What is the meaning of intelligence quotient? What levels of intelligence are recognized in people?

22.02.2024 All about roses

Intelligence quotient (English IQ - intelligence quotient, read “IQ”) is a quantitative assessment of a person’s level of intelligence: the level of intelligence relative to the level of intelligence of an average person of the same age. Determined using special tests. IQ is an attempt to estimate the factor of general intelligence (g).

IQ tests are designed so that the results are described by a normal distribution with a mean IQ of 100 and such a spread that 50% of people have an IQ between 90 and 110 and 25% each have an IQ below 90 and above 110. An IQ value of less than 70 is often classified as intellectual. backwardness.

IQ tests are specifically designed to produce normally distributed results.

Story

The concept of IQ was introduced by the German scientist Wilhelm Stern in 1912. He drew attention to serious deficiencies in mental age as an indicator in the Binet scales. Stern proposed using the quotient of mental age divided by chronological age as an indicator of intelligence. IQ was first used in the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale in 1916.

Nowadays, interest in IQ tests has increased many times over, resulting in the emergence of many different unfounded scales. Therefore, it is very difficult to compare the results of different tests and the IQ number itself has lost its informative value.

Tests

Each test consists of many different tasks of increasing difficulty. Among them are test tasks for logical and spatial thinking, as well as tasks of other types. Based on the test results, IQ is calculated. It has been noticed that the more test options a subject takes, the better results he shows. The most famous test is the Eysenck test. More accurate are the tests of D. Wexler, J. Raven, R. Amthauer, R. B. Cattell. There is currently no single standard for IQ tests.

The tests are divided by age group and show the development of a person corresponding to his age. That is, a 10-year-old child and a university graduate can have the same IQ, because the development of each of them corresponds to its age group. The Eysenck test is designed for the age group of 18 years and older, and provides a maximum IQ level of 180 points.

It is important to note that most of the tests that can be found on the Internet that claim to measure IQ are developed by incompetent organizations and individuals and usually significantly inflate the results. All studies showing the connection between IQ and intelligence, general problem-solving ability, academic and professional potential and other social consequences refer to the results of professional IQ tests, such as the Wechsler Test, etc.

What affects IQ

Heredity

The role of genetics and environment in predicting IQ is reviewed in Plomin et al. (2001, 2003). Until recently, heredity was mainly studied in children. Various studies have shown heritability to be between 0.4 and 0.8 in the US, meaning, depending on the study, that between slightly less than half and well over half of the difference in IQ among children observed was due to their genes. The rest depended on the child’s living conditions and measurement error. Heritability between 0.4 and 0.8 suggests that IQ is “significantly” heritable.

Individual genes

The human brain is responsible for most of the more than 17,000 genes available. Although some studies show the influence of individual genes on IQ, none of them have a significant effect. Most of the identified relationships between genes and IQ were false positives. Recent studies have shown a weak influence of individual genes on IQ among both adults and children.

Search for hereditary causes of IQ

Research has begun to explore the genetic differences between people with high and low IQs. Thus, the Beijing Genomics Institute is starting a project on a genome-wide search for associations in people with high mental abilities. The discovery of genetic causes may allow the invention of means to increase IQ. Nations that gain access to such technologies will be able to advance even further in economic, scientific and technological development.

Environment

The environment, in particular the family, has a significant influence on the development of a child's intelligence. Dependencies were identified on many factors characterizing the standard of living of a family, for example, the size and cost of the house, annual income, relationships between family members, methods of education, and more. This influence brings the IQ to a share of 0.25 - 0.35. But the older the child becomes, the weaker this dependence manifests itself, almost completely disappearing by the time of adulthood. These studies were conducted among ordinary two-parent families.

Due to the genetic characteristics of each person, children from the same family can react differently to the same environmental factors.

An unhealthy, restricted diet can reduce the brain's ability to process information. A study of 25,446 people by the Danish National Birth Cohort concluded that eating fish during pregnancy and while breastfeeding increases a baby's IQ.

Another study of more than 13 thousand children found that breastfeeding can increase a child's intelligence by 7 points. After the publication of these results, they were subjected to severe criticism, and three critical responses to the article were published in the same journal. An insufficiently complete analysis of previous studies and ignoring accepted theories were noted, a simpler alternative mechanism for the formation of changes in IQ was proposed, the adequacy of the test in this age category of subjects was questioned, imbalance (“bias”) of the subjects in terms of language composition was noted, others were emphasized methodological problems, and the overall reliability of the results has been questioned.

Group differences

Most researchers believe that, in general, the average development of intelligence is approximately the same in men and women. At the same time, the spread among men is more pronounced: among them there are more both very smart and very stupid; that is, among people with very high or very low intelligence there are more men. There is also some difference in the severity of various aspects of intelligence between men and women. Until the age of five, these differences do not exist. From the age of five, boys begin to surpass girls in the area of spatial intelligence and manipulation, and girls begin to surpass boys in the area of verbal abilities.

Among men, people with high mathematical abilities are much more common. According to the American researcher K. Benbow, among especially gifted people in mathematics, there is only one woman for every 13 men.

Race

Studies among US residents have shown a statistically significant gap between the average IQ of different racial groups. Thus, according to The Bell Curve (1994), the average IQ of African Americans is 85, Hispanics are 89, whites (European descent) are 103, Asians (Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent) are 106, and Jews are 113.

This gap can be used as a justification for the so-called. “scientific racism”, but according to some studies (Race_and_intelligence#cite_note -Dickens _.26_Flynn_2006-50) it is gradually declining.

In addition, the average IQ measured by older tests has been increasing over time. As a result of the Flynn effect, the average IQ of African Americans in 1995 matches the average IQ of whites in 1945 (Race_and_intelligence#cite_note -56). Such significant changes that have occurred over several decades cannot be explained by genetic factors.

The influence of social factors on IQ is confirmed by studies of orphans. In the United States, children of African descent raised by white adoptive parents have ~10% higher IQs than non-white adoptive parents. In the UK, black boarding school students have higher IQs than whites. (Race_and_intelligence#Uniform_rearing_c onditions).

A country

Differences in average IQ between countries have been found. A number of studies have found links between a country's average IQ and its economic development, GDP (see, for example, IQ and the Wealth of Nations), democracy, crime, fertility and atheism. In developing countries, environmental factors such as poor nutrition and disease are likely to lower the average national IQ.

Health and IQ

Adequate nutrition during childhood is critical for mental development; poor nutrition can reduce IQ. For example, iodine deficiency leads to a decrease in IQ by an average of 12 points. People with higher IQs generally have lower mortality rates and are less likely to suffer from disease.

Age and IQ

Although IQ itself signifies the rarity of intellectual ability in one's age group, mental ability generally peaks at age 26, followed by a slow decline.

The IQ of adults is determined to a much greater extent by genetics, compared to the environment, than the IQ of children. Some children are initially ahead of their peers in IQ, but then their IQ levels out relative to their peers.

Social consequences

School performance

The American Psychological Association, in its report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns (1995), notes that across all studies, children with high scores on IQ tests tend to learn more school material than their peers with lower scores. The correlation between IQ scores and grades is about 0.5. IQ tests are one way to select gifted children and create individual (accelerated) educational plans for them.

Success in scientific activities

Some studies have found that dedication and originality play a higher role in achieving success in science. However, Dr. Eysenck provides a review of IQ measurements (Roe, 1953) of eminent scientists, a level below Nobel laureates. Their average IQ was 166, although some scored 177, the maximum test score. Their average spatial IQ was 137, although it might have been higher at younger ages. Their average math IQ was 154 (range 128 to 194).

Labor productivity

According to Frank Schmidt and John Hunter, when hiring applicants without relevant experience, the most successful predictor of future performance is general intellectual ability. In predicting job performance, IQ has some effectiveness for all jobs studied to date, but this effectiveness varies depending on the type of job. Although IQ is more closely related to thinking abilities rather than motor skills, scores on IQ tests predict performance in all occupations. Given this, for the most skilled occupations (research, management), low IQ is more likely to be a barrier to sufficient performance, while for the least skilled occupations, athletic strength (arm strength, speed, endurance and coordination) is more likely to predict performance . Basically, the predictive power of IQ is associated with faster acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills in the workplace.

The American Psychological Association, in its report "Intelligence: Known and Unknown," notes that since IQ explains only 29% of the variance in job performance, other personality characteristics, such as interpersonal skills, personality traits, etc., are likely to do the same or great importance, but at the moment there are no tools as reliable for measuring them as IQ tests.

Income

Some studies have shown that intellectual ability and job performance are linearly related, such that higher IQ leads to higher job performance. Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve, found that IQ has a significant impact on a person's income, regardless of the family and social class in which a person grew up.

