IQ

(noun)

Short for Intelligence Quotient; a score derived from one of several standardized tests designed to assess intelligence.

Related Terms

Examples of IQ in the following topics:

  • IQ Tests

    • Currently, IQ tests are used to study distributions in scores among specific populations.
    • Scores on IQ tests tend to form a bell curve with a normal distribution.
    • There are a wide variety of IQ tests that use slightly different tasks and measures to calculate an overall IQ score.
    • Currently, most tests tend to measure both verbal and performance IQ.
    • All of these measures and tasks are used to calculate a person's IQ.

  • Controversies in Intelligence and Standardized Testing

    • They also cast doubt on the validity of IQ tests and whether IQ tests actually measure what they claim to measure—intelligence.
    • Researchers have learned that IQ and general intelligence (g) correlate with some social outcomes, such as lower IQs being linked to incarceration and higher IQs being linked to job success and wealth.
    • For example, the relationship between wealth and IQ is well-documented.
    • Could this mean that IQ tests are biased toward wealthy individuals?
    • IQ tests are often criticized for being culturally biased.

  • History of Intelligence Testing

    • He created and published the first IQ test in the United States, the Stanford-Binet IQ test.
    • The Wechsler scales contained separate subscores for verbal IQ and performance IQ, and were thus less dependent on overall verbal ability than early versions of the Stanford-Binet scale.
    • In the normal population, g and IQ are roughly 90% correlated.
    • In order to develop an IQ test that separated environmental from genetic factors, Raymond B.
    • The bell shaped curve for IQ scores has an average value of 100.

  • Genetic Basis of Intelligence and Learning

    • There has been significant controversy in the academic community about the heritability of IQ, or Intelligence Quotient, which seeks to determine to what extent an individual's IQ level is influenced by genetics.
    • Studies show that there are some family/environmental effects on the IQ of children; however adoption studies show that, by adulthood, adoptive siblings are not more similar in IQ than strangers, while adult full siblings show higher similarities in IQ, even when raised separately.
    • Conventional twin studies reinforce this pattern: monozygotic (identical) twins raised separately are more similar in IQ than dizygotic (fraternal) twins raised together, and much more than adoptive siblings.

  • Genetic and Environmental Impacts on Intelligence

    • Twin studies in the western world have found the heritability of IQ to be between 0.7 and 0.8, meaning that the variance in intelligence among the population is 70%-80% due to genetics.
    • However, the heritability of IQ in juvenile twins is much lower at 0.45.
    • Thus, despite the high heritability of IQ, we can determine that there is an environmental influence as well.
    • A group of largely African American, urban first-grade children and their caregivers were evaluated using self-report, interview, and standardized tests, including IQ tests.
    • The study reported that exposure to violence and trauma-related distress in young children was associated with substantial decreases in IQ and reading achievement. 

  • Group Differences in Intelligence

    • Before IQ testing was developed, scientists used to rely on crude data such as head or brain size or reaction times to estimate intelligence levels.
    • It was not until Alfred Binet and the emergence of the IQ test that psychologists were able to collect data that could accurately and reliably compare human groups .
    • Since the advent of reliable and valid IQ testing methods, psychologists have demonstrated, and the APA has declared, that differences in group intelligence are undeniable.
    • During the early years of research, raw scores on IQ tests systematically rose throughout the world.
    • It is possible that the very composition of certain IQ tests can allow or inhibit certain levels of performance among different groups.

  • Intellectual Disabilities

    • It is defined by an intelligence quotient (IQ) score below 70 in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors that affect an individual's everyday life.
    • As a result, a person with an unusually low IQ may not necessarily be considered intellectually disabled.
    • In general, people with intellectual disability have an IQ below 70, but the diagnosis may also apply to individuals who have a somewhat higher IQ but severe impairment in adaptive functioning.

  • Intellectual Disabilities

    • Individuals are diagnosed with an intellectual disability if they score below 70 on a measure of intelligence such as the IQ test, which has a mean score of 100.
    • The standard deviation on an IQ test is 15 points, which means that a score of 70 is two standard deviations below the mean, or in the bottom 2.2% of the population.
    • The average full-scale IQ of young adults with Down syndrome is around 50.

  • Defining Intelligence

    • It became known at the Binet-Simon Scale, the predecessor for the modern IQ test.
    • The video concludes with a brief discussion of modern notions of IQ and intelligence testing.

  • The Psychology of Recruiting and Selecting Employees

    • An example of a measure with debatable construct validity is IQ testing.