Introduction
Suppose many people were measured on a wide variety of tasks with one thing in common: they all require people to use their brains. Tasks such as:
- How well they can write or explain something, such as telling a friend about what they've been up to this week or about a movie they saw.
- Answering general knowledge questions, such as trivia night at the bar.
- Their ability to venture around a new place (such as a new suburb or mall) and be able to map it out well enough to navigate it.
- How well they performed at school
- Putting together furniture or legos.
- Doing mental math to calculate change.
- How quickly they adapt to new technologies, such as a new phone or a computer system at work.
- Their ability to use maps such as those at shopping malls or Google maps.
- Their ability to quickly solve difficult riddles or puzzles.
- How well they understand instructions.
What we would find is that, unsurprisingly, people would have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, some may be excellent writers but quickly get lost in a new place and vice-versa. However, on average, studies show that people's ability across all these different tasks will tend to be somewhat close together--they will correlate. To visualise what that means, consider the graph below. The grey, violin-shaped thing (first from the left) represents the person's average score across all the different tasks. The rest of the violins are any given person's scores across different tasks that need you to use your brain in some way:
As you can see, people can sometimes have wildly different strengths and weaknesses. However, on average, they tend to be somewhat close. Consider two extremes below; someone who scores really high and someone who scores really low:
So, there seems to be a general "mental fitness", or a general "mental ability" for any given person. Similarly, how fit and in shape someone is will tend to give them an advantage across a variety of athletic tasks.
It is this observed correlation across mental tasks that gave rise to the hypothesis of general intelligence. In scientific terms, it was called the general intelligence factor (g-factor, or just "g" for short) which is the overarching variable that is theorized to explain the positive correlations between a range of cognitive tasks. Whether or not such a thing as g really exists, what it really is, or what characteristics about the brain explain it, are still topics being researched today. Moreover, whether it is warranted to call this general mental ability "intelligence" is also up for debate. As we will touch on later on, there are many other factors about a person that could lead one to call them intelligent and are separate from g, such as rationality, emotional intelligence, empathy, intellectual curiosity, and creativity. We will briefly touch on tentative answers to all these questions later on, in the section "The Nature of G"
Now, intelligence quotient (IQ) scores can be thought of as something like our best estimation (to date) of people's g, as IQ scores are just one's average performance across a variety of tests. So, an IQ test--or at least a good IQ test--is really just many different tests. See the picture below representing different components of IQ measurement, with the specific subtests at the bottom.
Originally, the g-factor was broken into two major components that are related yet distinct: fluid and crystallised intelligence. While the two are strongly correlated, they are different enough to warrant their own separate categories.
Fluid intelligence, or g-fluid (Gf for short) is the deliberate but flexible control of attention to solve novel “on-the-spot” problems that cannot be performed automatically. That is, that cannot be solved by relying exclusively on any prior knowledge or experience, such as previously learned habits, schemas, and scripts.
Fluid reasoning is a multi-dimensional construct but its parts are unified in their purpose: solving unfamiliar problems. Moreover, fluid reasoning is most evident in abstract reasoning tasks. Think of someone who seems to just connect all the dots, figure things out, and is generally a good problem solver.
To see for yourself what fluid intelligence assesses and depends on, you can try out six different questions below. The answers will be at the bottom, right after the last question. Note that answers may seem obvious once you figure them out, but that's just the thing about Gf--it is the ability to figure out the answer without any aid or familiarity with the problem, even if it seems obvious in hindsight.
1. Which number should come next in the series 1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 ?
- 8
- 13
- 21
- 26
- 31
2. Choose the option that best fits the missing piece.
5. Choose the option that best fits the missing piece.
6. Choose the option that best fits the missing piece.
7. Use any of these symbols: +, –, ×, ÷, = to create a valid equation below:
8 __ 4 __ 4 __ 8 __ 2
Answers
- Option 3 (21)
- Option G
- Option A
- Option D
- Option 2
- Option 3
- 8 + 4 + 4 = 8 × 2
On the other hand, crystallised intelligence (or Gc for short) is one’s ability to comprehend, acquire, and effectively use knowledge, primarily in the form of language (verbal).
It includes the breadth and depth of knowledge, including:
- General knowledge
-Domain-specific knowledge e, domain-specific knowledge (about specific areas of interest, like films, sports, science, etc)
-procedural knowledge (knowing “how” to do things),
knowledge of the language, and concepts of one’s culture (such as social conventions, folklores, idioms, and proverbs), among other things. Central to Gc is one’s ability to comprehend both written and spoken language, and to write and speak fluently and articulately. Think of someone who is easy to talk to--they understand exactly what you say, can converse about and explain a wide variety of topics. Perhaps that person who just seems to find the word you're looking for and can put things better than others. The image of the 'sage' also greatly captures the essence of crystallised intelligence.
