Intelligence Quotient - IQ

Intelligence is the most overrated, used and abused word despite the fact that there are very few who actually understand the meaning of intelligence and the yardstick to measure it. There are some of us who know about IQ or Intelligence Quotient though, which is a method to test intelligence.

Intelligence is the capability of the mind to handle new situations since we do not face the same learned situations all the time. The mind has to understand the problem and know the solving techniques to cope with it and also has to keep it in mind for future reference.

There are various tests that can measure intelligence levels but the first person, who suggested something like an IQ test was Albert Binet who was a French psychologist. He suggested this test so that the weak students can be identified and can be provided with special assistance.

William Stern, a German psychologist who was the one to use to the term 'IQ' that is a translation of German "Intelligenz Quotient", further developed Binet's idea.

Then came David Wechsler who devised an Intelligence test for the adult population. His test included separate tests for assessing verbal and performance based IQ. The results of an IQ test are generally represented with the help of a Gaussian Curve.

It is often said that people with high IQ levels are generally successful and earn more money and fame compared to others and also do not fall in trouble very often but is it really true?

It is often seen that IQ tests assess some part of the brain, which is to an extent a storehouse of learned facts and figures, but general intelligence is not about facts and figures that are to be learned. It is all about common sense that has got nothing to with academic knowledge.

There are certain factors on which depends the intelligence of an individual which are environment which effects in the long run, and heritability, which is the foundation of how, an individual starts adjusting to the environment. Prenatal environment also affects the intelligence of the child, which involves maturity, and intelligence level of the mother.

IQ can be tested in various ways which can include either one or more than one question. There is an overall score that is generated foe each kind of test and the IQ of an individual can be found with the help of that.

It basically has questions, which has to be solved in a set time, and IQ tests measure verbal knowledge, spatial visualization, short time memory and speed of perception. The score is calculated by calculating the mean score of all the subtests. These tests fail to measure very low or very high intelligence but successfully measure average intelligence.