musicmom

NiallNai

In response to what budnkota said: I'm largely in agreement. The tests are only good at testing what they test. And a good psychologist realizes that...or should...When I write statements about a students performance on an IQ tests, the statements are specific to the performance on particular tasks.

In addition, it is really only a snapshot of a persons performance on a particular day. You can only statistically say that if a person were to given the same test that 90-95% of the time they would score within a certain range of the initial score.

Psychology began as a branch of philosophy that wanted to be seen as a science. Since the "material" that we study is ephemeral (for lack of a better term) the only manner in which it can be measured is largely statistical or mathematical. And as my father told me: "there three types of falsehoods in the world: lies, damn lies, and statistics."

The scores are not that are obtained aren't the person. There is just as much information to be gather from observing how the examinee approaches and completes the tasks.

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musicmom

etceterae

Online IQ tests generally do a good job of eliminating the "modernity" part of the examination, but only because they're not completely valid. It is true - I agree with you - that IQ tests do not measure solely modernity, but popular elements in dominant cultures thrive within the questions. I have taken an IQ test administered by a psychologist before - not the fun Tickle ones - and there's still a huge element of modernity in there.

If anything, IQ does not measure cognitive ability nor intelligence. Maybe reasoning, but even then....I don't put any value on it at all. =/

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NiallNai

Just to give proper credit. After a little research, I discovered that my father was telling me a quote attibuted to Benjamin Disraeli and popularized by Mark Twain.

I'll continue to attest that my father was a brilliant man and VERY well read.

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musicmom

gerrr

Good read. IQ does change. As NaillNai said, at a given time on a given test, the score will vary within a certain range of the test taker's true ability (let's call it 'g'). But also, as a person/child develops, the true score -the person's true intelligence, (g)- CAN change for a variety of reasons.

gerrr

So what are 'street smarts'? Sure, it seems to be a common sense idea but actually, I'm not really sure what street smarts are anymore.
(All the streetsmart readers are probably thinking 'Dude, if you have to ask, you'll never understand!')