The American Psychological Association, in its report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns (1995), notes that IQ scores explain about one-quarter of the differences in social status and one-sixth of the differences in income.

IQ and crime

The American Psychological Association, in its report “Intelligence: Known and Unknown,” notes that the correlation between IQ and crime is −0.2 (inverse relationship). A correlation of 0.20 means that the explained variance in crime is less than 4%. It is important to understand that the causal relationships between IQ test scores and social outcomes may be indirect. Children with poor school performance may feel alienated and, therefore, they are more likely to commit delinquency compared to children who perform well academically.

In The g Factor (Arthur Jensen, 1998), Arthur Jensen cites evidence that people with IQs between 70 and 90, regardless of race, are more likely to commit crimes than people with IQs below or above that range. with crime peaking at 80-90.

Other

The average IQ of a country's population is related to the country's GDP and government efficiency.
There is a study that found a correlation of 0.82 between the general intelligence factor and the SAT score (the Russian equivalent of the exam - the Unified State Exam).

Criticism of IQ

IQ tests have been repeatedly criticized by scientists. Thus, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. A. Vasiliev discovered that in Eysenck’s IQ tests, a significant part of the problems were composed incorrectly or the author’s solutions were incorrect. Here are Vasiliev’s statements on this matter:

“I...decided to study the tests without haste, especially since their answers systematically did not coincide with mine in problems from my professional fields: logic and geometry. And I discovered that most of the decisions of the test author were incorrect. And in some cases, the test taker can only guess the answer “It’s pointless to rely on logic.”

It can be noted that tasks on IQ tests assess not only the abilities of logical, deductive thinking, but also inductive thinking. The rules for performing some IQ tests warn in advance that in some tasks the answers do not follow unambiguously from the task, and you need to choose the most reasonable or simple answer. This corresponds to many real life situations in which there is no clear answer.

“If a person answered the same way as Eysenck, then he is only demonstrating the standardization of his thinking, a quick and predictable reaction to a simple stimulus. A slightly less flat person will think a hundred times before answering... There are a myriad of possible solutions to each such problem The smarter you are, the more likely it is that your decision will not coincide with the author's.
The practical meaning here is only one: for those who give the “correct” answer on the test, it will be easier to fit into the average education system and communicate with people who think the same way as him. In general, Eysenck tests the ideal average."

Without the goal of criticizing IQ tests, the Soviet psychologist Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, however, showed in his works that the current IQ of a child says little about the prospects for his further education and mental development. In this regard, he introduced the concept of “zone of proximal development.”

Story

The concept of intelligence quotient was introduced by the German scientist W. Stern in 1912. He drew attention to serious deficiencies in mental age as an indicator in the Binet scales. Stern proposed using the quotient of mental age divided by chronological age as an indicator of intelligence. IQ was first used in the 1916 Stanford-Binet intelligence scale.

Tests

Each test consists of many different tasks of increasing difficulty. Among them are test tasks for logical and spatial thinking, as well as tasks of other types. Based on the test results, IQ is calculated. It has been noticed that the more test options a subject takes, the better results he shows. The best known test is the Eysenck test. More accurate are the tests of D. Wexler, J. Raven, R. Amthauer, R. B. Cattell. There is currently no single standard for IQ tests.

What affects IQ

Heredity

The role of genetics and environment in predicting IQ is discussed in Plomin et al.(2001, 2003) . Until recently, heredity was mainly studied in children. Various studies have shown heritability to be between 0.4 and 0.8 in the US, meaning, depending on the study, that between slightly less than half and well over half of the difference in IQ among children observed was due to their genes. The rest depended on the child’s living conditions and measurement error. Heritability between 0.4 and 0.8 suggests that IQ is “significantly” heritable.

Search for hereditary causes of IQ

Research has begun to explore the genetic differences between people with high and low IQs. Thus, the Beijing Genomics Institute is beginning massive GWAS studies of the genomes of people with high mental abilities. . The discovery of genetic causes may allow the invention of means to increase IQ. Nations that gain access to such technologies will be able to advance even further in economic, scientific and technological development.

Environment

The environment influences brain development. In particular, an unhealthy, restricted diet can reduce the brain's ability to process information. Research 25,446 people Danish National Birth Cohort led to the conclusion that eating fish during pregnancy and breastfeeding an infant increases its IQ.

Also, a study of more than 13 thousand children showed that breastfeeding can increase a child’s intelligence by 7 points.

Health and IQ

Age and IQ

Although IQ itself signifies the rarity of intellectual ability in one's age group, mental ability generally peaks at age 26, followed by a slow decline.

Social consequences

Relationship to other tests and exams

There is a study that found a correlation of 0.82 between the general intelligence factor and the SAT score (the Russian equivalent of the exam - the Unified State Exam).

School performance

Labor productivity

Income

Achievements in real life

The average IQ of population groups is associated with achievements in real life:

PhD 125
People with higher education 114
Incomplete higher education 105-110
Office workers and sales workers 100-105
High school graduates, skilled workers (for example, electricians) 100
Students who attended high school but did not graduate 95
Semi-skilled workers (e.g. tractor drivers, factory workers) 90-95
Completed school without senior classes (8 years) 90
Those who have not completed 8 years of school 80-85
Having a 50% chance of enrolling in high school 75

Average IQ of different professional groups:

Professional and technical workers 112
Managers and administrators 104
Office workers, sales workers, skilled workers, foremen and foremen 101
Semi-skilled workers (machine operators, service workers, including domestic workers; farmers) 92
Unskilled workers 87

Type of tasks that can be performed:

Adults who can master simple work skills 70
Adults who can harvest crops, repair furniture 60
Adults who can do housework, simple carpentry 50
Adults who can mow lawns, do laundry 40

There are significant differences within and overlap between these categories. People with high IQs are found at all levels of education and occupational groups. The largest differences occur for individuals with low IQs, who rarely graduate from universities or become professionals (IQ less than 90).

IQ and crime

Other IQ effects

The average IQ of a country's population is related to GDP (see) and government efficiency.

Group differences

Floor

Most researchers believe that, in general, the average development of intelligence is approximately the same in men and women. At the same time, there is more variation among men: among them there are more both very smart and very stupid; that is, among people with very high or very low intelligence there are more men. There is also some difference in the severity of various aspects of intelligence between men and women. Until the age of five, these differences do not exist. From the age of five, boys begin to surpass girls in the area of spatial intelligence and manipulation, and girls begin to surpass boys in the area of verbal abilities. Among men, people with high mathematical abilities are much more common. According to the American researcher K. Benbow, among especially gifted people in mathematics, there is only one woman for every 13 men.

Race

Studies among US residents have shown a statistically significant gap between the average IQ of different racial groups.

According to The Bell Curve (1994), the average IQ of African Americans is 85, Hispanics are 89, Whites (European descent) are 103, Asians (Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent) are 106, and Jews are 113.

This gap can be used as a justification for the so-called. “scientific racism”, but according to some studies (Race_and_intelligence#cite_note-Dickens_.26_Flynn_2006-50) it is gradually declining.

In addition, the average IQ measured by older tests has been increasing over time. As a result of the Flynn effect, the average IQ of African Americans in 1995 matches the average IQ of whites in 1945 (Race_and_intelligence#cite_note-56). Such significant changes that have occurred over several decades cannot be explained by genetic factors.

A country

IQ and success in science

Some studies have found that dedication and originality play a higher role in achieving success. However, Dr. Eysenck provides a review of IQ measurements (Roe, 1953) of eminent scientists, a level below Nobel laureates. Their average IQ was 166, although some scored 177, the maximum test score. Their average spatial IQ was 137, although it might have been higher at younger ages. Their average math IQ was 154 (range 128 to 194).

Criticism of IQ

I...decided to study the tests without haste, especially since their answers systematically did not coincide with mine in problems from my professional areas: logic and geometry. And I discovered that most of the test author’s decisions were incorrect. And in some cases, the test subject can only guess the answer - it makes no sense to rely on logic.

To this end, it can be noted that IQ test tasks assess not only the abilities of logical, deductive thinking, but also inductive thinking. The rules for performing some IQ tests warn in advance that in some tasks the answers do not follow unambiguously from the task, and you need to choose the most reasonable or simple answer. This corresponds to many real life situations in which there is no clear answer.

If a person answered the same way as Eysenck, then he thereby only demonstrates the standardization of his thinking, a quick and predictable reaction to a simple stimulus. A slightly less flat person will think a hundred times before answering... There are a myriad of possible solutions to each such problem. The smarter you are, the more likely it is that your decision will not coincide with the author's.
The practical meaning here is only one: for those who give the “correct” answer on the test, it will be easier to fit into the average education system and communicate with people who think the same way as him. In general, Eysenck tests for ideal averageness.

