verbal vs performance iq

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Verbal IQ subtests generally have to do with language (ex. vocabulary, verbal reasoning, word recall, etc.), while performance subtests generally have to do with nonverbal skills (ex. visual memory, nonverbal reasoning, visual-motor coordination, etc.). I hope that helps somewhat. I actually don't think they use the terms "verbal IQ" and "performance IQ" on the new Wechsler tests. Instead, there are a number of indices which are calculated based on combined subtest scores, and they are as follows:

Verbal Comprehension (similarities, vocabulary, comprehension)
Perceptual Reasoning (block design, picture concepts, matrix reasoning)
Working Memory (digit span, letter-number sequencing)
Processing Speed (word reasoning, matrix reasoning, letter-name sequencing, symbol search, cancellation)

Last edited by LostInSpace on 23 Mar 2008, 10:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Funny you should mention test formatting. On a whim I took several IQ and Performance tests a while back thinking, “let’s see how poorly I do on these.” To my great surprise, on the first test my IQ score was 135 – in the gifted category. Math, Logic, and Language were all near 100. Visual/Spatial was between 80 and 90. I was surprised at the results because I have never done well in math (which I failed in the 3rd grade) and have always done poorly in logic sections of standardized tests. The lower Visual/Spatial score seemed strange because I have a kind of photographic memory for objects and images as well as an ability to visualize in three dimensions.

The following day I took another similar test in the morning to see if the score of the previous day was a fluke. I tried to concentrate but it backfired. This time my IQ score was 125. Reasoning, Logic, and Numeric were all as high, but I dropped in Verbal. Visual/Spatial was slightly higher than Verbal.

At noon that day I took a third on-line test, a “Multiple Intelligences” test. The result was a perfect (10 out of 10) score in Visual/Spatial, but I scored 7 in Logical/Mathematical, and only 6 in Linguistic. The test had started out with visual and spatial problems, and I began to wonder if I hyper-focused on Visual/Spatial to the detriment of the rest.

After work I took a fourth test. This was a timed IQ test and the added stress of a time limit made me uneasy. There were 30 questions total (to be answered in 15 minutes). I answered 20 questions before time ran out, and of those only 14 correctly. I couldn’t concentrate during the test. I kept reading one of the logic questions over because the words didn’t make sense to me. This was where I had the verbal "meltdown." I felt much like I had the last time I took the GRE test: anxious, and as the test progressed bordering on mentally frantic. I was afraid that I wouldn’t make the time limit, and as my stress level increased, areas of my thinking went blank. At the end of the test I felt mentally beat-up. On this fourth test my IQ score was 90 – below average. According to the tests, I had dropped 35 IQ points in a few hours, and 45 points in a day!

So it appears that if a test started out with verbal, or with visual/spacial, I landed in that area of my brain and tended to stay there, to the detriment of the other areas being tested. A few months after I took the above tests, I had official educational testing, and it revealed a working memory deficiency. It's all very confusing, and I am still not sure how to interpret things. I just know that I have some learning mechanisms that don't work so well.

Z

They still calculate Verbal/Performance/Full Scale as well as those other index scores, and I believe the individual subtests are put together in the report by verbal/performance instead of by working memory/perceptual reasoning/etc. This might be due to the lag between putting out a new test and its being put into use by individual psychologists, though.

That makes sense.

I'd probably get a better score on verbal. I'm slow on stuff with shapes. I can figure them out, but they don't jump out at me. I think I actually want to take an IQ test to see how sharp and quick my mind is.

That reminds me. If 100 is supposed to be the average score for a test, then how do they get that average? Aren't a lot more people of below-average intelligence tested than above average? Is it just what the average score is anyway, so if a high-intelligence person takes the test, his score seems even higher?

The definition of the "mean" or "average" IQ score (100) is that 50% of people score above it, and 50% score below.

I'm not sure what you mean by "aren't a lot more people of below-average intelligence tested than above average." Do you mean that someone with a below-average score is more likely to be tested than someone with an above-average score? That may be true. But that does not affect the average IQ score.

