IQ tests are useless

I believe that IQ tests are really quite useless in judjing a person's intelligence. IQ tests only really test logic, which is a small part of a human's brain and intelligence.

In terms of Science, this is the 'ASSEMBLY AGE'

What I mean by this is that more imporatant than logic is imagination in this age. Many rules and formula's of Science are now before us, it is up to us to be able to use those rules and formula's to our advantage. This requires imagination more than logic. We have to have the ability to ' put the pieces of the puzzle together to form a broader picture' ... what i mean is that we must be able to link the formula's together and therefore advance in technology and gain a greater understanding of our world in something appart from complex equations and numbers.

Logic allows us to understand the formula's, imagination helps us to gather the formula's and turn them into something more useful.

A-men!

Seems like all IQ tests do these days is pigeon-hole peoples potential anyways.

I've known college drop outs who were genuises and people with multiple PHD's who were idiots...

I think IQ tests should be replaced with periodic tests / exercises that actually train us to use (and increase) our problem solving skills.

Notice how this is not really a part of the U.S. educational system curriculum - that is intentional.

Also people should add/multiply/divide in their heads when doing calculations and then check it with the calculator - it shocks me how few people seem to be good at even simple math anymore




[edit on 11-7-2005 by TruthMagnet]

Hey...just because you scored a 75 on the IQ test...that does not make it useless... Ok Ok , im joking

But, I mean c'mon...generally speaking people with higher IQ's do land better jobs, get more degrees, better educated, make more money, get hotter wives (cause they make more money) and all that other stuff.

Can you think of a better means to determine smartness?

sporty

IQ test test functional intelligence.

They are logic and puzzle solving bias because that is what matter when it comes to people in terms of resources. Art and other aspect of people do not NEED to be tested.

When I hire someone I care what thier IQ and mentality is because it effect what they do in term of work. On a personal level I may enjoy thier artistic side, but it plays no role in functionality.

I haven't a clue what my IQ is except that it's most likely at least 100.

And I don't know what the correlation figure is between high IQ and "success", but it's got to be positive. Most of the hi-IQ people I know (based on my conversation with them and evaluating their problem-solving skills) are pretty successful folks.

This doesn't mean that all high-IQ people ared successful; I have two freinds who are Mensa members who work fairly low-level jobs, make fairly low-level money, and are unhappy in their life. You can have a high IQ and still be unsuccessful by whatever means you use to define "unsuccessful".

And most of the people I know who exhibit a low IQ are not successful in whatever I'd consider successful, challenging job. money, job satisfaction, of contentment in life.

Measuring a person's IQ, I think, gives both the person tested and his peers some valuabe insights into how he'll live his life. To my view, that makes IQ tests very useful.
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Throughout the early days of education a student’s intelligence was determined by a test which examined how the students acquired knowledge, how accurate and quickly they recalled knowledge, and the application of known logic. This approach was known as the IQ test and dominated educational and psychological thinking for many years as it was useful in predicting many aspects of school and life performance, and pigeon wholed people to thinking they were made be in 'this type' of career depending on their score.

One huge point that gets little or no credit in discussions about intelligence is the role of creativity. Creativity cannot be judged by an IQ type test and involves departing from the facts, finding new ways, making unusual associations, or seeing unexpected solutions.

The position adopted in the 1950’s and 1960’s by psychologists is that as creativity and intelligence share minimal similarities therefore they are separate and competing against each other. However later research has discovered that the highest achievers in school display both creativity and intelligence, this has prompted a new view that creativity and intelligence work together to create intellectual giftedness.

I think this is a good point when discussing if the IQ test is relevant, opinions anyone?

How accurate do you think the free online IQ tests are?

Would say eliminating a useful tool like IQ tests, would be like chopping off a finger cause it offends you. That is not to say all that makes up "intelligence" can be measured in a single test either.

How about Emotional Intelligence too...

A belligerent Samurai once challenged a Zen master to explain the concept of Heaven and Hell. But the monk, replied with scorn saying “You’re nothing but a lout, I can’t waste my time with the likes of you.”

His very honor attacked the Samurai flew into a rage and pulling his sword from it’s scabbard yelled, “I could kill you for your impertinence.”
“That,” the monk calmly replied, “is Hell.”

Startled at seeing the truth the master had pointed out about the fury that had him in its grip, the Samurai calmed down, sheathed his sword and bowed, thanking the monk for the insight.

“And that,” the monk replied,
“is Heaven.”

Creativity tied to mental illness
Madness and creativity seem linked, particularly in artists, musicians, and writers.
www.news.harvard.edu...




[edit on 2-9-2005 by Regenmacher]

IQ tests test problem solving, logic, mathematical acuity, and spatial acuity. That's it. Some of them make a poor attempt at testing verbal-linguistic intelligence, but those are simply logic problems with words and sentences as the medium. Anyone that tells you that IQ tests are the be all and end all of success or intelligence is probably an engineer/scientist/accountant/etc whose world revolves around/depends on logic.

There are plenty of areas of human brain function that are not tested in any way by IQ tests, such as artistic, musical, and physical pursuits, as well as creativity in general. You could build a supercomputer that could figure out mathematical and spatial problems to register an IQ of 200+, but that doesn't mean it will be able to create a song or a picture that isn't copying and modifying something else already created, or even invent anything scientifically useful. A genius physicist with IQ off the scale who can't create, invent, or find any inspiration to go beyond what s/he has learned will be a waste of space and useless in anything but analysis of existing data. Logic without creativity is like a gun without any ammunition, it functions fine, but you can't do anything with it.

Then there are interpersonal and communication brain functions, possibly one of the most complex and little understood things that the brain has to deal with. Some autistic savants will have equivalent IQs off the scale, but they cannot function in ordinary social situations, or even care for themselves physically, and they certainly could not be a leader of any sort.

IQ tests are a general indicator of mental acuity, and an extremely general indicator of individual potential, and there are exceptions to the rule.

Einstein was a genius not because of his high IQ; there are many who have gone before him and come after him with equivalent or higher IQs. He was a genius because of his ability to think outside the box. That is why he was a brilliant philosopher as well. And Mozart probably sucked at math.

[edit on 2005-9-3 by wecomeinpeace]

Originally posted by warpboost
How accurate do you think the free online IQ tests are?

I don't know how accurate they are, but I typically score in the 130-140 range, no matter who wrote the test. That means they are consistent, but not necessarily accurate. They may be giving consistently too high or too low scores to people, for example.

To a certain degree, I think IQ tests are useful. They don't test overall intelligence, though, mostly just the logic and mathematical stuff. People who are really smart, but have spent their lives studying something like history or foreign languages or some other non-math type thing, might score less even though they are likely just as smart, because the test asks things they might not use every day, like finding patterns in numbers.