Notes

Moreover, according to some studies, Germans on average have a higher IQ than citizens of other countries (unavailable link)
Plomin et al. (2001, 2003)
R. Plomin, N. L. Pedersen, P. Lichtenstein and G. E. McClearn (05 1994). “Variability and stability in cognitive abilities are largely genetic later in life.” Behavior Genetics 24 (3): 207. DOI:10.1007/BF01067188. Retrieved 2006-08-06.
Neisser et al." Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns. Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association (August 7, ). Archived from the original on June 1, 2012. Retrieved August 6, 2006.
Bouchard TJ, Lykken DT, McGue M, Segal NL, Tellegen A (Oct 1990). " ". Science (journal) 250 (4978): 223–8. PMID 2218526.
World Intelligence Network. IQ and genetics
Gosso, M. F. (2006). "The SNAP-25 gene is associated with cognitive ability: evidence from a family-based study in two independent Dutch cohorts." Molecular Psychiatry 11 (9): 878-886. DOI:10.1038/sj.mp.4001868.
Gosso MF, de Geus EJ, van Belzen MJ, Polderman TJ, Heutink P, Boomsma DI, Posthuma D. The SNAP-25 gene is associated with cognitive ability: evidence from a family-based study in two independent Dutch cohorts
http://www.genomics.cn/en/index.php
Information Processing: BGI visit
Information Processing: Supercomputers and the mystery of IQ
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 88, No. 3, 789-796, September 2008 Associations of maternal fish intake during pregnancy and breastfeeding duration with achievement of developmental milestones in early childhood: a study from the Danish National Birth Cohort Emily Oken, Marie Louise Østerdal, Matthew W Gillman, Vibeke K Knudsen, Thorhallur I Halldorsson, Marin Strøm, David C Bellinger, Mijna Hadders-Algra, Kim Fleischer Michaelsen and Sjurdur F Olsen
Breastfeeding and child cognitive development: new… - PubMed result
Svetlana KUZINA. “Intelligence tests are made with errors! "
Vygotsky L.S. “Dynamics of mental development of a schoolchild in connection with learning.”

Links

Mensa's free IQ test - Raven's Test of Fluid Intelligence. One of the highest quality free tests (Mensa) (English)
World Intelligence Network
Gabumba test center (English)
Free visual IQ test
Mega Society
Davydov A. A. Intelligence quotient (IQ) and innovative development

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Synonyms:

Many of us have heard the expression “human IQ.” This term sounds when we are talking about the abilities of an individual, his mental development. The concept of “IQ” is the intelligence quotient. It is an assessment of the level of ability in comparison with the average intelligence of a person of the same age as the subject. To determine the level, you must pass a special test for logic, flexibility of thinking, the ability to quickly count and identify patterns.

A little history

The concept of “intelligence quotient IQ” was first formulated in 1912 by Wilhelm Stern. This is a very famous psychologist and philosopher. He proposed using the result of dividing actual age by intellectual age as the main indicator of the level of development. After him, in 1916, this concept was used in the Stanford-Benet intelligence scale.

Gradually, people began to take an active interest in their level of intelligence, so a huge number of various tests and scales were invented that made it possible to find out its coefficient. The creation of numerous tests led to the fact that many of them were unreliable, so it is quite difficult to compare the results of different tests.

How to determine the level of intelligence? Today, in many schools, children are tested to find out their level of intelligence. The development of the Internet has contributed to the fact that people, including adults, can easily get tested online.

How to find out your IQ

To determine the IQ value, special tests were developed. There are two types:

for children 10-12 years old;
for children from 12 years old and adults.

The measurement technique is the same for all options, only the level of difficulty of the questions changes. Each test has a certain number of questions and a limited time to complete them.

They are designed so that the results, which are described by a probability distribution, show an average IQ of 100. The values are grouped according to the following scheme:

the coefficient of 50% of all people is in the range of 90-110;
the remaining 50% of people are divided equally between those with a score below 90 and those with a score above 110.

What IQ level corresponds to mild mental retardation? If its indicator is below 70.

The tasks in the tests are varied, the complexity of each subsequent task increases. There are problems for logical and spatial thinking, knowledge of mathematics, attentiveness, and the ability to find a pattern. Naturally, the more correct answers a person gives, the higher the assessment of his level of intelligence will be.

The tests are designed for different age groups, so the indicators of a teacher and a 12-year-old student can be the same, because the development of each of them will correspond to his age.

Today on the Internet you can find a huge number of different tests that offer to find out your level of knowledge and intelligence. But most of them were not developed by professionals, so they are unlikely to show reliable results.

To find out your level of intelligence you need to use professional tests, such as:

Kettler;
Amthauer;
Eysenck;
Ravena;
Wexler.

Main influencing factors

The human mind is quite difficult to define and measure. Intelligence is a combination of knowledge, skills and abilities that accumulate throughout a person's life. Our intelligence is based on several important factors that influence its coefficient:

genetics;
feeding habits of a child in the first years of life;
education and mental stimulation of the child’s mental activity by parents;
order of birth of children in the family;
environment.

All this, to one degree or another, affects the mental development of the child.

Genetics

Scientists have long begun to explore the question of how much the level of intelligence IQ depends on genes. For more than a century, studies have been conducted on the influence of genes on mental abilities, which have shown that the percentage of dependence is in the range of 40-80%.

The level of intelligence in a person depends on the structure of the brain and its functionality. These two factors are key. Differences in the parietal-frontal parts of the brain of different people indicate different levels of their IQ. The higher the level of functionality of the frontal areas of the brain, the better it can work: perceive and remember information, solve various problems.

Genetic factors represent the potential that is passed on from parents to the child. They are little studied, but have an important function for the development of mental abilities.

Chromosomal abnormalities that are inherited also affect the level of intelligence. For example, Down's disease, which is characterized by poor mental development of the child. Quite often it occurs in children whose parents belong to the older age group.

Illnesses during pregnancy also affect the baby's mind. For example, rubella, which an expectant mother suffers from, can lead to negative consequences for the baby: loss of hearing, vision, low level of intelligence.

Influence of nutrition

The level of intelligence depends on what exactly we eat in the first years of life, and what the expectant mother ate during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Proper and nutritious nutrition has a positive effect on brain development. The more nutrients, vitamins and microelements the child consumes through the mother and the next few years after birth, the larger the size of the cerebral velum will be. It is responsible for learning and memory.

Consumption of large amounts of fatty acids has a positive effect. Scientists have conducted studies that have proven that if a woman consumes a lot of fatty acids during pregnancy, then children will be significantly ahead of others in their development.

Upbringing

Education is one of the key factors in the development of mental abilities. Even if a person is by nature genetically predisposed to a high IQ level, due to the lack of proper upbringing and quality education, the coefficient will not be higher than average.

Education includes many factors:

family lifestyle;
home conditions;
the level of education;
parents' attitude.

To study the influence of upbringing, academics separated twins and placed them in different environments. After all, if intelligence is a biological concept, then in theory it should be the same in twins, regardless of living conditions. This is wrong. Studies have shown that children who live in orphanages have lower intelligence levels. Also, the indicator depends on how the parents treat the child: whether they take them to additional clubs, force them to study music, drawing, or instill a love for logic games.

Family birth order

This issue has been studied for a long time, but scientists have not been able to come to a common conclusion regarding the influence of the order of birth of a child and the number of children in the family on their mental abilities. Many studies have shown that first-born children are more mentally developed than other children. In history, most astronauts, presidents, scientists and famous political figures were firstborn.

Many people are interested in the question of why this happens. Birth order is not a judgment. The biggest impact is that a family with one child can devote more time, attention and resources to learning. Testing has shown that first-born children are only 3 points ahead of other children.

Environment

Whether we can use all the capabilities of our brain depends only on us: on our lifestyle, the presence of bad habits. Various diets and toxins affect the development of intelligence throughout life.

If the expectant mother smokes, drinks, or uses drugs, the child is unlikely to be healthy. A person’s mental performance may deteriorate if he drinks or poisons his own body.

Scientists have found that the level of intelligence of people from different countries differs significantly. Some tests have shown the dependence of average IQ on the country's GDP, crime, birth rate, and religion.

Some interesting facts about IQ:

the higher the coefficient, the more sociable the person;
breastfeeding increases the score by 3-8 points;
during the summer holidays the indicator decreases;
a score above 115 guarantees that a person can cope with any job;
people with scores below 90 are more likely to become antisocial, end up in prison, or live in poverty;
the lower the IQ, the more difficult it is for a person to cope with stress;
The higher the score, the more confident the person is.

