Reliability of I.Q. test

Ursa major said:
I have no idea what the questions were** (though the score was out of 30), but my father had to do a test to assess his cognitive abilities. He scored, I believe, 6***, thus placing his Alzheimer's in the worst of the three categories. (My mother said that he was almost crying when he heard how badly he'd done. (He wasn't the sort of person who ever shed a tear; it wasn't until much later in the progress of his condition that I first saw him (silently) weeping, and that was when he was well into his 80s.)

Now I'm not sure how useful the measure I'm about to use is for the rest of you, but my father was, before his condition set in, more clever than I am (and more diligent in applying it), so I can see why he was so upset by "failing" the test (as he saw it).

** - I've heard that one of the questions in the UK is the name of whoever is the current UK PM... but whether or not that's more than just a rumour, I don't know.

*** - It may have been 4. (My memory isn't what it used to be.... :eek: )
Click to expand...

Well, I hope you realize I wasn't making sport of the tremendous number of people who suffer cognitive decline, but of my own IQ (and as hinted at in a reply, someone else we all might have heard of).

What you bring up is I think the crux of it in such a situation...one ALL of us I bet will experience. It's bad enough to recognize the loss of what once made the world so clear to us, but the frustration it brings in our daily lives. That frustration, IMO is the worst part.

Many of us use reading glasses now that we're older. For those that do (and don't have them integrated into constantly worn eye wear), you might recognize the frustration of attempting to perform the simplest of tasks you have a thousand times before...but now before you can perform this 5-second task, you have to stop and find your readers. So, physical limitations will vaguely hint at that frustration.

More to the point, as I mentioned in another thread, now that my knowledge is expanding on how to tell the stories I want, I find my chiseled in stone memory eroding--which was something that helped me to cope much of my life. I might not have had an education, but I could recall what I had seen or heard in exacting detail. Well, that's fading fast and is all but gone. In addition, after working so hard to build an extensive vocabulary (as an example), I'm finding that much of what I learned, I'm of late beginning to forget rapidly.

I believe...the reason is oxygen deprivation due to respiratory issues which I refuse to compensate for--recognizing on difficult breathing days I cannot think clearly--but, there is nothing I'm willing to do to change it. So, just as what I finally hoped to accomplish--to simply accomplish something--is within my grasp, I find it slipping away faster than I can do what I want/need.

That frustration I suspect is extremely minor compared to what someone like your father feels. And yet, my petty self-inflicted decline feels crushing.

So, though 'I don't know,' that frustration I suspect is what hurts folks most.

My prayers he can find ways to work around his difficulties.

K2
 
Last edited:
-K2- said:
Well, I hope you realize I wasn't making sport of the tremendous number of people who suffer cognitive decline
Click to expand...
It never crossed my mind that you were making sport of anyone, least of all the people you mention. :)

-K2- said:
My prayers he can find ways to work around his difficulties.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, but my father died over a decade ago, so his suffering is well and truly over. :)
 
I forget where I saw it, but I recently saw an interesting video on youtube talking about those butterfly images and the personality tests that people use them with. You know the "tell me what you see" patterns.

Interestingly it was apparently a very accurate test for diagnosis of some mental disorders/conditions/learning difficulties which proved to be more accurate than a few other tests. The problem was once the idea of the concept took root people started using the tests for all kinds of things way outside of its original design. With a lot more people using them in a more casual way and incorrectly the actual validity of the test diminished greatly. I believe the end of the video was that there was a professional end, steady move back to the original core research and approach.


I wonder if IQ tests are broadly the same. That behind all the special needs teachers at school and the classifications schools and such like to use them for; if there isn't quite a valid testing system. Just one that's being used outside of its original intention and with people who might not be best trained to make judgement calls on the results. Or with systems designed to produce reliable conclusions without the bias of the person administering the test - ergo its a numbers game which removes the person assessing the test from the conclusion of the results; which might well work for a national program, but might result in less accurate results.



In the end its clear that if you start doing that kind of test and that kind of thinking you can "boost your intelligence". I believe that "Dr. Kawishama (sp) Brain Training" game is the same sort of thing. You do the same types of study in that game and by doing it over and over your score improves. However its not proven to be making you smarter, its just keeping your mind active within a certain selection of topics.
 
I was tested about eleven years ago and scored an IQ of 100. Five years ago, I was tested again, this time revealing my IQ to be 122. It probably helped that I started taking anti-seizure and antipsychotic medications. My spatial intelligence in particular has grown quite a bit. I still have problems with memory, motor skills, and mental flexibility, though.
 
Last edited:
The one thing I'm sure of;
Is the moment someone spouts their I.Q. as proof of their expertise, intelligence, and knowledge...
They've just told me to not take as gospel, anything they might say.

K2
 
The Judge said:
That was certainly a question my father was asked when we first took him to the GP as we were worried about his failing memory, but that was a rather rough and ready thing and it's not part of the tests the specialists carry out as far as I'm aware.
Click to expand...

In the hospitals around here, if you are taken in an ambulance or if you are waking up from an operation—anytime, I think, the doctors are concerned whether you are actually lucid—they ask three questions: "What is your name?" "Do you know where you are?" "Who is our current president?"

So usually I just reel off the right answers. But one time, several years ago, I had to think about the last one for several seconds before I answered; I was still a bit woozy from ... whatever it was I was there for. Finally, I said, "Is it Bush?"

"That's right," said the doctor.

But what he didn't know was that I was thinking of the wrong Bush when I said it—something which didn't occur to me until some time later.

Which I suppose goes to show that even the simplest seeming test isn't infallible.
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
In the hospitals around here, if you are taken in an ambulance or if you are waking up from an operation—anytime, I think, the doctors are concerned whether you are actually lucid—they ask three questions: "What is your name?" "Do you know where you are?" "Who is our current president?"

So usually I just reel off the right answers. But one time, several years ago, I had to think about the last one for several seconds before I answered; I was still a bit woozy from ... whatever it was I was there for. Finally, I said, "Is it Bush?"

"That's right," said the doctor.

But what he didn't know was that I was thinking of the wrong Bush when I said it—something which didn't occur to me until some time later.

Which I suppose goes to show that even the simplest seeming test isn't infallible.
Click to expand...

I'm just glad I've not had surgery over the past couple years;
"K2, hospital," *begins inconsolably sobbing before launching into a tirade of profanities*

Yep, they'd of locked me up in the padded room for sure :cautious:

K2
 
Heh. I just had surgery last week. I spent the first several hours upon waking from anesthesia, convinced there was a raccoon infestation in the recovery room. Raccoons were getting into the supplies and making such a mess, and I kept telling the staff about them.

I'm glad no one was judging me by my mental acuity at the time. :LOL:
 
IQ tests are hardly worth the paper (screen?) they are printed on. I've scored from 107 -145. In my opinion I have a B- brain. Maybe a touch above average, but nowhere near as strong as a lot of people I know. Brain power is far, far, less important than how you use what you've got.
 
I test in the lower 140s. Now, I live inside my head side by side with my brain, and I can tell from daily observation it ain't that smart.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
L (Probably Found) 1990s/early 2000s story about (ultimately erroneous) biological differences between Catholics/Protestants/ alternate history Book Search 6
M The pitfalls of DNA testing whether for medical or ancestry reasons Science & Nature 0
T Ancient 3,500-year-old Mycenaean armor tested History 4
msstice A/B testing a chapter Writing Discussion 2
Jo Zebedee Unreliability Writing Discussion 15

Similar threads


Back
Top