We explain what IQ is, how it is measured and what each score means. In addition, various tests to evaluate it.
What is the IQ?
It is called IQ or IQ, abbreviated IQ, to an estimating tool of the general intelligence of individuals, obtained by means of a measurement popularly known as "test".
In other words, it is a figure that tries to encompass the intellectual capacities of a person, in order to be able to compare it and relate it statistically with the average.
This term was used for the first time in 1912, when the psychologist William Stern of the University of Wroclaw wanted to name a new method to score the results of the infant intelligence test invented in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon.
Thus, the Scale The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test was born in 1916, becoming the most popular intelligence test in the United States at the time, and universalizing the name IQ.
However, it must be said that IQ is a highly debated concept today, which has many detractors. Researchers like the Lebanese Nassim Taleb have shown that this is a statistically invalid concept, given that the human brain is so complex that its capabilities cannot be reduced to a mere number.
Others even brand it as a pseudoscience. However, there are those who consider it a revealing factor of the qualities of a subject in terms of academic or work performance, or even as an approximation to the mental performance of the subjects. populations.
How is IQ measured?
First of all, we must understand that intelligence is not the same as knowledge, nor that the mental speed. In fact, it is not a universally understood concept.
However, it can be said that intelligence is the ability to adapt the thought difficulties that arise and find an appropriate solution. Therefore, the values of an intelligence test should always be taken as an approximation or an indicator, not as absolute values.
IQ tests usually measure IQ on a numerical scale that usually ranges from 0 to 200 (or above). Thus, the following lines are obtained:
- From 0 to 4: Capacity cognitive null. The person does not know read, neither write, nor communicate with others Humans, and exists outside of a culture determined, like the "wild children."
- From 5 to 19: Profound cognitive disability. These are generally individuals with identifiable neurological diseases, incapacitated for almost all tasks that do not have specialized supervision.
- From 20 to 34: Severe cognitive disability. The individual has a recognizable intellectual disability that limits their work and academic training, allowing only the performance of the simplest tasks and the most basic calculation, given the appropriate support.
- From 35 to 54: Moderate cognitive disability. Individuals who, despite their obvious intellectual disability, can integrate into society and perform unskilled or semi-skilled jobs, always under supervision. Given the teaching correct, they can acquire skills for your personal care.
- 55 to 69: Mild cognitive disability. This step is known as the "educable stage", in the sense that they can be educated for an independent life or within a institution, but with a wide margin of independence. Their disability becomes noticeable after the early stages of childhood, or when they have to face situations of stress or intellectual or emotional demands.
- From 70 to 84: Borderline intelligence. What is commonly called "slight delay" or "difficulty learning”, Usually oscillates in this line. Many of the children who fail in school present this level of results.
- 85 to 99: Below average. They are perfectly normal, useful and healthy individuals, but they have intelligence levels below the average of the population. Many times this is not even perceptible, and they do not usually present problems to join the society.
- Out of 100: Intellectual Average Established.This is not an absolute value. Each decade increases by three points to always stay at 100, since in principle the generations get smarter and smarter. But it is, for the purposes of measurement, from the midpoint of the scale, where the large percentage of the human population is.
- From 101-114: Above average. Without being precisely gifted, individuals at this level show above-average intelligence, which can stand out or become evident on specific occasions, and go completely unnoticed from the rest.
- 115 to 129: Brilliant intelligence. Individuals with a notoriously higher than average intelligence, especially if their living conditions allow the use of their abilities. The average of the most demanding performance professionals in the West, for example, is 125 points.
- From 130 to 139: Intellectual giftedness. Individuals with a score greater than 130 are generally called “gifted”, which places them above 98% of the world's population. The brightest minds in the science they are usually in this range, or even higher.
- From 140 to 154: Intellectual genius. One person in every 1000 possesses this intellectual level, and constitutes what we commonly call "geniuses", that is, people exceptionally gifted in some type of exercise or intellectual field, often capable of totally radical and different thought patterns, which in turn in turn, it involves numerous psychological problems.
- From 155 to 174: High intellectual capacity. These are individuals with thought patterns so radically different from the rest that they often present with emotional and social syndromes and disorders as a result of their enormous departure from average human intelligence. Sometimes it would be virtually impossible to get along with those 20 points below you on the spectrum.
- 175 to 184: Exceptional intelligence. One in every 700,000 people in the world has this level of intellect, which allows exceptional advancements in the educational journey, great perspectives at an early age, and other great abilities, often requiring special educational models and a radically different life from the world. of the average.
- From 185 to 201: Deep intelligence. These ranges of brainpower are so rare (one in every 18 million people) that they are difficult to describe and understand. Suffice it to say that these are the highest and rarest values in the scale.
Average IQ
The intellectual average according to this type of indicator is established by convention at 100 points. This means that the majority of the world's people obtain values close to (slightly above or slightly below) 100, which represents the world average of the humanity, defined by statistical convention.
IQ chart
IQ tests
Some online tests to know our IQ are the following:
- Test in 123Test.
- Test in International-iq-test.
- Psychoactive Test.