re: #154 Naso Tang

I don’t understand that, coming in late here.

It measures the ability to solve problems of certain types, relevant to western society. Certainly one could have an “IQ” test designed for a hunter gatherer society and all of us here would fail miserably, but that doesn’t mean the normal measurement concept is irrelevant to us.

Some societies/cultures do not teach that measured process as we do, and that would mean that they score lower and are less well equipped, on the whole, to function in the society the IQ test was designed for.

However having said that, it is worth remembering that by definition the median IQ is 100, meaning that 50% are “smarter” than the other 50% and if another group’s median is a few point lower than another, it still means that some 40+% of their group will be smarter than 50% of the base group.

Some truth there, but in the end, we still don’t know what exactly IQ measures. There are some who say IQ measures problem solving but that is not gospel. People can test low and yet be very successful and Mensa is full of postal clerks.

If an IQ type test were to be proposed today it would be roundly rejected (both Wechsler and Stanford Benet) because of vagueness and lack of clarity in real world interpretation

The MMPI is a far more interesting test and worthy of discussion.

And on that happy note, I bid you all adieu.

Later.