Wednesday, October 11, 2017

IQ TESTS FOR HUMANS, DOGS, AND PRESIDENTS


Since IQ is suddenly so interesting as a basis of comparison, the public needs some background.



1.  IQ is a statistics game that builds a bell curve.  Then it’s used to predict something that was standardized by data from a survey of a population, usually young college males because the people who build the bell curves are academic and that’s who they standardize everything on, since they’re at hand.

2.  The bell curve will be different for different groups.  In the Sixties I always mentally added ten to twenty points to the IQ scores I saw on the rez students.  Women, different ethnic groups, different income groups, and so on will not fit the statistics.

3.  The IQ produced might or might not mean success in life, depending on what kind of job, what general economic conditions are, and what kind of personality the person has.  (There’s a whole additional bell curve system about what psych qualities will make you succeed.)  Success is defined in terms of how much money the person makes in a lifetime.  (Not all wealth is money — could be land, could be respect.)

This list is off Wikipedia — an overview of some of the various IQ tests there are.  Some ask for reading, some do not.  Some add dexterity, some do not.  These are only the English IQ tests.  

“There are a variety of individually administered IQ tests in use in the English-speaking world. The most commonly used individual IQ test series is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale for adults and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children for school-age test-takers. Other commonly used individual IQ tests (some of which do not label their standard scores as "IQ" scores) include the current versions of the Stanford-Binet, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, the Cognitive Assessment System, and the Differential Ability Scales.

IQ tests that measure intelligence also include:

At some point in past controversies, someone wanted to know if Lassie could pass an IQ test and what her score would be.  People set about devising tests of canine intelligence and decided Lassie was about as smart as a human toddler.  

There are quite a few IQ tests for dogs.   For instance, https://www.wikihow.com/Test-a-Dog%27s-Intelligence  When I was education coordinator for Multnomah County Animal Control, I tried a few of them on the shelter dogs.  Generally agreed and confirmed is that poodles are at the top of the dog bell curve and cocker spaniels are outliers at the low end.  Dogs approved by the AKC are stupid, but working dogs are smart.  Duh.


If Trump asks for an IQ test, téte a téte, it might be best to use one of the dog tests.  You’ll need a towel and some other props, like a favorite treat. ("The most beautiful chocolate cake you ever saw.")  No need to supply a fiber tip pen for writing in a fancy leather case.  These are nonverbal tests.

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