How does IQ test actually work?
In: Biology
Source: I’ve actually taken an IQ test.
Functionally, you’re asked to perform a variety of tasks that test various abilities: general knowledge (through questions), hand-to-eye coordination, short and long-term memory, language…among other things. There were generally two tests per area..
One test I remember involved the examiner giving you two words,at which point you were asked to point out the commonalities between both of them (eg ‘blue’ and ‘red’ are both colors).
An IQ test takes about 1-2 hours to complete; AFAIK your results are used to compute a score for each tested ability, which are then used to find an overall IQ score.
One thing I will point out: as a society we’ve grown to see IQ tests as not much more than a tool used for gloating, as a way to measure intelligence in some for or another. The reality is that IQ tests are important medical tools which can be used to find out and quantify developmental issues in people: “intelligence” may be a debatable concept, short term memory is not.
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