IQ values

The highest level of intelligence is achieved by mathematician Terence Tao from Australia. He has a coefficient above 200 points. This is very rare, because most people barely reach 100. Almost all Nobel Prize winners have a high IQ - above 150 points. It is these people who help technology develop, actively participate in research, make various discoveries, study space and physical phenomena.

Notable people include Kim Peake, who can read a page of a book in just a few seconds, Daniel Tammet, who can memorize an incredible number of numbers, and Kim Ung-Yong. He entered and successfully began his studies at the university at the age of 3.

Let's look at all possible intelligence indicators of IQ tests:

Above 140. These are people with incredible intelligence and rare creative abilities. They can easily achieve success in scientific activities. Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking can boast of this indicator. People with high IQs make the greatest discoveries and are geniuses of their era. They are the ones who explore space, create new technologies, search for cures for diseases, study human nature and the world around us. The percentage of such individuals is only 0.2 of the Earth's population.
Indicator 131-140. 3% of the world's population can boast of this level. They include Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nicole Kidman. Successful people who achieve their goals have a high level of intelligence. They can become successful politicians, managers, company leaders, and specialists in science.
Indicator 121-130. High level intelligence. People with this indicator find it easy to study at a university. They make up 6% of the population. They are successful, often become leaders, and are actively involved in creativity.
Indicator 111-120. Above average intelligence level. Occurs in 12% of the population. They love to study, they have no problems with science. If a person loves and wants to work, then he can easily get a well-paid job.
Indicator 101-110. Most people on the planet have this level of intelligence. This is the average IQ, which indicates the usefulness of a person. Many of its holders have difficulty graduating from university, but with enough effort they can study and get a good job.
Indicator 91-100. The result for a quarter of the world's population. If the test shows such a result, do not despair or be upset. Such people study well and can work in any field that does not require significant mental effort.
Indicator 81-90. The ratio is below average. Occurs in 10% of people. They do quite well at school, but rarely receive higher education. They often work where they do not need to make mental efforts; they prefer to work physically.
Indicator 71-80. Approximately 10% of the population with this level of intelligence. Occurs in people who suffer from mild mental retardation. They often study in specialized schools, but can also study in normal secondary educational institutions. Only their successes rarely rise above average.
Indicator 51-70. Occurs in 7% of the population who have a mild form of mental retardation. They are rarely full members of society, but they are quite capable of living independently and taking care of themselves without outside help.
The indicator is 21-50. Very low level of intelligence, which occurs in 2% of people. Individuals suffer from dementia and are far behind their peers in development. They cannot study normally and have guardians who help them take care of themselves.
Below 20. Such people make up no more than 0.2% of the population. This is an indicator of severe mental retardation. Such people cannot live on their own, go to work, earn their own food, clothing and accommodation, so they are constantly under guardianship. They cannot learn and often suffer from psychological disorders.

The result should not be taken as a single truthful authority. After all, the indicator depends on many factors: environment, heredity, lifestyle, place of residence, religion.

30/01/2015

All Western science is based on the desire to make knowledge about the world and man as objective as possible. What does it mean that this person is thin and that person is fat? Tell us everyone's weight and height, waist and hip size, age and gender, average weight in the population and a dozen more numbers. Without them, any conclusions are unacceptably subjective! Scientists strive to measure a person from all sides, present them in the form of tables, coefficients, constants and equations. Not content with determining simple physical parameters (force, pressure, volume, temperature, density, etc.), they try to measure complex psychophysiological phenomena such as pain, emotions, quality of life, sexual attractiveness, etc. There are also attempts to “objectively” assess a person's intelligence. Various versions of tests to determine the so-called intelligence quotient (IQ) have been used for about a hundred years, but even today there is no consensus on whether intelligence can be measured, and if so, are IQ tests suitable for this?

The problem of accurately assessing a person’s abilities for thinking and cognition has excited scientific minds since ancient times, but active work in this direction began only in the 19th century, when phrenology quickly gained popularity. Adherents of this doctrine, measuring the parameters of the skull with a compass and ruler, drew conclusions about the character and abilities of a person. As a result of numerous experiments, the basic postulates of phrenology were refuted, but many ideas and observations were later borrowed by neuropsychologists, anthropologists and evolutionists.

A fundamentally different approach to assessing a person’s mental abilities was testing using specially selected questions and tasks. Tests to determine the level of intelligence first appeared in the 7th century. in China. Officials passed mandatory examinations, the results of which determined mainly their abilities and the degree of mastery of Confucian doctrine. The better the result, the higher the position you receive.

In 1890, “intelligence tests” were first used in psychology experiments. The idea belonged to the American psychologist James M. Cattell (1860–1944), who dreamed of transforming psychology into an exact science. As a sample, Cattell proposed 50 tests, which included various types of measurements of sensitivity, reaction time, time spent naming colors, the number of sounds reproduced after a single listening, etc. He believed that applying a series of tests to a large number of individuals would make it possible to discover the patterns of mental processes.

Alfred Binet: at the origins of IQ

When in France at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. introduced universal compulsory primary education, it became obvious that some children, for various reasons, are not able to study according to standard programs and should be sent to special schools. An urgent question arose about a method for quickly identifying “hopeless” students. The solution to the problem was proposed by the founder of the first Laboratory of Experimental Psychology in France, Alfred Binet (1857–1911). In 1905, together with his colleague, psychologist and teacher Theodore Simon (1873–1961), Binet developed and published in the Psychological Yearbook a scale for determining the level of mental development of children. The test consisted of 30 tasks, for the solution of which, according to the authors, children needed to show the same psychological qualities as for school education: the ability to judge, memory, imagination, the ability to combine words into sentences, perform simple quantitative operations with objects and etc. The tasks were ordered in order of increasing difficulty such that the likelihood of successful completion increased with chronological age. The level of difficulty was determined based on data from a sample of 50 normal children aged 3–11 years and a small number of mentally retarded children.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)- quantitative assessment of a person’s intelligence level: the level of intelligence relative to the level of intelligence of the average person of the same age

Three years later, Binet and Simon revised the test. Binet proceeded from the idea that the development of intelligence occurs independently of training, as a result of biological maturation, and tried to remove from the test all tasks that required special training. In a group of normal children, psychologists used tests to try to identify different levels of intellectual development. To this end, they introduced the concept of “mental age” (or “mental level”). The tasks in the tests were selected in such a way that they could be solved by 75% of children of the appropriate age whose intellectual development is considered normal. The number of correctly solved problems characterizes the child’s mental age; a discrepancy between mental and chronological age was considered an indicator of either mental retardation or giftedness.

Classic IQ testing

In 1916, the Binet-Simon test was revised by a group of psychologists at Stanford University (USA) under the leadership of Lewis Theremin (1877–1956), after which the “Stanford-Binet intelligence scale” began to differ from the original Binet tests. In particular, intelligence quotient (IQ) was introduced as a final indicator and a testing evaluation criterion was applied - the statistical norm.

The concept of IQ was proposed in 1912 by the German psychologist William Stern (1871–1938). According to Stern, IQ = (mental age/chronological age) × 100. If the number of problems solved by a child exactly corresponds to the statistical norm for his age, that is, his mental and chronological age are the same, then IQ = 100. The IQ calculated in this way in the difference from Binet’s “mental age” made it possible to easily classify normal children according to the degree of mental development. It is generally accepted that IQ values in the range from 84 to 116 correspond to the age norm for performing the test; values above 116 indicate giftedness of the child, below 84 indicate mental retardation.

Over time, the Stanford-Binet scale has been revised for use in both children and adults. At early age levels, tests require mainly visual-motor coordination, the ability to understand instructions, recognize objects, etc. At higher age levels, tests that use the verbal content of tasks are most represented: explaining the meaning of words, analogies, completing sentences, identifying abstract concepts, interpretation of proverbs. It should be noted that IQ does not depend on age; a child and an adult can have the same IQ because each develops according to their age. In the West, the Stanford-Binet scale occupies one of the leading places among intelligence tests and is still the standard for assessing the reliability of the results of other psychometric tests.

All IQ tests created in the first decade of the twentieth century allowed testing with only one subject. However, in the age of industrialization and the “conveyor belt” this was unacceptable. In the United States during the First World War, a new form of IQ testing appeared - group testing. In 1917, the US military began using IQ tests to select and assign recruits to various branches of the military based on their mental abilities. More than two million people took the exam. Defining IQ “on the fly” required simplification of the entire system of instructing, conducting and evaluating test results; Now anyone could conduct testing, if only there were blank forms with tasks and a list of correct answers. Soon, group IQ tests were adopted by universities and private companies, which began to use them in the selection of applicants and potential employees.

