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IQ is a
'psychometric' test, meaning it measures mental ability. There are
many schools of thought which define intelligence. One of them
believes in an inherited, genetically determined intellect that can
be measured.
The idea of a
single entity 'intelligence' is adopted by the concept of 'General
Intelligence', or 'g'. Devised by English Psychologist, Charles
Spearman, in the early 20th Century 'g' was a statistical measure of
performance across a variety of tests. Spearman found that the same
people who did well in a variety of mental tests tended to use a
part in their brains that he termed 'g'. This 'g' laid the
foundation for the notion of a single intelligence, which enables us
to undertake everyday mental tasks.
Although all test scores are
generally known as intelligence quotients, or IQ's the various tests
can be constructed quite differently. The Stanford-Binet is heavily
weighted with items testing verbal activities, while the Wechler
scales consist of two separate verbal and performace sub scales,
each with its own IQ. The Cattell also has separate tests: of verbal
and spatial abilities, with separate IQ ratings.
This IQ test measures three different types of
mental ability verbal, mathematical and spatial and it is designed to
measure General Intelligence or 'g'.
Verbal
It is said that to have a mastery of
words is to have in one's possession the ability to produce order out of
chaos and that command of vocabulary is a true measure of
intelligence.
Mathematics
We all require some numerical skills in
our lives, whether it is to calculate our weekly shopping bill or to
budget how to use our monthly income. Flexibility of thought and lateral
thinking processes are a few skills which are needed in order to solve
these problems. You must quickly allow your mind to run through all the
possible reasons and explore as many different avenues that you can
think of.
Spatial
Because word tests to a great extent
rely on word knowledge, critics argue that results of such tests show an
unfair cultural bias. Because of this there is today a swing towards
diagrammatic tests where logic is more important than word logic. Such
tests are capable of testing raw intelligence without the influence of
prior knowledge and include a large proportion of spatial questions. The
definition of 'spatial' is 'pertaining to space' and 'spatial abilities'
means the perceptual and cognitive abilities that enable a person to
deal with spatial relations, in other words the visualization and
orientation of objects in space. At a first glance, such tests may
appear daunting but the trick is not to give up too quickly. Often a
second look at the problem will reveal a different approach, and a
solution will appear because the brain has been given the opportunity to
process further information.
Begin
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