how do we measure smartness? IQ Mental Age

how do we measure smartness?
German psychologist, William Stern, noticed that even though the gap between mental age and chronological age widens as a child matures, the ratio of mental age to chronological age remains constant.

In 1905, a French psychologist by the name of Alfred Binet, working with a physician-associate, Theodore Simon, developed the Binet Simon Test designed to measure the intelligence of retarded children, based upon their observations that.

1.Just as children grow taller as they grow older, they grow more mentally capable as they grow older; and

2.Some children can perform at age and equivalent-grade levels above their chronological ages, while other children perform at age and equivalent-grade levels below their chronological ages. For example, a few 6-year-olds could perform as well on the Binet Simon mental tests as the average 8-year-old, while a few 6-year-olds could only perform as well as the average 4-year-old.In 1911, the concept of " mental age " as distinguished from "chronological age" was introduced. The 6-year-old who performed as well as the average 8-year-old was assigned a mental age of 8, while the 6-year-old who performed only as well as a 4-year-old was assigned a mental age of 4 Intelligence quotient

The intelligence quotient is defined as 100 times the Mental Age (MA) divided by the Chronological Age (CA).

IQ = 100 MA/CA.

What is IQ Test The gaps between children's mental ages and their chronological ages widened as the children got older. The 6-year-old with the mental age of 8 had a mental age of 12 by the time he was 9 and a mental age of 16 by the time he was12. Similarly, the 6-year-old with a mental age of 4 had a mental age of 6 when he was 9 and a mental age of 8 when he was 12. In 1912, the German psychologist, William Stern, noticed that even though the gap between mental age and chronological age widens as a child matures, the ratio of mental age to chronological age remains constant (and, as we will see, remains essentially constant throughout life). This constant ratio of mental age divided by chronological age was given the name "Intelligence Quotient".

>Adult Mental Age

Until 1960, it was customary to use 16 as the divisor for mental age among adults. Adult. Mental age at approximately. The age of 16, mental age, like height, stops increasing. Actually, certain mental functions increase slowly and slightly after the age of 16, peaking in the 20's, with others remaining stable or even rising slightly up to the age of 60 or so. With some individuals, vocabulary may increase over time.

How is IQ Measured

There are a number of IQ tests available. Some IQ tests are untimed, individually administered tests such as the Stanford-Binet and the Wechsler tests. (The five Wechsler Performance subtests are timed.) Other tests are timed, proctored group tests, such as the Raven Progressive Matrices, the California Test of Mental Maturity (CTMM) and the Cattell Culture-Fair Test, which are easier to administer but are narrower in scope. (Included in this group would be the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the Graduate Record Exam, the Miller Analogies.) Still a third class of test is the power test, such as the Mega Test, the Titan Test, and the Test for Genius. These are unproctored, open-book tests in which the test-taker lays protracted siege to difficult problems that emulate the kinds of problems encountered in actual research. These tests are not universally recognized as true IQ tests because it is felt that they are susceptible to cheating. and that their scores depend upon collateral factors such as persistence and library skills as well as sheer intelligence.
IQ tests have been under attack since their inception. It is, perhaps, counter-intuitive and unpopular that a test requiring an hour or two can establish the upper bounds of one's intellect for a lifetime. However, although they're not infallible they do a remarkably good job of generating a score that will remain more or less constant throughout life.

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