What determines IQ? After much debate, most scientists agreed that IQ depends 60–80% on genes, and 20–40% on environmental conditions. IQ has nothing to do with the amount of knowledge acquired, so “external conditions” usually mean not education, but factors that can affect the development and productivity of the brain: nutrition (especially in early childhood), lifestyle, trauma, stress, etc.

In 1939, the first version of the scale was published, created (and not adapted, like the Stanford-Binet scale) specifically for adults. Its author was the American psychologist David Wechsler (1896–1981), and it was called the Wechsler-Bellevue scale. Unlike the Stanford-Binet scale, the tasks in this test are not grouped by age level, but are combined into subtests and arranged in order of increasing difficulty. The test contains previously known types of tasks, but Wexler additionally increased the objectivity of diagnosis by limiting the time for completing the test, as well as taking into account normative indicators - the average value of the test indicator of performing mental tasks for all representatives of a given age group. The Wechsler test is still widely used to assess the level of intellectual development and determine the structure of mental defects in children and adults. This method allows you to get an idea not only of the general level of intelligence, but also of the features of its structure.

IQ - to the people

In 1962, the book “Find out your IQ” by the English psychologist Hans Eysenck was published. It instantly became a bestseller, was translated into many languages and went through dozens of reprints over half a century. In the book, Eysenck proposed his own version of IQ tests, and now everyone could evaluate their own intelligence and compare it with the intelligence of friends and colleagues! Today on the Internet you can find dozens of options for IQ tests in a minute, and half a century ago Eysenck’s book created a real sensation.

There are eight known versions of the Eysenck IQ test, designed for a general assessment of intellectual abilities using verbal, digital and graphic material and various ways of formulating problems. With such a structure, according to Eysenck, the individual inclinations of the test subjects will not distort the test results. Thus, a person who does well on word problems but poorly on arithmetic problems will not receive any advantage, but will not be at a disadvantage, since both types of problems are represented approximately equally on the tests. Five Eysenck tests are designed to assess general intelligence, and three more are designed to specifically assess verbal, mathematical and visual-spatial abilities. In addition, Eysenck developed several complicated tests and called them “a warm-up for intellectuals.” Eysenck's IQ tests have gained enormous popularity, but professionals - psychologists, neurologists, teachers, personnel officers - prefer more accurate methods: the above-mentioned Stanford-Binet, Wechsler tests or, for example, the test proposed in 1953 by the German psychologist Rudolf Amthauer.

Accused: IQ

As long as IQ tests have existed, debates about their advantages, disadvantages, objectivity, moral and ethical admissibility, etc. have not subsided. For example, in the USSR - a country of proclaimed universal equality - back in 1936, IQ tests were condemned because they “distributed children into categories and, as a result, limited their capabilities.” In the United States, the wave of passion for IQ testing grew until the 1970s - until it crashed against the granite of the famous American political correctness. It all started with a series of articles and books by famous American psychologists, which analyzed statistical data on IQ testing in the country. Several publications immediately stated that the IQ of representatives of the Negroid race is on average 10 points behind the IQ of representatives of the Caucasian and Mongoloid races. A scandal erupted, scientists were accused of racism, and IQ tests were called an insidious tool of apartheid. Debates about the inappropriateness of using tests written by whites to assess the intelligence of blacks, as well as about the possible social reasons for racial differences in IQ, continue to this day. The reputation of IQ tests has been damaged. At the legislative level, the scope of their application is limited in the USA and a number of European countries. Now a low IQ there is not a reason to refuse admission to a job, university or college. And in many countries it is prohibited to conduct tests when applying for a job.

Nevertheless, IQ tests are still popular among psychologists who use them in their professional activities, as well as at the everyday level. High interest in methods of “measuring” intelligence remains in the post-Soviet space, where they arrived relatively recently.

Probably, many, at least out of curiosity, tried to take an IQ test or tested their children, and, of course, noted a number of obvious shortcomings of IQ tests. First of all, the value of the final IQ is influenced by experience in passing tests. When a person knows well what awaits him and how best to distribute energy and time between tasks, the result usually becomes noticeably better. The results of the test depend on the well-being of the test taker, his mood, and even the gender of the person giving the tasks. Most tests are given “for a while,” which is depressing for the test subject, especially a child. Test results are influenced by motivation. If a person doesn't care what the result is, he won't try and get a low score. In the same way, an inadequate result “shines” for the test subject, who cannot concentrate due to excitement, is in a hurry and, because of this, makes more mistakes.

The tests are designed in such a way that an error is regarded as the inability of the test taker to complete the task. In fact, if a person is pointed out in time for a mistake, he will return and, perhaps, correct it - this is exactly what happens in life. It should also be noted that IQ is calculated only by the final result, without taking into account the qualitative uniqueness of a person’s mental activity, which should also be considered a serious disadvantage of IQ tests.

What do IQ tests measure?

There are many scales for determining IQ, however, like the first Binet tests, their main purpose is to predict the test subject's ability to learn. Is it running successfully? The search for a correlation between academic performance and IQ indicates the absence of a direct relationship between these indicators. People with low IQs do have poor academic performance. At the same time, those with an average or even high IQ can study very well or very poorly. The relationship between IQ and creativity is approximately the same. People with very low IQs are rarely gifted with creative talent, while among people with average or high IQs there are both creative geniuses and mediocre ones. Research shows that most (but not all!) successful people have high IQ scores, but this does not mean that all those with sky-high IQs will achieve success or even try to do so.

What is commonly called intelligence? There are many definitions, but most of them boil down to the fact that intelligence is a person’s ability to know, understand and solve problems. To get a high score on an IQ test, you need to be able to concentrate and highlight the main thing, have a good memory, an extensive vocabulary, imagination, abstract thinking and perseverance. Of course, all these qualities are useful, but they do not fully reflect a person’s ability to cognition and understanding, much less solve problems, but they make it convenient for teachers, and often for employers!

By the way, in order to avoid endless questions and disputes about what exactly characterizes IQ, psychologists introduced the term “psychometric intelligence.” This is what IQ tests measure. They also like to jokingly repeat: “your IQ only reflects your ability to pass IQ tests... and nothing more!”

Science does not stand still, and the human intellect is finding more and more complex and, perhaps, more accurate methods of “measuring” itself. Modern psychologists are actively developing a differentiated approach to assessing intelligence. Who is smarter: a Nobel laureate in physics who is embarrassed to ask a passer-by for directions, or a good teacher who does not invent anything himself, but teaches children brilliantly? A brilliant chess player who keeps thousands of games in his head, but cannot even cook scrambled eggs, or a brilliant sculptor who has not read a single book, but his hands work wonders? To figure this out, psychologists have identified several types of intelligence: theoretical, practical, social, etc. None of them coincide with psychometric ones, and special tests have been developed to assess each.

Prepared by Tatyana Tkachenko

In the photo (slider): a model of the human brain pathways obtained by tractography - imaging using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging.

“Pharmacist Practitioner” #03′ 2010

The history of the emergence of the concept of "intelligence quotient". Characteristics of factors influencing the level of intelligence. Criticism of the test from scientists. Factors in the development of intelligence. Intellectual and creative games. Qualitative characteristics of abilities.

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Moscow Pedagogical State University

Faculty of Foreign Languages

English department

Course work

On the topic: “Intelligence Quotient (IQ)”

Completed by student gr. 201

Ivanova Yulia

intelligence quotient test game ability

Introduction

Theoretical part

2. Intelligence

4. Development of intelligence

7. Tests (Eysenck, Stanford-Binet, Wechsler)

8. Abilities. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics

9. Classification of abilities

Practical part

Introduction

An IQ test or intelligence test is the most important task, which at any stage will allow you to plan further personal development, determine the course of a person’s intellectual, moral and psychological evolution. It is the level and type of development of intelligence that determines a person’s future, his destiny.

IQ tests are divided into parts: verbal tasks (general information, vocabulary, series of numbers for memorization, arithmetic tasks, tasks for finding differences, etc.) and active tasks (finding parts of a picture, placing cardboard figures in the correct order, solving puzzles, etc.).

The intelligence tests themselves largely depend on how each researcher imagines this personality trait.

With the help of intellectual tests, it is not the natural differences between people that are determined, but the current level of knowledge and skills that have developed at the time of the test. There is no doubt that the level of mastery of them depends both on the degree of training of individuals and on their natural capabilities.

Today, in developed countries, intelligence research is carried out at almost all the most important stages of human life and activity. Testing of the level of intellectual development is mandatory when admitting children to kindergartens and schools, the level of intellectual development is checked during the process of their education, and, of course, it is very widely used in career guidance and selection.

