The highest IQ level is for an Australian mathematician, the author of the Green-Tao theorem, his name is Terence Tao. Getting results above 200 points is a very rare occurrence, because most of the inhabitants of our planet barely score 100 points. People with extremely high IQs (over 150) can be found among Nobel laureates. It is these people who move science forward and make discoveries in various professional fields. Among them are the American writer Marilyn vos Savant, astrophysicist Christopher Hirata, phenomenal reader Kim Pik, who can read a page of text in a few seconds, Briton Daniel Tammet, who memorizes thousands of numbers, Kim Ung-Yong, who already studied at the university at the age of 3, and other famous personalities with amazing abilities.
How is a person's IQ formed?
IQ level is influenced by several factors, including heredity, environment (family, school, social status of a person). The test result is also significantly influenced by the age of the test taker. At the age of 26, as a rule, a person’s intelligence reaches its peak, and then only declines.
It is worth noting that some people with exceptionally high IQs found themselves completely helpless in everyday life. For example, Kim Pik could not fasten the buttons on his clothes. Moreover, not everyone had such talent from birth. Daniel Tammet gained his ability to remember huge numbers of numbers after a terrible attack of epilepsy as a child.
Decoding IQ levels
| IQ | Short description |
| 141 and above | Only 0.2% of humanity falls into this category. They are the engines of scientific and technological progress and the creators of masterpieces of art that are admired by the whole world. Among them are Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Paul Allen, Garry Kasparov, Albert Einstein, Arnold Schwarzenegger. |
| 131-140 | These test results show about 2.5% of people. A person with this level of mental ability achieves significant success in his chosen field. |
| 121-130 | Only six percent of the population has such an IQ. They successfully graduate from college (most often more than one) and build a career, reaching significant heights. |
| 111-120 | No more than 12% of humanity can boast of this level of IQ. These people have a great thirst for knowledge, ability to work and determination. |
| 91-110 | About half of the world's population has just such indicators. Typically, people with this level of IQ graduate from universities and build a career to the level of middle manager or specialist. |
| 81-90 | Low level of intellectual abilities. Such people most often work in areas where physical rather than mental labor is used. |
| 71-80 | A borderline form of mental retardation, in which a child can study both in a regular educational institution and in a special school. |
| 51-70 | With this level of IQ, the child is able to study in a specialized educational institution. In adulthood, such people are capable and almost completely integrate into society. |
| 20-50 | People with this IQ suffer from moderate mental retardation. They cannot study, but they are able to take care of themselves. Most often they live with guardians. |
| Below 20 | Intellectual development below 20 points on the IQ scale indicates severe mental retardation. Such people are unable to learn and cannot take care of themselves. |
Some features of passing the test
The standard Eysenck test includes 40 tasks, which take 30 minutes to solve. To complete them, a person must:
- have the ability to perform mathematical operations;
- have a large vocabulary and perfect command of spoken language;
- have logical thinking;
- be observant;
- be able to highlight the main thing;
- have a good memory;
- be diligent and be able to concentrate.
Most problems are quite simple and their solution does not take much time. However, if during testing any question caused difficulty, you need to quickly decide whether it is worth wasting time on it. To reduce the number of incorrect answers, you need to read the task carefully and thoughtfully.
Before you start taking the test, you should make sure that:
- you are not sick;
- you are in a good mood;
- nothing disturbs or distracts you;
- you are in no hurry;
- you are not hungry and did not overeat at your last meal;
- you don't feel hot or cold.
The essence of the technique
During the testing process, the test taker must solve as many tasks as possible in arithmetic, logic, and spatial thinking. Most tasks have answer options from which you must choose the correct one. In some tasks the answer must be written in words.
The tasks require you to establish numerical or letter patterns, identify common parts of words, and select the missing geometric figure. The tasks are divided into blocks. Towards the end of each block, the tasks become more difficult. The more correct answers a person manages to give in the allotted time, the more points he gains.
Age characteristics
Intelligence testing should be carried out no more than 2 times in a lifetime. The first time is at the age of 10-12 years, when the child has acquired a sufficient amount of knowledge for testing, and in adulthood, when mental abilities have reached the peak of their development. A person’s IQ is calculated by the ratio of their mental development score (in points) to their age, multiplied by 100.
general information
The abbreviation IQ stands for intelligence quotient, which can be translated as “amount of intelligence.” In the Russian-speaking language environment, the established expression “intelligence quotient” is more often used.
However, it is believed that in order for the results to be as truthful as possible and really be trusted, it is worth taking into account not only the results of the test itself. Other factors such as age and gender need to be taken into account.
Many also believe that the results of this test are more likely to indicate a person's aptitude for a particular type of task, rather than actual intellectual ability. Therefore, you can prepare for it by solving problems that resemble those presented in the tasks.
