Pertaining 'IQ', for adults.

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This may sound odd or fishy, but...

Anyone else notice their 'IQ' getting higher everyday?

It's been a solid 2-3 years, and my 'IQ' is getting substantially higher as time goes by.

And just when I think I'm plateauing I then gain insight in another leap or bound.

Can anyone relate to a seemingly ever increasing 'IQ'

*Assume a rational and logical 'IQ', that takes many variables and perceptions into consideration*
(wisdom, knowledge, insight, and intellectual domains)

Are these "changes" something you are tracking yourself or is some professional administering the test? I ask because most of those "on-line" IQ tests are not really valid.
IQ is pretty much set in childhood...it's not a matter of learning more to achieve a higher score on a test; it's the ability to learn.

I disagree. I also don't think you read my top and bottom points... lol

I guess I was trying to start a forum to talk about the dogma of set in stone intelligence, considering most people stop practising things after adult hood.

Learning a musical instrument for the first time or learning a new language would cause cognitive improvement in learning, they has study.

Last edited by Kail on 21 Nov 2011, 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There's a literal study of participants who retook an IQ test in there later years and scored significantly higher.

Yes, I see what you are saying.

I can vouch for that. I took an IQ test at 19 and tested out at low-normal.

I took the same test at 33 and tested out at near-genius.

The only three things that had changed in 14 years were that I was no longer out to "prove" anything-- I didn't care how I "did," I was just having fun with the test. I had learned to accept something Daddy told me when I was little-- that I'm a lot smarter when I don't let myself get in a hurry. And I'd quit smoking pot.

I think, if you keep your brain working, you become more able to learn as you mature, as experience teaches you lessons that make you a better learner.

I think it's a foregone conclusion that the concept of "fixed" intelligence is idiotic. Canonized, but wrong.

In a sense, everybody's IQ is getting higher every day. IQ researcher Flynn discovered this and so it is named the Flynn Effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Apparently IQ tests have to be re-normed every 40 years or so so that the average stays 100. If you take an IQ test written in the 40's, you will score substantially higher than you will if you take one written recently. Flynn has appeared as an expert witness in death penalty trials on behalf of mentally ret*d defendents who have been wrongly categorized as average intelligence because they took an old IQ test and scored too well on it. Flynn thinks that IQ is enviromental as well as genetic and that it can change if a person is put in an enriched or deprived enviroment. An example of an enviroment that can lower somebody's IQ is an institution for mentally ret*d people. Today's mentally ret*d people seem to be smarter as a group than those of the recent past who were institiutionalized. The recent push for mentally ret*d children to be raised at home instead of being institutionalized has done this.

On a more personal level, which you are talking about, I feel my mental abilities have changed over time. I am a lot more competent and focused in certain domains than I used to be. I am also a lot less mentally flexible. This is a measurable part of the aging process. The older people get, the better they do on the parts of the IQ test that test for "crystallized knowledge" (what things you have learned) and worse on the parts that test speed and fluidity. That's why IQ tests are only truly valid (or as valid as they can be within their limits) when you are compared to other people your age- and other people of your generation, as Flynn shows.

BuyerBeware also notes that small changes in one's immediate enviroment can increase IQ- changes like quitting pot and approaching intellectual challenges in a different way. Like she said, "fixed" intelligence is canonized but wrong. Flynn has written extensively on why.

I give private tuition part time, and I have to say that I observe 2 things:
a.) kids (age 15 - 17 above) are getting much smarter than their parents*
b.) People do usually start practicing things on the onset of adulthood**

*Subject to selection bias - I don't have that many students, and most of them are among the top 10% of the whole population anyway
**I use "on the onset of adulthood" instead of "after adulthood" cos technically, after adulthood is death.

Yes, adults are more likely to do stuff like pick up a musical instrument, learn a new language, find a new hobby or sport, but they tend to pick up hobbies that they know are already in the realm of their capacity to learn, it's rare that they choose to push themselves into unknown territory. Ask an adult to pick up macroeconomics, for instance; probably not going to happen. Whereas kids, by definition of "schooling", are forced to expand their horizons everyday, both their technical knowledge and capacity to learn.

I have heard that a persons IQ can change by as much as 20 points either way but I've also heard the other theories about IQ tests as well.

I must say that my last test 11 years ago picked up that I had uneven cognitive abilities which put me in the superior to average range in certain areas and below average in other areas but I sit within the average range overall but I was told that I also have some intelligence that needs to be "tapped" into and that my IQ was probably lower due to restricted educational opportunities and certain environmental circumstances that occured during my earlier childhood. I also have ADHD and a mild learning disability however I have noticed that I seem brighter than I thought I was and what others gave me credit for which feels weird to me as I kinda got used to the "stupid" tag which is sad really.

Overall I tend to believe that IQ's can change.

S

I think the more a person becomes interested in in the world around him/her, the more they will learn.

I don't know how I feel regarding the validity and functionality of standardized IQ testing, but I will say that I definitely feel that my capacity for understanding (in every sense of the word) increases as time goes by.

Of course, sometimes I feel like it gets stifled somewhat. Mostly when I'm living in a day-to-day situation that is constantly draining or frustrating. Hm.

Perhaps its not you, perhaps its the development of humankind. Perhaps everyone else is getting dumber, and in turn your IQ is getting higher since its a messure of were you are in proportion to everyone else.
I recommend watching this movie; Idiocracy(cant link yet, sry)
It's an interresting theory.

There has been a lot of orthodox stuff argued here and I too believe IQ's can fluctuate. In the same token, I also believe that one should continue "learning something" so one doesn't mentally stagnate.

Longshanks

My IQ has not fluctuated much since I was ~10. It's consistently at roughly 170 +/- 5 or so points. I've tried various methods to improve it with no real results.

My EQ has fluctuated dramatically during my life, although this was never measured in a proctored test. Initially measuring in the 70s at age 20, and has gone up and down, but seems to be settling nowadays at ~130.

I guess I've grown wise in my old age?

I wasn't tested until I was eighteen. The guy that administered the test was one of these people that didn't believe in assigning numbers to IQ's. I guess he felt that people too often attach too much significance to them, as in, "Oh, I must be really stupid because it's so low," or, "Wow I must be superior because it's so high!"

Anyway, all he would do was wave his pencil around an area of the chart somewhere between 125 to 150. Since then, I've tested myself many different times over the years, and taken a few other "official" tests.

I don't agree that all online IQ tests aren't valid. There are quite a few out there that use the same techniques and scoring methods of RL tests.

Mine has been consistently in the 135 to 150 range. It does go up and down a little, but gradually. There does seem to be a clear correlation to it rising during long periods of intense study, and lowering during long periods of, well for lack of a better way to put it, trivial activities.

It's never been below 135, and never higher than 150.