Theoretical part

Intelligence quotient (English IQ -- intelligence quotient, read "IQ") is a quantitative assessment of a person's level of intelligence: the level of intelligence relative to the level of intelligence of the average person of the same age. Determined using special tests. IQ tests are designed to assess thinking abilities, not the level of knowledge (erudition). IQ is an attempt to estimate the factor of general intelligence (g).

IQ tests are designed so that the results are described by a normal distribution with a mean IQ of 100 and such a spread that 50% of people have an IQ between 90 and 110 and 25% each have an IQ below 90 and above 110. The average IQ of American university graduates is 115 , excellent students - 130--140. An IQ value of less than 70 is often classified as mental retardation.

More accurate are the tests of D. Wexler, J. Raven, Amthauer, R.B. Cattella. There is currently no single standard for IQ tests.

Intelligence quotient or IQ is not a constant value and changes under the influence of the environment. Intelligence quotient or IQ is a reflection of both previous and subsequent learning achievements.

The concept of intelligence quotient or IQ characterizes the result of intelligence tests. Historically, IQ was designated as the proportion of mental development and chronological age multiplied by 100. Now IQ is measured in other ways, but still on a scale of 100 units with a standard deviation of 16.

The development of standardized intelligence tests began in France with the work of Alfred Binet at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Binet test is interesting because it focuses (based on a carefully selected set of questions of varying degrees of difficulty) on higher mental functions - cognitive ability, rather than more primitive operations - sensory abilities (reaction time, discrimination time, etc.). The test has been revised many times and has been adapted to many cultures.

1. Definition; factors influencing the level of intelligence; criticism

· Heredity. The role of genetics and environment in predicting IQ is reviewed in Plomin et al. (2001, 2003). Until recently, heredity was mainly studied in children. Various studies have shown heritability to be between 0.4 and 0.8 in the US, meaning, depending on the study, that between slightly less than half and well over half of the difference in IQ among the children observed was due to their genes. The rest depended on the child’s living conditions and measurement error. Heritability between 0.4 and 0.8 suggests that IQ is “significantly” heritable.

· Environment. The environment influences brain development. In particular, an unhealthy, restricted diet can reduce the brain's ability to process information. A study of 25,446 people by the Danish National Birth Cohort concluded that eating fish during pregnancy and breastfeeding an infant increased their IQ.

Also, a study of more than 13 thousand children showed that breastfeeding can increase a child’s intelligence by 7 points.

Criticism of IQ. IQ tests have been repeatedly criticized by scientists. Thus, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.A. Vasiliev discovered that in Eysenck's IQ tests, a significant part of the problems were composed incorrectly or the author's solutions were incorrect.

If a person answered the same way as Eysenck, then he thereby only demonstrates the standardization of his thinking, a quick and predictable reaction to a simple stimulus. A slightly less flat person will think a hundred times before answering... There are a myriad of possible solutions to each such problem. The smarter you are, the more likely it is that your decision will not coincide with the author's.

The practical meaning here is only one: for those who give the “correct” answer on the test, it will be easier to fit into the average education system and communicate with people who think the same way as him. In general, Eysenck tests the ideal average.

Scientist Wechsler created the first intelligence scale for adults in 1939. He believed that “intelligence is the global ability to act intelligently, think rationally and cope well with life’s circumstances,” that is, in short, “to successfully measure one’s strength with the world around us.”

The modern system of tests of mental abilities includes tests for the ability to operate with words, handle abstract concepts, examine spatial imagination and memory. Tests are often used for professional aptitude testing and to predict professional success.

It is believed that successful activity in the field of medicine, architecture, technology, and science is possible if the IQ exceeds the average value of general intelligence. However, special abilities and special skills are required to complete mathematical, verbal, and spatial perception tasks. However, everyday life requires behavior using general intelligence in life situations.

There are standardized values or levels of IQ:

· IQ in the range of 65 - 85 means a low level of intelligence;

· IQ in the range of 85 - 100 means a normal level, the lower limit of normal;

· IQ in the range of 100 - 115 means a normal level, the upper limit of normal;

· IQ in the range of 115 - 130 means a high level of development of intellectual abilities;

· An IQ in the range of 130 - 160 means that a person is mentally gifted.

You can successfully use intellectual tests to characterize the real state of the level of development of certain skills. Testing can also be a useful method for studying the variability of behavior and developing skills, which, in turn, is a prerequisite for their systematic formation in the right direction.

2. Intelligence

Intelligence is the ability of an individual to adapt to the environment.

Scientists Binet and Simoneau, who created the first tests, believed that a person with intelligence is one who “judges, understands and reflects correctly” and who, thanks to his “common sense” and “initiative,” can “adapt to the circumstances of life.”

Intelligence has traditionally been studied within two main directions: testological and experimental psychological. The essence of the testological direction is that intelligence means what intelligence tests measure, namely the totality of cognitive abilities. Neotestological theories of intelligence recognize the IQ concept, where IQ is based on internal cognitive processes: perception, memory, thinking, etc. Experimental psychological theories of intelligence focused on identifying the mechanisms of intellectual activity.

Let's consider several basic models and approaches, each of which is characterized by a certain conceptual line in the interpretation of the nature of intelligence:

· Sociocultural approach - intelligence as a result of the socialization process, as well as the influence of culture as a whole.

· Genetic and psychophysiological approaches - intelligence as a consequence of increasingly complex adaptation to environmental requirements in the natural conditions of human interaction with the outside world.

· Process-based activity approach - intelligence as a special form of human activity.

· Educational approach - intelligence as a product of targeted learning.

· Information approach - intelligence as a set of elementary processes of information processing.

· Phenomenological approach - intelligence as a special form of the content of consciousness.

· Monometric, functional-level and cognitive approaches - intelligence as a system of different level cognitive processes.

· Spearman's model - general intelligence as a single basis for a wide variety of human abilities.

· Regulatory approach - intelligence as a factor in the self-regulation of mental activity.

· Factor approach - intelligence as a single structure depends on a number of factors.

Intelligence has a multifaceted structure:

· thinking based on knowledge, i.e. the use of organized knowledge in purposeful thinking;

· understanding presupposes that individuals not only feel and know, they also know that they have the above experience, i.e. the ability to reflect on past experiences;

· adaptive purposeful struggle, i.e. the individual can, by adapting, change strategies for using force, etc.;

· smooth analytical reasoning, i.e. recognizing different sides of a problem and integrating information;

· cerebral playfulness, i.e. not all problems are given, but individuals can create interesting goals in order to subsequently achieve them;

idiosyncratic learning, i.e. People differ not only from others and not only in the way they solve problems, but even their approaches to problems can vary over time.

3. Types of people by intelligence level

Intelligence testing allows you to identify a person’s intelligence and knowledge of a certain amount of intellectual skills. Scientist M.A. Kholodnaya undertook an analysis of different types of intellectual giftedness, which allowed her to identify six types of people who are assessed by different authors as intellectually gifted:

· “smart” - those who have high scores when testing general intelligence (IQ more than 135-140 points);

· “brilliant students” - individuals with high rates of academic success;

· “creatives” - persons with a high level of development of creative intellectual abilities;

· “competent” - persons with high success in performing certain real activities; having extensive work experience;

· “talented” - persons with extraordinary intellectual achievements;

· “wise” - persons with extraordinary abilities to assess and predict events in people’s everyday lives.

Evaluating all six categories of people based on empirical data about their life successes, M.A. Kholodnaya comes to the conclusion that only the last three categories of people demonstrate true intellectual talent, since they lead to success in real life.

4. Development of intelligence

Intelligence quotient IQ is not a constant value; the coefficient tends to change rather than remain at the same level throughout a person’s life.

Intelligence can develop with education, hence a particular type of education can develop a particular aspect of intelligence.

The effects of various developmental programs are quite obvious, and the fact that with the cessation of training in these programs reverse changes are observed only shows the high plasticity of mental abilities. As soon as the training of memory, attention, planning, etc. stops, they change in accordance with the new level of use. Experimental evidence shows that the brain retains enormous potential for plasticity almost throughout life. And the principle of use it or loose it (“either you use it or lose it”) plays a huge role in the development or degradation of a person’s mental abilities.

The high heritability of IQ is very often completely misunderstood as an indication of the futility of learning.

Intelligence and IQ are still different things, and a trained person is radically different from an untrained person, even if they have the same IQ. Moreover, individuals with reduced IQ require particularly careful and methodical training to compensate for their lack of ability.

