IQ score!

[Cain]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

The Flynn effect is the name given to a substantial and long-sustained increase in intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world. When intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are initially standardized using a sample of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100 and their standard deviation is set to 15 IQ points. When IQ tests are revised they are again standardized using a new sample of test-takers, usually born more recently than the first. Again, the average result is set to 100. However, when the new test subjects take the older tests, in almost every case their average scores are significantly above 100.

Test score increases have been continuous and approximately linear from the earliest years of testing to the present. For the Raven's Progressive Matrices test, subjects born over a 100 year period were compared in Des Moines, Iowa, and separately in Dumfries, Scotland. Improvements were remarkably consistent across the whole period, in both countries.[1] This effect of an apparent increase in IQ has also been observed in various other parts of the world, though the rates of increase vary.[2]

[rong]

Also consider the following example:

Take a 5 person subgroup who's iqs are as follows:90,90,90,90,40

The average iq of the group is 80. And 4 out of 5 are above average.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

My chicken potatoes all, without fail, score absurdly high in the math portion of standardized tests. By "absurdly" I mean "What the shit, are you fucking shitting me?" They are supposed to be total fucking geniuses, the wet dreams of the "No child left behind" act.

They all dislike math and will do anything to avoid it. Getting them to score a passing grade in math requires a combination of coercion, bribery, and threats of dire harm. Plus, turning in late assignments after the term ends.

These tests don't, in real life terms, mean a fucking thing. They were once probably useful, as Cain was saying, for identifying mentally handicapped children, but my opinion is that in general, they're useless.

[Reginald Ret]

My chicken potatoes all, without fail, score absurdly high in the math portion of standardized tests. By "absurdly" I mean "What the shit, are you fucking shitting me?" They are supposed to be total fucking geniuses, the wet dreams of the "No child left behind" act.

They all dislike math and will do anything to avoid it. Getting them to score a passing grade in math requires a combination of coercion, bribery, and threats of dire harm. Plus, turning in late assignments after the term ends.

These tests don't, in real life terms, mean a fucking thing. They were once probably useful, as Cain was saying, for identifying mentally handicapped children, but my opinion is that in general, they're useless.

It took me a while to realize you were talking about humans, and not potatoes.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I regularly have to endure smart people acting stupid.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I regularly have to endure smart people acting stupid.

It's kind of what people do.

Until our impulses catch up with our intelligence, we're essentially self-destructive giant toddlers. Crossed with squirrels.

[rong]

Maybe they are trying to fit in?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I agree nigel. I figured it put that spin on rongs last sentence. The fact is people are fucking smart. Anyone can learn and make intwresting discoveries regardless of their relative intelligence. I figure rong is a fairly intelligent bloke though he is reminding me of a college freshman tonight.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Do you think that iq scores could be artificially inflated (or deflated) so as to influence the population?

Cuz either I'm a dummy or everyone else is.

IQ has precisely jack and shit to do with intelligence.  It's a measure of perception at best, but is more commonly used to milk rich parents of their moolah by "testing" their children and then telling them that little Trevor is a borderline genius.

Fact:  There are thousands of 25 year old drones in Tucson, and every one of them says they have a 4 digit IQ.  If IQ was any measure of intelligence, I'd think at least one of them would have a full time job or more ambition than, say, spending the next 6 years playing Wii bowling.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Do you think that iq scores could be artificially inflated (or deflated) so as to influence the population?

Cuz either I'm a dummy or everyone else is.

IQ has precisely jack and shit to do with intelligence.  It's a measure of perception at best, but is more commonly used to milk rich parents of their moolah by "testing" their children and then telling them that little Trevor is a borderline genius.

Fact:  There are thousands of 25 year old drones in Tucson, and every one of them says they have a 4 digit IQ.  If IQ was any measure of intelligence, I'd think at least one of them would have a full time job or more ambition than, say, spending the next 6 years playing Wii bowling.

It's actually a fairly accurate measure of one thing, and that is pattern-matching. However, it has one huge limitation, which is that it cannot measure the aptitude of people who see patterns that the makers of the test did not predict; therefore it cannot measure creative problem-solving. It is arguable that no test ever designed can measure an unpredictable intelligence.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

By "unpredictable" I mean "A type of intelligence which finds previously unorthodox, yet describable, and once described, predictable patterns".

I think that this is one of the reasons that each successive generation of IQ tester tests (on average) higher than average on previous IQ tests. Human intelligence IS evolving by assimilating previously undescribed pattern recognition, and the only thing IQ tests are capable of testing for is recognition of previously described patterns.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I also find it fascinating that over a certain threshold, IQ tests become a negative predictor of material and interpersonal success.

[Reginald Ret]

I also find it fascinating that over a certain threshold, IQ tests become a negative predictor of material and interpersonal success.

It is fascinating.
One possible explanation is that being too different makes you grow up lonely and that is not good for a developing personality.

[Cain]

I regularly have to endure smart people acting stupid.

I find the other way around to be equally insufferable.  Of course, in that case, the word "acting" is the critical one.

[Payne]

I consistantly score 145 in IQ tests, from proper ones to shitty "Test the Nation" TV shows.

It has not made my dick any bigger