at different mental skills, like verbal, numerical, spatial, and reasoning intelligence. There has been a change to this test, the WAIS-IV since it was first made. 

There are 10 subtests and five extra tests in the WAIS-IV. A verbal comprehension scale, a perceptual thinking scale, a working memory scale, and a processing speed scale are the four different types of intelligence that the test measures. Then, a person is tested with a group of friends to get a more accurate score, with two-thirds of the scores being in the normal range, which is between 85 and 115.

What does an IQ test find?

An IQ test measures a range of a person’s cognitive skills and gives them a score that is meant to show what they can do and how much potential they have. 

Most IQ tests have between 25 and 50 multiple-choice questions and last between one and two hours. It depends on the organization giving the test, but tests can be shorter. For example, tests you can take on social media are often short and don’t cover all the necessary topics to correctly measure IQ.

A quick look back at IQ tests

The first IQ tests were made by Paul Broca (1824–1880) and Sir Francis Galton in the late 1800s. They wanted to find a way to make measuring intelligence more consistent.

They thought they could do this by measuring the size of a person’s head. The bigger it was, the smarter the person was thought to be. Luckily, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon worked together in the early 1900s to come up with a better way to measure intelligence. So we no longer believe this.

The French government of education hired the scientists. Told them to find a way to tell which of the kids they were testing might be falling behind. Because they weren’t as smart as the kids who were just being lazy. As part of their IQ test, the Simon-Binet asked people to use logic to find words that rhyme and name things.

An American psychologist named Lewis Terman went back to the Simon-Binet test and made a much better standard than the original tests. So that the quotient could be measured more accurately. The way to measure, on the other hand, only worked with kids, and the way to figure out the answer was still by multiplying standard numbers.

Another 30 years passed, and “David Wechsler solved the problem of calculating adult IQ by simply comparing performance to the distribution of test scores, which is a normal distribution.” Today’s IQ tests are used all over the world. They were made possible by his research into how to better score these tests and how to analyze them.

The effect of IQ 

IQ testing can affect various aspects of life, such as employment and education. While lower scores may be related to an intellectual handicap of some kind, higher scores are frequently linked to greater academic accomplishment.5.

An approximate summary of the different IQ score ranges is shown below. Different tests display scores in different ways, and variations in how those values are interpreted also exist.

The Wechsler series of IQ tests for adults and children is where these classifications originate.

The normal distribution, often called a bell-shaped curve, describes how intelligence test results normally fall. With the majority of results falling within or close to the average score. For instance, on the Wechsler IQ tests, most results (about 68%) fall within the range of plus or minus 15 points from the average score of 100.

This indicates that roughly 68% of those who take the IQ test will have a score in the 85–115 range. Scores tend to become less common as you move closer to the extreme ends of the distribution.

A score of less than 70 on an IQ test is frequently regarded as low IQ, whereas a score of more than 140 is considered high IQ. In the past, intellectual impairments were identified by scores lower than 70. These days, an intellectual disability cannot be diagnosed just based on test results; diagnosticians also take adaptive skills and the age at which the problem first manifests.

How to Evaluate Your Performance

It can be useful to know how IQ tests are created and how your score stacks up against others to gain a deeper understanding of what your actual result indicates. An IQ test result can tell you how you stack up against people in your peer group in terms of:

• Language proficiency
• mathematical prowess
• Recollection
• Processing velocity
• Intelligent abilities
• Processing of images and spaces

The scientists who create IQ tests employ a procedure called standardization to ensure that test results are evaluated and interpreted correctly. To do this, a representative sample of the population that will eventually take the test must be given the test.

This initial sample captures many of the characteristics of the general population and attempts to represent the entire population as closely as possible. This enables the creators of IQ tests to set criteria or norms by which different test results can be contrasted.

Assessing Intelligence – Notable Participants

Sir Francis Galton

The first scientist to try to create a contemporary IQ test was Sir Francis Galton in 1884. His open laboratory allowed anyone to have their hearing and vision acuities as well as their response times to various stimuli tested.

Cattell, James McKeen

James McKeen Cattell developed the first mental exam in history in 1890. It comprised a series of comparable activities, nearly all of which assessed the quickness and precision of perception. However, it quickly became apparent that these kinds of tasks are not predictive of academic success. Suggesting that they are likely imprecise indicators of intelligence.

Binet, Alfred

Alfred Binet developed the first IQ test of the modern era in 1905. He was not motivated by scientific research, in contrast to Galton. Instead, he was thinking more in terms of the very practical ramifications of being able to recognize kids who are not able to keep up with their classmates in the recently mandatory schooling system.

Both knowledge questions and questions demanding basic thinking were included in Binet’s test. In addition to test items, Binet required an external validity criterion, which he discovered in age. Indeed, older children are generally more intellectually advanced than younger ones, despite significant diversity in the pace of development. Therefore, Binet determined the average age at which kids could solve each puzzle and grouped the pieces by that figure. In this manner, he could determine a kid’s standing among their peers. For example, if a youngster demonstrated the ability to answer problems that were typically solved by two-year-olds alone. Then this child would be two years ahead in terms of mental development.

William Stern

William Stern later developed a more precise method, suggesting that the age calculated from test performance (called “mental age”) should be divided by the real age rather than being subtracted from it. Thus, the well-known “intelligence quotient,” or “IQ,” which is expressed as (mental age) / (chronological age), was created. As it happened, this kind of computation ended up being more accurate than other estimations of mental capacity. Under Binet’s system, an 8-year-old performs at a 6-year-old level. For example, would get the same estimate as a 6-year-old performing at a 4-year-old level. However, the 6-year-old would receive a lesser score—4/6 < 6/8—in Stern’s approach. Stern’s approach was more successful as experience indicates that when they are both ten. The eight-year-old is more likely to perform better on cognitive tasks than the six-year-old.

Terman Lewis

Following Lewis Terman’s revision of Binet’s test. Which he published as the Stanford-Binet exam (Terman was a psychologist at Stanford University) and created a norm that was far more appropriate than the original. IQ testing became a true success story in the US. His eagerness to multiply the outcome by 100 further contributed to the final IQ equation. Which reads (mental age) / (chronological age) X 100. A 130 IQ indeed seems far more intelligent than a 1.3 IQ.

However, this approach is only effective with young children. Parents would be ecstatic to learn that their 6-year-old child already possessed the mental capacity of a typical 9-year-old, meaning that the youngster’s IQ was 150. However, the grandpa of the child might not take it well if he was informed that. Despite being just sixty, his cognitive talents were comparable to those of an average ninety-year-old. The quotient is only valid if Binet’s initial criterion—that is if being older generally translates into having greater abilities—remains true. Stated differently, the approach is incorrect in cases where mental development is no longer occurring.

Wechsler, David

David Wechsler found a simple solution to the adult IQ calculation problem by comparing test score distribution. Which is normal, for performance. According to his system, an individual’s IQ was 100 if their score matched the age group mean. In this sense, the typical adult’s IQ would be 100. The same as the average child’s IQ under the previous system. He assigned IQ scores according to the degree to which a person outscored their peers using the statistical characteristics of the normal distribution. An individual with an IQ of 115. For example, would have surpassed 86% of their peers by scoring one standard deviation above the mean.

Hope this post can help.