We must not forget that in the case of IQ we are talking about certain abilities. How these abilities will be used in the life of a particular person is a completely different question. In some cases, as paradoxical as it may sound, too much ability can be a disservice. Scientists once noticed that there are many capable minds who have achieved nothing because the ease of learning protected them from the discipline of a regular school and they received nothing in return.

5. Factors in the development of intelligence

Let's consider the factors that influence the development of intelligence:

· Level of intelligence of parents. The higher it is, the higher the intelligence of their children.

· Level of education and social status of parents. Parents with a high level of education tend to have a higher social status. They strive to create conditions for the comprehensive development of their children, so children from such families demonstrate a fairly high level of intelligence.

· The level of education of the person himself. The higher it is, the higher the level of intelligence. There is mutual determination here. On the one hand, the learning process develops intelligence, on the other hand, those people who have the ability to do this receive higher education.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the level of intelligence changes throughout a person's life. Intelligence develops until the age of 20-23, then it is fixed at a certain level, and its different components can be more or less dominant at different ages (for example, at some age memory increases, at another logical thinking). After 50-60 years, certain mental functions begin to deteriorate. If a person is engaged in intense intellectual activity, then these processes slow down significantly. A scientist, even at the age of 80, can demonstrate extraordinary intellectual abilities, although his speed characteristics of intelligence decrease.

Intelligence requires exercise at any age to maintain its level, just as the muscular system requires physical exercise. Therefore, a person must study throughout his life in order to maintain his thinking abilities at a high level.

6. Intellectual and creative games

Intellectual game - individual or collective performance of tasks that require the use of productive thinking in conditions of limited time and competition.

Intellectual games combine the features of both gaming and educational activities - they develop theoretical thinking, requiring the formulation of concepts, the performance of basic mental operations (classification, analysis, synthesis, etc.).

On the other hand, this activity itself is not a goal, but a means of achieving a game result (victory in a competition), and this result quickly loses value in itself and the goal shifts from the result directly to the process of searching and making a decision.

All intellectual games can be conditionally divided into elementary and compound (representing a combination of elementary ones). In turn, elementary games can be classified depending on the number of answer options from which participants choose the correct one. Naturally, any intellectual game can be played both individually and in a group.

The simplest intellectual games are test games, which are a set of statements and a given number of answer options for them - from 2 (this game is called “Believe it or not”) to 5 (“Scrabble lotto”). This type of game is usually used as a warm-up , for games with the audience or in breaks between “main" intellectual games. Their advantage is the high role of luck, which allows even not very prepared participants to achieve success, as well as the ability to vary the complexity of tasks.

The most complex of these games are the so-called “strange circumstances”, when more and more specific information is reported about the desired object. The sooner a person (team) solves an encrypted concept, the more points he gets.

The second group (relatively less common) consists of games that can conventionally be called “filling in the gaps” (a key word is omitted or replaced in a phrase that needs to be restored or remembered), “restoring lists” (“Who loved whom”, “Where did the phrase come from”, "Let's speak different languages."

The third group consists of games in which participants are asked to group objects according to certain characteristics, most often identified by the participants themselves.

The fourth group is represented by intellectual games in which participants are asked to answer a particular question within a certain time. The main games of this type are "Brain Ring" and "What? Where? When?"

Creative games presuppose the presence of tasks with an “open answer” (the absence of a single correct solution); in the process of this type of games, teenagers express themselves through the means of one or another type of art; finally, as a result of such games, some unique, not initially planned, result should be born.

Most creative games are based on various forms of training, both psychological and, above all, theatrical.

The tests in the Stanford edition are grouped by age level: - starting from 2 years old to 5 years old, they are located at semi-annual intervals; - for ages from 5 to 14 years - annual intervals; - the remaining levels are designated as average adult and highest adult levels (1, 2, 3). The intervals between them are more than one year.

Each subject is presented only with those tasks that are addressed to his own age level. Typically, the testing procedure begins with tasks at a lower level than the expected mental age of the subject. The level at which he copes with all tasks is determined for the subject. This level is called basic age. Testing then continues until a level is found at which the subject fails on all tests. This level is called the age limit. Once this level is reached, testing ends.

Processing of individual tests of the Stanford-Binet scale occurs on an all-or-nothing basis. The manual for each test sets the minimum level of performance at which the test is considered completed. A subject's mental age in the Stanford-Binet scales is found by assigning him his basal age and adding a few months to that age for each correctly solved test above the basal level. Most Stanford-Binet tests are not suitable for adults, since the nature of the tasks does not allow them to reach the age level ceiling.

· The Wechsler test is a type of individual intelligence test.

· A feature of the Wechsler intelligence scales is the introduction of two types of techniques - verbal tests and performance tests (this is the name for tasks of a non-verbal, effective nature, for example, putting together a figure from parts, etc.).

· The Wechsler Adult Scale contains 11 tests - six of them are grouped into a verbal scale and five into a performance scale. The verbal scale includes tasks that require awareness in certain areas of knowledge, comprehension tasks (the meaning of proverbs, behavior in certain circumstances, etc.), arithmetic tasks (within primary school), finding similarities, determining vocabulary, memorizing numbers. The performance scale includes tasks for completing pictures, constructing blocks (from cubes), arranging pictures in order, and some others.

· When performing tests, both speed and accuracy are taken into account.

The Eysenck test consists of eight subtests, five of which are intended to assess the general level of a person’s intellectual development, and three to assess the degree of development of his special abilities: mathematical, linguistic and those abilities that are needed in activities where figurative images are actively used. logical thinking.

Only if all eight subtests are completed can a full assessment be made of both the level of a person’s general intellectual development and the degree of development of his special abilities.

You are given 30 minutes to complete the test, during which time the test taker must answer the questions posed. Testing ends after the specified time has elapsed or when all 40 questions are answered.

Normally, the minimum level of IQ = 70, maximum IQ = 180. The average IQ level ranges from 100 to 120 points.

Raven's progressive matrices test - the subject initially perceives the task as a whole, then identifies patterns of change in the elements of the image, after which the selected elements are included in the whole image, and the missing part of the image is found

Abstract geometric shapes with a pattern organized in a certain way were chosen as the material.

Three main versions of the test have been designed: 1) a simpler, color test, intended for children from 5 to 11 years old; 2) black and white version for children and adolescents from 8 to 14 years old and adults from 20 to 65 years old; 3) a version of the test designed in 1977 by D. Raven in collaboration with D. Kort and intended for individuals with high intellectual achievements; it includes not only non-verbal, but also verbal parts.

The test is carried out both with and without a time limit for completing tasks.

The material in the black and white version consists of 60 matrices or a composition with a missing element. The tasks are divided into five series (A, B, C, D, E) with 12 matrices of the same type, but increasing in complexity in each series. The difficulty of the tasks increases as you move from series to series. The subject must choose the missing element of the matrix among 6-8 proposed options. If necessary, the subject performs the first 5 series A with the help of an experimenter.

When developing the test, an attempt was made to implement the principle of “progressiveness”, which consists in the fact that completing previous tasks from a series is, as it were, preparing the subject for performing subsequent ones. There is training to perform more difficult tasks. Each series of tasks is compiled according to certain principles.

Series A. The subject is required to complete the missing part of the image; it is believed that when working with the matrices of this series, the following mental processes are realized: a) differentiation of the main elements of the structure and disclosure of the connection between them; b) identifying the missing part of the structure and comparing it with certain samples.

Series B. Reduces to finding an analogy between two pairs of figures. The subject reveals this principle through gradual differentiation of elements.

Series C. The assignments in this series contain complex changes in figures in accordance with the principle of their continuous development, generalization vertically and horizontally.

Series D. Consists of the principle of rearranging figures in the matrix in horizontal and vertical directions.

Series E. The most difficult. The process of solving tasks in this series consists of analyzing the figures of the main image and subsequent “assembling” the missing figure in parts (analytical-synthetic mental activity).

Processing the results obtained is simple. Each correct solution is worth 1 point. The total amount of points received is calculated, as well as the number of correct solutions in each of the five series. Primary assessments using tables are carried out in accordance with age standards in accordance with percentiles or stanites. It is possible to convert the results obtained into an IQ score.

Abilities are individual psychological characteristics of a person, which are the conditions for the successful implementation of a given activity and reveal differences in the dynamics of mastering the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for it.

Abilities are individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another.

If a certain set of personality qualities meets the requirements of an activity that a person masters over the course of time pedagogically justifiably allotted for its development, then this gives grounds to conclude that he has the ability to do this activity. And if another person, all other things being equal, cannot cope with the demands that an activity places on him, then this gives reason to assume that he lacks the corresponding psychological qualities, in other words, a lack of abilities.

