I.Q. ... It's Questionable?
Article: www.uwo.ca/its/brain/iqmyth/
This week I
read an article about how scientists at Western University have reached the
conclusion that standardized IQ tests provide only a very narrow view of a
person’s actual intelligence. The study
is one of the largest online intelligence studies ever completed, and it has
yielded many results that might change the way we look at how people think,
learn, and perform. During the study,
scientists asked participants to complete 12 different tests/games that measured
different areas of thinking, such as memory, planning, reasoning, and
attention. The test also required
participants to fill out some information about their lifestyle, and certain
behaviors that they might perform. The
results of the test were very good, due in part to the great response the
received by many people from all over the world. The results showed that once the ways of
measuring intelligence went past the standard IQ test, you needed at least 3
headings to display the results: short
term memory, reasoning, and verbal performance.
The study
showed a few interesting results. People
who frequently played computer games usually performed above average, while
people who smoked consistently scored below average. As well, people who had anxiety disorders
usually got a lower score in the short term memory games.
These
results are very interesting, since they both validate what we already think,
while making us consider new possibilities.
The results stated that smokers performed below average compared to
non-smokers. This isn’t very surprising,
since smoking is known to do major damage to your organs. The results also stated that people who
played computer games regularly performed better than people who didn’t. This is very interesting, since there is an
ongoing debate about whether or not video games are debilitating to our
intelligence. I believe that video games
might improve the abilities of people because one of the main areas of testing
in the study was reasoning and short term memory. While playing video games people have a goal
in mind, and are often very driven towards achieving those goals. This would force their short term memory and
decision making skills to improve, since they are in situations where quick
choices must be made, and you have to remember which dungeon you turned into,
or what button brings up your inventory.
Many people consider video games
to lower academic performance, but this test contradicts those opinions.
Another attention-grabbing point the results
showed was that practice didn’t do much to increase a person’s
performance. The phrase “practice makes
perfect” has been ingrained into almost every one since the start of their
lives, and the thought that this might not be true is slightly shocking. I think that this test will greatly affect
the way we learn, the way we perceive intelligence, and the way we conduct
studies. By acknowledging the fact that
there is more to intelligence than our IQ tests reveal, we can improve our
methods of teaching, and find better ways of conveying information to students.
Since this test was the largest online one of
its kind, it changes the way we traditionally conduct studies and
experiments. Technology is slowly
changing the way we do things. By doing
the study online, researchers are able to reach more people easily for a lower
price. They can use the internet to
overcome cultural and geographic barriers that would have otherwise been very
expensive to overcome. Though the
internet greatly assists us in completing studies, it also has possible negative
side effects. Anonymity has always been
one of the most appreciated features on the internet. How do the researches know that the people
are actually who they say they are? What
is they provided inaccurate information about their lifestyles? Did everyone try their best on the
tests? For online studies such as this,
there are many variables that the researches are unable to control, which makes
the information less reliable.
While
reading this article, I made sure to check its credibility. Though the article lacks a credited author,
it is posted on the Western University website, ensuring its reliability.
Link to Cambridge Experiment Website: http://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com/challenge/introduction
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