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Explanation of IQ Tests
The modern, systematic study of human intelligence began at the turn of the century with Alfred Binet's attempt to devise a test that could identify slow learners in the Paris Public School system. Today, the uses of intelligence tests (also known as IQ tests) serve a diversity of needs ranging from the prediction of academic success to the diagnosis of neurological and emotional illness.
While the best IQ tests are quite sophisticated and are based upon sound scientific principles, the question of what actually constitutes intelligence has never been fully resolved. Most experts would argue that, to some degree, intelligence is defined in terms of those abilities and capacities which are valued by the society. An agrarian society would value a person's ability to produce food, while a maritime culture might esteem the innovative or resourceful fisherman.
In our society, we place particular emphasis on a variety of verbal, quantitative, and motoric skills--especially those which emphasize logic, reasoning, and abstraction abilities. We typically refer to those who possess a good vocabulary, rapid problem solving skills, and solid analytic and memory abilities as having a high degree of intelligence.
Standard IQ tests attempt to sample a rather large number of intellectual functions. Each one of these samplings is called a subtest. The final IQ score is an average of the subtest scores. Consequently, a person may score very high on some subtests and quite poorly on others while still receiving an average overall score. This is one reason that a simple IQ score can paint a very misleading picture of the person's true intellectual functioning.
Another limitation of IQ tests involves the things that they frequently do not measure. For example, musical ability and the capacity for novel and creative problem solving are areas which are not covered in many IQ tests. It is generally true however, that very creative people tend to score well on standard measures of intelligence. Nevertheless, there are always exceptions and sometimes specialized tests are needed to assess specific capacities in certain individuals.
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