Ability is not limited to the knowledge, skills or abilities that have already been developed by a given person. We cannot understand abilities as the innate capabilities of an individual, because we defined abilities as “individual psychological characteristics of a person,” and these latter, by the very essence of the matter, cannot be innate. Only anatomical and physiological characteristics can be congenital, i.e., inclinations that underlie the development of abilities, while the abilities themselves are always the result of development.

Ability exists only in movement, only in development. It must be remembered that individual abilities do not simply coexist next to each other and independently of each other. Each ability changes and acquires a qualitatively different character depending on the presence and degree of development of other abilities.

A qualitative characteristic of abilities characterizes abilities as a complex set of psychological properties of a person, ensuring the success of an activity, as a set of “variables” that allows one to go to a goal in different ways.

Identical or somewhat similar achievements in performing any activity may be based on combinations of very different abilities. This opens up to us an important aspect of a person’s abilities: wide possibilities for compensating some properties with others, which a person develops in himself by working hard and persistently.

The compensatory capabilities of a person’s abilities are revealed, for example, by the special education of people deprived of sight and hearing.

The property of compensating for some abilities with the help of developing others opens up inexhaustible opportunities for every person, pushing the boundaries of choosing a profession and improving in it.

In general, a qualitative characteristic of abilities allows us to answer the question in which field of work activity (design, teaching, economics, sports, etc.) is it easier for a person to find himself and discover great successes and achievements.

Thus, the qualitative characteristic of abilities is inextricably linked with the quantitative characteristic. Having found out which specific psychological qualities meet the requirements of a given activity, we can answer the question of whether they are more or less developed in a person compared to his work and study comrades.

The quantitative characteristic of abilities has found its application in determining the place of an individual and his suitability for a particular work activity, for studying in higher educational institutions, for obtaining command posts in production, the army and public life.

At the same time, mental aptitude tests began to be used as a way to measure abilities. In terms of content, mental aptitude tests are a series of questions or tasks, the success of which (taking into account the time spent) is calculated in the sum of points or points.

In fact, ordinary intellectual tests do not reveal a person’s intellectual abilities, but rather the presence of certain information, skills and abilities, with which, as has already been emphasized, abilities should not be confused. The dynamics of the acquisition of knowledge and skills, which constitutes the essence of abilities, remains unidentified. Moreover, it is obvious that the best results will be found by students who have been specially prepared by teachers, tutors or parents. And this already depends on the economic situation of the family.

The mental development of a child does not occur by itself, but in the process of learning, i.e. in constant communication with adults. Therefore, what a child cannot yet do on his own, he can do with the help of an adult. And therefore, tomorrow he will be able to learn to work independently.

It is necessary not to limit oneself to a simple one-time study of the child’s abilities, but to carry out the study twice. The first time, finding out how the child solves the problem on his own, and the second time, how he solves it with the help of an adult. It is not the assessment of independent problem solving, but the discrepancy between the results of an independent solution and a solution with the help of an adult that becomes an important component of the overall assessment of the child’s abilities. And if a child is unable to solve a problem that is feasible for his peers, either independently or with the help of adults, then there is reason to talk about the level of his abilities being insufficiently high.

The above-described way of identifying the level of abilities was outlined by L.S. Vygotsky as a method for determining the zone of proximal development.

The surest way to determine abilities is to identify the dynamics of a child’s success in the learning process. By observing how, with the help of adults, a child acquires knowledge and skills, how differently he accepts this help (some, having received it, nevertheless progress very slowly, others, under the same conditions, show noticeable success), one can draw reasonable conclusions about the value of , strength and weakness of abilities.

Abilities can be classified into:

· natural (or natural) abilities, basically biologically determined, associated with innate inclinations, formed on their basis, in the presence of elementary life experience through learning mechanisms such as conditioned reflex connections);

· specific human abilities that have a socio-historical origin and ensure life and development in the social environment.

Specific human abilities are in turn divided into:

· general ones, which determine a person’s success in a wide variety of activities and communication (mental abilities, developed memory and speech, accuracy and subtlety of hand movements, etc.), and special ones, which determine a person’s success in certain types of activity and communication, where necessary special kinds of inclinations and their development (mathematical, technical, literary and linguistic, artistic and creative abilities, sports, etc.);

· theoretical, which determine a person’s inclination towards abstract-logical thinking, and practical, which underlie the inclination towards concrete practical actions. The combination of these abilities is characteristic only of multi-talented people;

· educational, which influence the success of pedagogical influence, a person’s assimilation of knowledge, abilities, skills, the formation of personal qualities, and creative, associated with success in creating works of material and spiritual culture, new ideas, discoveries, inventions.

The highest degree of creative manifestations of a personality is called genius, and the highest degree of a person’s abilities in a certain activity (communication) is called talent;

· abilities to communicate, interact with people and subject-related abilities related to the interaction of people with nature, technology, sign information, artistic images, etc.

The following levels of abilities are distinguished: reproductive, which ensures a high ability to assimilate ready-made knowledge, master existing patterns of activity and communication, and creative, which ensures the creation of new, original ones. But it should be borne in mind that the reproductive level includes elements of the creative, and vice versa.

Intellectual talent is a systemic, developing quality of the psyche that determines a person’s ability to achieve high, unusual or outstanding results in one or more types of activity compared to other people.

Intellectually gifted adolescents are distinguished by bright, obvious, sometimes outstanding achievements in one or another type of activity (actual giftedness) or have internal, potential prerequisites and psychological capabilities for such achievements (potential giftedness).

The main areas of manifestation of intellectual talent are:

1. intellectual (high level of development of thinking, memory, imagination, allowing to successfully solve various problems);

2. the sphere of academic achievements (rapid advancement in various fields of knowledge);

3. creativity (the desire for creative, non-standard solutions, independence in judgment, flexibility in solving problems);

4. communication and leadership (ease of communication, taking responsibility, ability to be a partner);

5. sphere of artistic activity (success in various types of art: music, visual arts, etc.);

6. motor sphere (good hand-eye coordination, body control, interest in activities that require physical activity).

At the same time, seven relatively independent types of intelligence are identified, through which general intellectual talent becomes special:

1. linguistic, based on sensitivity to meaning and effective verbal memory;

2. logical-mathematical, as the ability to operate with categories, concepts and symbols;

3. spatial, as the ability to perceive and create visual-spatial compositions, operate with objects in the mind;

4. bodily-kinesthetic, as the ability to use motor skills;

5. musical - the ability to perform, compose and emotionally perceive music;

6. intrapersonal - the ability to understand and recognize one’s own feelings;

7. interpersonal - the ability to notice and distinguish between the motivations, intentions, and temperament of other people. Often the 6th and 7th types of giftedness appear together.

Practical part

1. IQ research

It is believed that the intelligence of children born first in a family tends to be higher than that of subsequent children. Psychologists explain this fact by the fact that parents devote more time to them and work with them more. Subsequent children grow up under the supervision of older children, and the more children in the family, the lower their average level of intelligence.

The connection between the level of intelligence of a child and his parents is at the same level as between children. It was noted that the child is closer in level of intelligence to his mother, and not to his father. This is because in all cultures, mothers are more involved in raising children than fathers. Therefore, the higher the mother's intelligence level, the more the child's intelligence develops.

A comparison of the intelligence of spouses shows quite a lot of similarity. This is due to the fact that thinking ability, level of education and breadth of outlook are taken into account when entering into marriage. People, as a rule, choose a life partner who is similar to themselves based on these characteristics. This creates a double impact on the intelligence of their children. If parents have high intelligence, then they pass it on through genes, and after the birth of the child they are focused on its development.

Table 1. Correlation between the social status of parents and the level of intelligence of their children

The data in this table show that heredity plays a leading role, but the nature of upbringing also affects the development of intelligence in children.

Table 2. Correlation between level of intelligence and level of education

The higher the level of education, the higher the level of intelligence. There is mutual determination here. On the one hand, the learning process develops intelligence, on the other hand, those people who have the ability to do so receive higher education.

Posted on Allbest

Story

Tests

What affects IQ

Heredity

Search for hereditary causes of IQ

Environment

Health and IQ

Age and IQ

Social consequences

Relationship to other tests and exams

School performance

Labor productivity

Income

Achievements in real life

IQ and crime

Other IQ effects

Group differences

Floor

Race

A country

IQ and success in science

Criticism of IQ

see also

Notes

Links

A little history

How to find out your IQ

Main influencing factors

Genetics

Influence of nutrition

Upbringing

Family birth order

Environment

IQ values

The history of the emergence of the concept of "intelligence quotient". Characteristics of factors influencing the level of intelligence. Criticism of the test from scientists. Factors in the development of intelligence. Intellectual and creative games. Qualitative characteristics of abilities.

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