Why an IQ test is not an indicator of intelligence
IQ tests were widely used until the end of the twentieth century. This, first of all, simplified the selection process and made it possible to evaluate a person quickly and “scientifically.” But how objective?
If you analyze the history of intelligence research and the creation of IQ tests, you will notice that the desire to control people runs through it as a red thread.
Such tests allegedly decided who you were and how much knowledge you could acquire, whether you were worthy of applying it in practice, and whether you were suitable for procreation. An IQ test is like a burned-out brand indicating your place.
But what if you still try to look at “subject no...” as a real person? You can find a master of words with a lively mind, an artist with a boundless imagination, a C-level millionaire with unconventional thinking. And all of them can fail the IQ test, finding themselves below the line of imaginary intelligence.
Brief historical background
The term “intelligence quotient” was first coined in 1912 by the German psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Stern. It was he who put forward the proposal to use the results of dividing a person’s mental age by chronological age as the main indicator of intellectual development. Four years later, in 1916, IQ was used for the first time in the Stanford-Benet intelligence scale.
Over time, people's interest in IQ tests became stronger, which led to the emergence of a huge number of various scales, among which there are often unsubstantiated ones. Based on this, today it is quite problematic to compare the results of different tests. But, despite the fact that the IQ indicator itself has begun to lose its value, a huge number of people around the world continue to take all kinds of tests to determine the level of their intellectual development.
Who, when and why began to measure the mind
The first to evaluate and divide people into “mentally gifted and deprived” was Francis Galton . His ideas were innovative and radical - Galton denied natural equality between people. He believed that intelligence and talent are hereditary and not acquired characteristics of a person.
Back in the 19th century, the researcher created the first “intellectual questionnaire” and soon founded his own doctrine - eugenics. It involved improving the gene pool through control by the authorities. Galton described a model of a utopian state where the population was examined - their physical and mental qualities were assessed. Those who did not “pass” were considered unfit for reproduction. If such people adhered to the ban, they were supported by the state, but if they violated it, forced emigration awaited them.
But the questionnaire presented by Galton bore little resemblance to modern IQ tests. The psychologist studied the mind and body with equal interest, looking for the connection between them. He believed that the foundation of mental data is developed sensory abilities: fine hearing, acute vision, color perception. Galton measured them. In addition, he recorded height, weight, head circumference, and also tested muscle strength, associative abilities and the ability to form judgments.
Galton measured the “mental potential” of 9 thousand people and came to the conclusion: the test results of the “intellectual elite” (scientists, judges, writers) were little superior to the data of ordinary people who were not outstanding in any way.
This is how human abilities began to be assessed more than 150 years ago.
How to increase your intelligence level
IQ tests determine which thinking is most developed: mathematical, verbal, logical, figurative. And by which of them is less developed, you can determine the direction in which you should improve.
The following methods will help raise your personal intellectual level:
- solving logical problems;
- playing chess, poker and other intellectual games;
- solving crossword puzzles;
- reading fiction books;
- study of exact sciences;
- mastering foreign languages.
Main influencing factors
The human mind is quite difficult to define and measure. Intelligence is a combination of knowledge, skills and abilities that accumulate throughout a person's life. Our intelligence is based on several important factors that influence its coefficient:
- genetics;
- feeding habits of a child in the first years of life;
- education and mental stimulation of the child’s mental activity by parents;
- order of birth of children in the family;
- environment.
All this, to one degree or another, affects the mental development of the child.
Genetics
Scientists have long begun to explore the question of how much the level of intelligence IQ depends on genes. For more than a century, studies have been conducted on the influence of genes on mental abilities, which have shown that the percentage of dependence is in the range of 40-80%.
The level of intelligence in a person depends on the structure of the brain and its functionality. These two factors are key. Differences in the parietal-frontal parts of the brain of different people indicate different levels of their IQ. The higher the level of functionality of the frontal areas of the brain, the better it can work: perceive and remember information, solve various problems.
Genetic factors represent the potential that is passed on from parents to the child. They are little studied, but have an important function for the development of mental abilities.
Chromosomal abnormalities that are inherited also affect the level of intelligence. For example, Down's disease, which is characterized by poor mental development of the child. Quite often it occurs in children whose parents belong to the older age group.
Read also: How to make multiple backgrounds for an element
Illnesses during pregnancy also affect the baby's mind. For example, rubella, which an expectant mother suffers from, can lead to negative consequences for the baby: loss of hearing, vision, low level of intelligence.
Influence of nutrition
The level of intelligence depends on what exactly we eat in the first years of life, and what the expectant mother ate during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Proper and nutritious nutrition has a positive effect on brain development. The more nutrients, vitamins and microelements the child consumes through the mother and the next few years after birth, the larger the size of the cerebral velum will be. It is responsible for learning and memory.
