Education Verve 

What is IQ?

IQ is short for Intelligence Quotient. IQ is a measurement of your intelligence and is expressed in a number. A person's IQ can be calculated by having the person take an intelligence test which is a test designed to measure the ability to think and reason rather than acquired knowledge. The average IQ is 100. If you achieve a score higher than 100, you are smarter than the average person. Here are some designations on the IQ scale:

180-200 - Highest genius

165-179 - High genius

145-164 - Genius

135-144 - Very gifted

125-134 - Gifted

110-124 - Above average

Take an IQ test

IQ test for ages 4 to 16 years

IQ test for ages over 16 years

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Is intelligence inherited?

Intelligence is mostly inherited, but it can also be related to the environment. Genes determine the quality of our intelligence and our ability to integrate and process information. Environmental factors can play a role, but they are capable of slowing down our mental processes more than enhancing it. It is easier to degrade brain tissue than to create more complex brain tissue. Many different environmental influences have been found to shape intelligence. These environmental influences can be grouped as biological or sociocultural. Biological influences such as nutrition and stress act on the physical body. Nutrition has been shown to affect intelligence from prenatal stages to throughout a person's life. Malnutrition during critical early periods of growth, particularly the prenatal period and during the second year of life, can harm intelligence development. Inadequate nutrition can disrupt neural connections and pathways. Sociocultural influences such as stress shape the mind and behavior of an individual. Exposure to violence and trauma-related distress in childhood has been associated with lower IQ in children. Studies have shown that stereotype affects IQ. In many cases if a person belongs to a group that is told they are intelligent, they will appear more intelligent on IQ tests, but if they are told they belong to a group that is unintelligent, they will perform worse. Some studies suggest that a child's position in birth order can influence intelligence, with firstborn often showing higher IQ scores. People’s access to education, and specific training and intervention resources, also determines their life-long intelligence level.

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Ways to maximize your intelligence

1. Seek novelty

When you seek new experiences, you are creating new synaptic connections with every new activity you engage in. These connections build on each other, increasing your neural activity, creating more connections to build on other connections, and learning is taking place. Novelty also triggers dopamine which creates new neurons and prepares your brain for learning. Always look to new activities to engage your mind such as learn an instrument, take a class, go to a museum, or read about a new area of science. 

2. Challenge yourself

In order to keep your brain making new connections and keeping them active, you need to keep moving on to another challenging activity as soon as you reach the point of mastering the one you are doing. You want to be in a constant state of slight discomfort, struggling to barely achieve whatever it is you are trying to do, as Einstein alluded to in his quote. This keeps your brain continually working at achieving whatever it is you are trying to do so it doesn't get lazy. 

3. Think creatively

Creative thinking should involve thinking about a wide range of topics and subjects, making associations between ideas, switching back and forth between conventional and unconventional thinking, and generating novel ideas.

4. Exercise your brain

Your brain needs exercise like your body so do activities often that use problem-solving skills, spatial skills, logical skills, and cognitive skills.

5. Network

By networking through face-to-face or social media, you expose yourself to new people, ideas, and environments, and this helps to open up new opportunities for cognitive growth. Being with other people who may be outside of your field gives you opportunities to see problems from a new perspective, or offer insight in ways that you had never thought of before. Learning is about exposing yourself to new things and taking in that information in ways that are meaningful and unique.

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Multiple intelligences

The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University. It suggests that the traditional idea of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. He proposed 8 different intelligences to account for a broader range of potential in people. This theory provides 8 different potential pathways to learning. If a student is having difficulty learning by the more traditional linguistic or logical ways of instruction, the theory of multiple intelligences suggests several other ways in which the material might be presented to facilitate effective learning. The 8 intelligences are music smart, math smart, picture smart, body smart, word smart, people smart, nature smart, and self smart. Take a multiple intelligences test to see what areas you are intelligent in.

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Emotional and social intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Social intelligence is the ability to understand and manage people and to act wisely in human relations.

Emotional intelligence and social intelligence have been positively associated with good leadership skills, good interpersonal skills, positive classroom outcomes, and better functioning in the world.

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