To try some Gc questions for yourself and see what it is like, you can try some questions below:
1. Which one of the five is least like the other four?
- Dog
- Mouse
- Lion
- Snake
- Elephant
2. Water is to a pipe as ___ is to a wire.
3. Which one of the following things is the least like the others?
Poem
Novel
Painting
Statue
Flower
4. (H _ R S T) means nearly the same as SMALL.
5. Geography IS TO Earth AS Astronomy IS TO
Sun
Scientists
Moon
Universe
Mars
6. North pole IS TO equator AS frigid IS TO
cool
soft
mild
torrid
7. son IS TO daughter AS fox IS TO
puppy
dog
wolf
vixen
8. hate IS TO rate AS love IS TO
baby
dove
dog
cat
biology IS TO medicine AS geology IS TO
astronomy
mining
fossils
maths
carbohydrates IS TO cornstarch AS protein IS TO
steak
fruit
sugar
vegetable
sand IS TO glass AS clay IS TO
stone
bricks
mud
dirt
Art is to wall as cup is to ___
A. Handle B. Coffee C. Cupboard D. Rim E. Nail.
Which one of the five choices makes the best comparison?
Finger is to Hand as Leaf is to:
Twig
Tree
Branch
Blossom
Bark
2. Choose the word most similar to "Trustworthy":
- Resolute
- Tenacity
- Relevant
- Insolent
- Reliable
9. Miguel found it impossible to ___ himself from his mangled car after the accident.
A) Defend
B) Dispose
C) Extricate
D) Complicate
3. What is the name of the ocean that is located between Africa and Australia?
6. What is the name of the liquid portion of the whole blood?
7. What is the name of the automobile instrument that measures mileage/distance?
8. What is the capital of Chile, Germany, China, and New Zeland?
NUANCE: Fewer/less; Many/much; Aggression/violence; Methodical/Set in ways(?)/envy/jealousy;
Atonym of qs
Synonym of qs
NEEDS PROFESSIONAL; RANGE OF ANSWERS THAT RANGE IN QUALITY.
How is a sunset and sunrise alike?
How are a cat and a dog alike?
4. Mould and mushrooms are both ____
5. Turtles and monitor lizards are both ___
Consider these:
Pigs
Deer
What is a famous monument located in the Northeastern African continent?
In your own words, define [A WORD, like indigeneous]
Grammar, spelling, syntax.
For listening, reading, writing and speaking, it is more difficult. Simply being able to explain or write in your own words what you took away from this article so far would be a measured of Gc. Similarly, being able to discuss, analyse, and write well about stories or movies, especially if you reference other relevant sources of information (e.g. same theme as this other movie; this story I read also bla bla) as these involve drawing upon knowledge that is relevant and articulating how.
However, by analysing how closely related different types of mental tasks are, researchers were able to find other factors that may be related but still distinct from fluid and crystallised intelligence. Two major ones include working memory and visual-spatial processing:
Working memory is the capacity to encode, maintain, and subsequently manipulate information in active attention. It's like your brain's temporary storage and processing unit--where you hold and work with information for a short time while you're using it. Think of it as a mental workspace, scratchpad, or workbench, where you do things like follow directions, mental math (like simple arithmetic), and keep track of different parts of a conversation.
Note that, while storing and holding the information (short-term memory) is necessary for working memory, it is not enough. One must then actively use the information to think, learn, and solve problems. To “manipulate” or “think” with the information stored in short-term memory means to inspect, sort, combine, or transform it. For example, observe what happens as you:
- Read “F8AC1”, then look away to remember it and recount it; this is short-term memory.
-Now, to use your working memory, try to say it backwards without looking at it.
- Finally, to push your working memory even further: Without looking again, put it into numerical and then alphabetical order. For instance, the arrangement 2C1AB in numerical then alphabetical order is 12ABC.
Try another example: read the below numerical operation once, look away, then try to solve it:
4 + 5.5 * 6
A common method is to first solve the 5.5*6 by finding 5*6, which is 30, then adding onto that 0.5*6, which is 3, making 33. Finally, one can add 4 to get 37. Observe how to do this, you have to temporarily “store away” some information that isn’t being worked with, while working through others, recombining them, etc.
Now, visual-spatial processing is a bit more difficult to define without examples. However, broadly, it is one's ability to accurately perceive and work with visual and spatial concepts. It involves both manipulating objects in the mind's eye as well as one's ability to imagine oneself navigating through space.