The average IQ score is based off of a population which was selected specifically as a "norming" population. That is, a large number of people are randomly selected for testing. Researchers don't use the scores from people who were tested for clinical reasons when they are determining norms- as you are right, that would skew the test. So no, there should be the same number of people who score above the average as score below the average.

That's the answer I was looking for.

Actually that is the defintion of the median. Depending on the population's distrubtion shape greater or lesser numbers than 50% can be above or below the mean.

Wikipedia covers mean as well as most web sources - Link to Wikipedia - Mean

My total IQ is 135. I don't remember the exact scores for my verbal and performance IQs except that my verbal IQ was 2 standard deviations (30 points?) above my performance IQ. Basd on that I'll guess that my verbal IQ is between 145 and 150 and my Performance IQ is between 115 and 120

I have not heard of this before. Do you think you could let me know where you read this?

As for IQ tests... the IQ test I did when I was in psych I tested 15 points higher in Verbal than I did in Performance. As a correlation I had no "noticeable" lag in speech as a child. I did talk "late" but not late enough to come to any one's notice.

As for online tests I am always very skeptical of their validity. I did that CIQ test two days ago. At the time I had just consumed three 750Ml bottles of Guinness Extra Stout and tested 3 points higher than the actual supervised test I did. Given the Verbal was 14 points higher than my performance, so at least that tracked.

Granted, but I believe IQ scores follow a normal distribution. In which case, my statement was correct as it relates to IQ scores. In the case of a mean IQ score, 50% should score above, and 50% should score below. 68% score within one standard deviation of the mean. I was trying not to be pedantic in my response, which is why I didn't get into all the details.

This is interesting. My IQ tests were taken in the late 40s - early 50s, so I have no idea whether verbal and performance levels were separately scored. Mom did tell me, when I was in my middle 30yo that the low score was 156 and the high score was 169. What that means, I have no idea, as I am just me.

I do remember a cousin telling me that "Just because you have a high IQ doesn't mean you have enough common sense to keep from pissing on your boots in the dark." I had to agree with him.

Pops

My verbal skills far exceed my spatial skills. I performed so poorly on a block design test (actually, I completely tanked it), that the evaluator said it was a wonder I could find my way to my classes. I was offended and hurt. She also essentially told me to give up any dreams I had of being much of anything. If she could see me now, she probably still wouldn't think much of me, but I do well at my job and can find my way around the library just fine. I know where everything is.

What a horrible experience. I guess that's part of the problem with testing - if you don't test well THAT DAY people can assume all kinds of things about your ability, even if they aren't true. It sounds like you're doin' just fine, 9CatMom!

Z

Thank you, Z!

Here are the scores I got a month ago when I did a Wechsler test as part of my assessment for Apserger's (for which I was diagnosed):

Verbal IQ: 142
Performance IQ 119
Full Scale IQ: 135

Verbal Comprehension Index: 136
Perceptual Comprehension Index: 130
Working Memory: 147
Processing Speed: 86

Plus my scores for the individual subtests:

Verbal Scaled Score:

Vocabulary: 16
Similarities: 17
Arithmetic: 15
Digit Span: 19
Information: 15
Comprehension: 14
Letter-Number Sequencing: 17

Performance Scaled Score:

Picture Completion: 12
Digit Symbol Coding: 7
Block Design: 17
Matrix Reasoning: 15
Picture Arrangement: 13
Symbol Search: 8

Clearly I've got some big gaps between these results. I've yet to figure out quite what they mean for me. Obviously I've got mostly high to damn high, but also some noteable weaknesses.. I'm not pretending that this test can be anything more of an indicator of something going on, but I'd like to know what that is and how to deal with it.

I just did an IQ test now at 1.00 AM which i dont know why i did since im bloody tired, im 15 and i got 133 but I think i could do better if i was more awake, not bad though i guess