You've probably heard of 'IQ,' but do you really know what it means? This lesson covers the history and theory behind the famous idea of an intelligence quotient (including the inventor of IQ, Alfred Binet), and will help you learn how to understand and interpret IQ scores.

What is IQ?
Imagine a ten-year-old child, having trouble in school, struggling to learn how to spell and how to read books. Why? Is it because he is low in intelligence? Or is it simply because he is from a poor family who doesn't have the same resources as a rich family? Maybe he is very intelligent, but his problems in school are due to pragmatic issues such as a lack of books in his house.


The concept of IQ was invented in the year 1904 by Alfred Binet, he noticed that many children in school were struggling, but he didn't think it was due to lack of intelligence. So Binet made a very important distinction between two different things that might lead to poor school performance.

He said that some children will do badly because they simply aren't intelligent, so there's not much that can be done to directly help them improve their grades.

However, he said that other children have plenty of learning ability and potential to do well, but they struggle simply because of life circumstances. He said that these children, who have a high learning ability, should be distinguished from children who do badly in school because of low intelligence.

This distinction is what paved the way for Binet's new idea, which he called the intelligence quotient, or IQ for short. Everyone has an individual intelligence quotient, which is a number indicating your inherent ability to learn instead of simply the knowledge you already have. If you have a high IQ, it means that you have the intelligence required to do well in school because you have the ability or potential to succeed.

The IQ Equation
So how did Binet suggest that we measure someone's ability to learn or potential to succeed? Binet said that the way we can do this is to compare two things. First, we just need to know how old a child is, which he called a person's chronological age. What's your chronological age? (from birth to now), so that's my
chronological age.

But Binet also said that we need to know your Mental age, which is your cognitive abilities relative to what others can do of different ages. In other words, what do you think an average five year old can do? Can they read? Can they do math? What about the average ten year old? Or how about someone who is 40 years old? Your mental age is what you are capable of doing, scaled to what the average people of different ages can do. In other words, if you're capable of doing what an average 25-year old can do, then your mental age is 25. If you can do what an average 10-year old can do, but not anything more advanced than that, then your mental age is only 10.

How did Binet figure out what an average kid of each different age could do? He simply did research using a bunch of kids at each age to directly measure their cognitive abilities. Instead of measuring academic knowledge like, 'Who wrote the play Romeo and Juliet?', he measured ability to solve problems and think creatively, such as noticing patterns or remembering images. After testing lots of kids of all different ages, he could then give you, personally, the same test and compare your scores to what kids of each different age could do. If your scores matched what the 10-year olds were doing, then we know your mental age is 10 years old.

So now that we have these two scores - chronological age and mental age - we want to compare them. If you are right on track, then your two scores will perfectly match. If you are advanced, or very intelligent, according to Binet, then your mental age will be bigger than your chronological age. Say, if you are 20 years old right now, but you can do what an average 30-year old can do, then you're 10 years ahead of schedule, which Binet would say makes you very intelligent. The opposite could also be true; maybe you're 20 years old, but can only do what the average 10-year old can do. Binet would say that you are cognitively delayed and therefore not intelligent based on IQ.

To get a bit more technical, Binet created an equation so that we could all have a quick, simple number that indicates where we stand in comparing these two scores. The equation looks like this: Mental Age / Chronological Age x 100 = IQ. We can make a ratio of the two ages, with mental age on top, and the only reason we multiply by 100 is to get a nice, round number instead of a fraction. Let's go through a couple of examples of the simple math here.

If your mental age and chronological age are a perfect match, you might get an equation like this: 20 mental years old / 20 actual years old x 100 = 100. You can see that an IQ score of 100 will always mean that a person is exactly where the average person would be, so an IQ of 100 will always mean average intelligence for IQ. If a person is mentally advanced, they might get a score like this: 30 mental years old / 20 actual years old x 100 = 150. An IQ score of 150 would be very impressive! Just as an example, the rumor is that Albert Einstein had an IQ of 160! Any IQ higher than 100 means that the person is a little bit more intelligent than average. Again, the opposite can also be true. Let's say we have a person who is a little bit developmentally delayed; he or she might have an equation like this: 10 mental years old / 20 actual years old x 100 = 50. An IQ score less than 100 will always mean that a person's mental abilities are not as good as the average person of his or her age group.

http://www.stevonics.com/2018/03/intelligence-quotient.html

too long to b read

OriginalKogiboy:
too long to b read

I tell u, op now posted it in The nite .

Nice write up and very educative, i personally think that one's iq can either be increased or decreased, it all boils down to our determination and focus nobody has two heads.

Great post.

Nice post but there are still some controversies surrounding the use of IQ test. At op if you could include at least one of those as well as supporting view on the use of IQ test that would be awesome.

It's actually not a measure of how intelligent or successful you'll be at the end of the day.

I wonder why there's so much emphasis on IQ ratings



Meanwhile Check my signature and visit my blog, you'll love it

OriginalKogiboy:
too long to b read

No wonder youths of our generation fail a lot, how's that small thing too long??

OriginalKogiboy:
too long to b read

That means you have low iq

If you use this IQ thing and enter business, you will see an Anambra boy with an assumed low IQ beating you hands down in business.

Boost your mental and cognitive performance and reasoning.
Task your brain! Make it work!

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It is measured by the degree of support you give to a Dullard we have in Aso

Just go watch LUCY u will understand properly .... Morgan Freeman is the professor in the movie.

OriginalKogiboy:
too long to b read

You have a low IQ

Congrats dumbass

Help me calculate the IQ of PMB

I've BEEN trying to calculate it, all i'm seeing is 0.027..i want to be sure if i'm correct

I don't know how to measure the IQ but I believe all these Relgious people in Nigeria all have low IQ

STUPÌD EQUATION BY AN ALBINO DEAD FOOL.


HOW CAN ONE MEASURE THE SO-CALLED MENTAL AGE?


RUBBISH

.

too early to be reading long story Abeg....rain don fall for Lagos

Intelligent quotation cannot guarantee success in life

it only means the person is intelligent, but we all know that we make our most significant decisions under pressure

Therefore, I believe emotional intelligence is more important to people's success in life.

Emotional intelligence or Emotional quotation can be described as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically

What is buahri IQ?


10/75*100 = 13%

A child with high IQ can be known when he or she is newly given birth to. Educationist believes that a new baby with high IQ would know where the breast is even before the mother introduces her to it. Such child would be a genius

K

When you look through comments on nairaland, you begin to wonder how low IQ of many on this forum could be. No pun intended, just raising an observation.

what is Dangote IQ.

If you re not talking money u re talking pooshit.

An average 10year old can read storybooks of about 50pages. And our mamas and papas here will tell you that a post of just about 200 words is too long to read.
Someone should help calculate their IQ.

Pope22:
What is buahri IQ?


10/75*100 = 13%

IQ IS NOT IN PERCENTAGE,YOUR PUTTING OF PERCENTAGE COULD BE A WAY OF TELLING US YOUR'S ISN'T FAR FROM THE NUMBER OF YEARS HE HAS USED IN OFFICE

Interesting topic