Moreover, visual-spatial processing tests rely relatively on prior knowledge. For instance, in the question below, one must find what shapes can be rotated (but not flipped) to make up the figure on top.
15.
16.
17.
Now a verbal one:
7. If Richard looks into a mirror and touches his left ear with his right hand, Richard's image seems to touch its right ear with its left hand.
- True
- False
Also ones can't be done online like being given blocks that form a shape and you have to put them togehter in increasing difficulty; finding the right size to fit through holes, etc
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intelligence is related to but not creativity, rationality, need for cognition or personality like curiosity.
While vocabulary by itself is not a great estimate of intelligence, it is probably the single best test that can be done in a relatively short time (15 minutes or less) to estimate IQ. It is said to have the highest "g-loading", which means out of all the short tests it depends the most on g. This is untuitively and puzzling to many. For instance, why isn't something more difficult and "brainy" like solving abstract puzzles or math questions better predictors of g?
Firstly, consider how motivation and effort differentially predicts performance across subtests. I speculate that difficult tasks like mental math will be more dependent on one's effort and disposition *at the time of testing*. In constrast, vocabulary is relatively easy in the sense that it is testing your current understanding of word meanings and word associations. Thus, your current state and motivation at time of testing will have less of an influence on your performance. Rather, your performance will be more based on something more like your "average" disposition and effort through life - when reading, listening, writing, etc.
Another thing to note is that, at least for native speakers of a language without an abnormal upbringing (such as no schooling or severe isolation) will be exposed to a similar number of words a similar amount of times, even if they don't remember it. Whereas if we were testing science knowledge, that is not as fair for the whole population - perhaps it would be a better estimate of IQ if you were testing a given classrooms (thus similar teaching received, similar socioecnomic status, same tested content and test, etc) performance. Let's look at studies to test this hypothesis.
Also, according to Jensen, learning vocabulary involves two other things:
(1) Conceptual need. People who seem attuned to the nuances of the world and experience are more likely to look for or adapt words they find that fill these conceptual gaps. Since it's a tool they felt the need for, they're far more likely to remember it (and of course, its meaning) than those who don't have a need for it.
(2) Inferring from context. Not many people will define every word they see or hear. Rather, they may be able to infer its meaning from when and how it's used. This requires one to ....___
Vocabulary is also known as Lexical Knowledge (understanding of words and their uses), and it is not memorising big, fancy words and using them inefficiently. In fact, being able to put together the right set of words to form a lucid sentence is a better indication of lexical knowledge than obfuscated and overly-complicated writing. Additionally, using near-synonyms interchangeably or using big words incorrectly only reflects a weak understanding of the word and a less nuanced understanding of the world.
Additionally, people adopt new words not to impress one another but because the word succinctly captures an idea or a distinction that would otherwise be difficult to describe every time we want to communicate it. Rather than saying, “Mary experienced a set of symptoms where your face heats up and turns red, your blood pressure noticeably rises, and you feel a strong desire to be aggressive, whether verbally or physically. You then tend to regret your actions in that state.” It is more efficient to say “Mary was livid with rage.” By convention, the use of the word livid signals that Mary is probably not thinking too clearly at the moment and that the next thing that Mary says or does is probably going to be impulsive and possibly hurtful.
Hence, in The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition, Robert J. Sternberg of Yale University said:
“… if one wants a quick and not-too-dirty measure of a person’s psychometrically measured intelligence, and thus has time to give just one brief test of it, vocabulary is [probably] the best predictor of overall score on a psychometric IQ test. (p. 90)”
Here are some examples of questions in vocabulary tests:
As such, one way to estimate one's lexical knowledge by their speech is to pay attention to the efficiency of their communication. The ability to sift through their library of words and use them in the right context to form a sentence relies heavily on IQ.
An example of having a poor vocabulary is conflating (or, conversely, correctly distinguishing) near-synonyms such as:
- Envy (discontented longing for someone else's acquisitions) and jealousy (worry another is trying to take what you have, like a partner).
- Fewer (used for discrete quantities, anything that can be counted) and less (used for continuous quantities, what cannot be counted). For example, there can be fewer people in a room but not less people. However, there can be less weight in a room, but not fewer.
- Aggression (a behaviour motivated by the intent to cause harm to another person who wishes to avoid that harm) and violence (a subtype of aggression, a physical behaviour with the intent to kill or permanently injure another person.)
Here are other examples of IQ test questions so you can get a better understanding of other things that IQ measures (answers provided at the end of the questions):