Consumption of large amounts of fatty acids has a positive effect. Scientists have conducted studies that have proven that if a woman consumes a lot of fatty acids during pregnancy, then children will be significantly ahead of others in their development.
Upbringing
Education is one of the key factors in the development of mental abilities. Even if a person is by nature genetically predisposed to a high IQ level, due to the lack of proper upbringing and quality education, the coefficient will not be higher than average.
How are IQ tests developed and what scores are considered normal?
There are no uniform standards for the development of tests to determine IQ, but all tests are divided by age categories. Therefore, the same IQ indicator for a child and a student does not mean that the student is stupid and the child is smart. After all, they have different age categories of tests.
The authors of the tests also write instructions for them, which explain how to pass them. These instructions are needed to minimize error. The tests include tasks on reasoning, memory, logic, and acquired knowledge. The average score is considered to be 100: tests are designed in such a way that the majority of results correspond to this indicator. The results of the test takers are then compared with this average result.
It turns out that the average IQ test score is the level of most people. Therefore, an average level of intelligence is just normal. There are deviations from the average level in the results, because this can be influenced by many reasons: excitement, fatigue, haste. Only scores less than 70 points can be considered a sign of mental retardation. A high level of intelligence with a score above 130 points is found in 2.2% of people – this data is provided by researcher Stuart Ritchie in his book “Intelligence: Everything That Matters.” At the same time, 68.2% of those tested correspond to the average level.
Source: book Intelligence: All that Matters
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What affects IQ?
In fact, several factors influence a person's IQ - heredity and environment. In addition, different indicators of this coefficient may vary among people of different social groups. Let's look at these questions in more detail.
Factor one - heredity
Various studies in this area have shown that the difference in IQ is directly related to genetic factors. Moreover, the development of intelligence is influenced not by any one gene or group of genes, but by the genetic fund, in general, which is approximately 17 thousand genes.
Currently, this issue has not yet been sufficiently studied, but scientists around the world are conducting all kinds of research to understand what the genetic differences are between people with different levels of intelligence. If genetically determined causes affecting intelligence are found, it will be possible to create means designed to increase IQ.
Factor two – environment
The environment, and to be more precise, the family, has a huge impact on the development of a person’s intelligence, in particular a child’s. Scientists have been able to identify the dependence of the development of intelligence on factors such as methods of upbringing, microclimate in the family, financial situation, standard of living and even the size of the house in which the family lives. However, as the child grows up, this dependence disappears, and by the time he reaches adulthood, it may disappear completely. It is also important that due to genetic characteristics, different children, even in the same family, can react to the same factors differently.
Summarizing these two points, it can be noted that the IQ of adults is largely determined by genetic factors and not by the environment, as is observed in children.
What the scores don't tell you
I would like to emphasize that the result obtained during an intelligence test is not an absolutely objective assessment of a person’s mental abilities. Not a single technique has yet learned to take into account all individual factors that can influence the final value.
Let's remember the famous autistic genius Kim Peake, whose IQ was only 87 points. At the same time, he knew how to read from the age of one and a half years old and already at the age of 7 he knew the Bible by heart, invented a speed reading technique and could cover a book spread in 8 seconds.
IQ does not reflect:
- level of erudition,
- professionalism,
- education,
- determination,
- hard work,
- determination,
- talent,
- public value,
- efficiency,
- life wisdom
- moral stability,
- sense of humor, etc.
How is it measured?
There are many different tests to measure IQ levels. All of them are publicly available on the Internet. A little later I will provide a link to one of them.
There are two options for intelligence testing:
- for children 10–12 years old;
- for adults and children over 12 years old.
The average duration of the passage is 30 minutes. The number of questions and tasks can vary from 30 to 100.
Typically, testing consists of two parts:
- Methodical. It was developed by reputable experts and published in relevant publications. Includes a list of questions and a scale with explanations.
- Software. It is compiled based on the chosen methodology, but has a different logic and design from others.
The scoring system is the same everywhere, but due to certain local differences, test results may differ by 10–15 points.
Group differences in IQ
Group differences in IQ include a person's gender, race, and country of residence.
Floor
The overwhelming number of scientists are of the opinion that the IQ of men and women is approximately the same. But, along with this, among men there are a larger number of people with either very high or very low IQ scores. Also, men and women express different aspects of intelligence to varying degrees. For example, starting from the age of five, girls begin to actively develop verbal abilities, while boys surpass girls in manipulation and spatial thinking.
Country of Residence
Among other differences, the researchers were able to find differences in IQ between people living in different countries. Moreover, some studies have shown that the average IQ of a country depends on the indicators of its gross domestic product, birth rate, crime, democracy and religiosity. Certain environmental factors, illnesses and poor nutrition also have a negative impact on IQ.
