We need better psychometric instruments

Author: Claus D. Volko

The intelligence tests that are currently in use do not suffice to detect extreme talent. We need new instruments to detect intelligence levels that correspond to an IQ of 160, 170, 180, 190 or even higher.

I recently visited the website of Syncritic Institute, an institute for academics with an IQ of 175 or higher. The founder states that science has been stagnating since the 1970s because the IQ of scientists has diminished and his institute has the ambition to change this.

I do not know any intelligence test that reliably measures IQ scores of 175 or higher. I recall my own history of intelligence testing: The first official test I took was the Mensa admission test, on which I scored only IQ 134. I immediately thought that this was an underestimate of my intellectual abilities, and, indeed, on the next test I took (a test on the Internet) I already scored IQ 156, more than a standard deviation higher. It turned out that my test scores were in the IQ 150 - 160 range on most serious tests, and some even above 160, the highest being IQ 172 on ENNDT.

So the Mensa admission test is not useful for detecting extreme talent. It may be used to find out if you are above 130 but not if you belong to the 140s, 150s, 160s etc.

The primary problem of high range testing is that intelligence tests are normed only based on small samples. Usually scores above 145 are extrapolations since they did not appear among the probands based on which the test was normed.

Should we use grades achieved at school and uni instead of intelligence tests? I doubt that grades are a better assessment of intelligence. Many exams at school and uni are about rote memorization, which is not what intelligence tests measure. If we take a look at biographies of eminent scientists we can also see that many of them were not excellent students.

I think we need more reliable tests normed on large samples with millions of probands. Until we have such tests, it is impossible to reasonably estimate the intellect of extremely talented academics.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Proof that Every Grammar for English has Self-Embedding to an Unbounded Depth

Authors: Daniel Pohl, Iakovos Koukas, Noam Chomsky Introduction The distinction between competence and performance has played a foundational role in the philosophy of linguistics. Competence is a grasp of the structural properties of all the sentences of a language. Performance involves actual real-time use and may diverge from the underlying competence. Idealizing away from psycholinguistically relevant factors like limits on memory and processing plays a significant role in various essential debates within the field of linguistics. Perhaps the most central and famous is the issue of whether English is a finite-state language. This article provides a proof of the relevant theorem, originally from Chomsky 1959. The claim that any finite-state automaton does not accept English is supported by showing that every grammar for English has self-embedding to an unbounded depth. Self-Embedding The economical production forms for context-free languages, especially the Chomsky normal-for
Read more

Symbiont Conversion Theory

Abstract Symbiont Conversion Theory is a new scientific theory, summarizing and generalizing efforts that have been made by various researchers in the past years; it could even be perceived as a new scientific paradigm. This theory states that microorganisms and cells which are commonly considered to display parasitic behaviour can be "educated" and transformed into symbionts. This is not just a hypothesis but a theory since there is already evidence that proves that this is possible. The primary motivation for developing this theory is the failure of classical approaches to therapy of cancer and infectious diseases that follow the paradigm "destroy and kill". It is common knowledge about medical doctors that chemotherapy and radiation therapy have detrimental side effects on healthy, functional tissue, and also that antibiotics can harm benevolent cells. These negative side effects can possibly be avoided by the new approach of treating parasitic diseases by conver
Read more

Optimal IQ: A Speculative Model

Image
How we profit from IQ is frequently talked about in IQ societies. And the foregone conclusion: the higher the better . However, turns out there’s a cost associated with higher IQ, one put forth in a recent paper[1] indicating the good of high intelligence; more opportunities, higher self–awareness, etc and the more elusive bad or dark side to higher IQ; imbalances (mental and physical), debilitation, etc. In other words, there is a cost associated with IQ increase beyond some as yet, unknown value. Now, optimality, as we all know, is not necessarily being on top of the heap or at a maximum. Take an aspirin, it will get rid of a headache. Take a bottle of aspirin and you’ll be in the ER getting your stomach pumped. Even money— turns out you don’t want to make too much —has an optimal value being about $95,000.00 US dollars per year in the long run, that is, if one wants to be happy— optimally of course. Too, to determine optimality, as we all have learned, requires in the simplest sense
Read more