Mike Taylor, age 9, of Woodward, Iowa, for his question:
WHAT EXACTLY IS AN IQ?
An IQ is an intelligence quotient. It is a number that is used to indicate a person's intelligence. The number is based on a comparison of a person's score on an intelligence test with the scores of others on the same test.
An IQ test is used by psychologists and educators to determine a child's mental age. This information then shows the level of understanding and performance that the child has reached.
The test is made up of a series of mental checks including tasks involving memory, reasoning, definitions, numerical ability and recalling facts.
Psychologists have worked out the age at which most children can correctly answer each question of an intelligence test. When a 9 year old child can define certain words, figure out relationships of words and ideas, solve arithmetic problems and remember certain facts that an average 9 year old can, he is said to have the mental age of nine year.
If the 9 year old child can answer questions usually expected from a child of 10 or 11, he has a higher mental age and is given a higher IQ.
An IQ is sometimes determined by dividing his mental age with his actual age in years and then multiplying the result by 100 to avoid fractions. An IQ of 100 indicates an average score for a person's age level.
A 4 year old with a mental age of 6, for example, has an IQ of 150. This is established by dividing six by four and multiplying 100. A 10 year old with a mental age of eight has an IQ of 80.
Another way to measure IQ is to assign a value of 100 to the average score of those tested. Then the testers assign values above and below 100 to the other scores, depending on how much above or below average the score is. This method of scoring IQ is almost always used in testing persons over the age of 15.
The first modern intelligence test was developed in 1905 by two French psychologists, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon. Lewis Terman revised the Binet Simon tests in 1916. Then two psychologists at Stanford University, Terman and Maude Merrill, came up with still more revisions in 1937 and 1960. These versions are called the Revised Stanford Binet tests.
Some educationists and psychologists oppose using IQ tests for grouping children. They believe that to label a child "slow" might slow him down in learning.
Often a home and school life that encourages learning may result in higher IQ test scores as a child grows older. And on the opposite side, often a child in an inferior school might score lower and lower through the years.
Malnutrition in early years can also make some children score low, proving that IQ can depend on both heredity and experience.