Comments by "David Terr" (@dcterr1) on "I Took an IQ Test to Find Out What it Actually Measures" video.

  1. I think it's highly misleading to assign a single number to someone's intelligence, since there are so many types of intelligence, and since as you mention, IQ is not at all static, but can go up or down for a particular individual throughout their lifetime. I also find it very interesting that IQ as measured by standardized tests has risen about 30 points during the past century. One possible reason for this not mentioned is that our overall knowledge base has grown tremendously, so for instance, people 100- years ago may have been learning about fishing or hunting, whereas today, we're learning about economics or society.
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  2. Excellent video! I learned a lot of useful information about intelligence, such as what it is, how it's measured, how accurate these measures are. I'm impressed that someone with an IQ of just 134 was able to make such a great video!
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  3. Here are a couple other dark facts about this history of IQ testing. One of the early statisticians who studied IQ, whose name I forget, was interested in trying to prove that it was purely based on genetics, tested identical twins. According to his results, identical twins IQs were very highly correlated, seeming to confirm his hypothesis. However, shortly thereafter, further analysis was performed on his data, indicating a nearly impossibly low chi-squared value, much like Mendel's results on the genetics of peas, indicating that in all likelihood, he'd faked his data to confirm his hypothesis. Another story I've heard is that members of primitive African tribes were given standardized IQ tests by the British in the early 20th century, and some tested were actually found to have negative IQs! Of course, the British used their results to support the view that Africans were genetically inferior to Whites, but I think this was just an indication of how culturally biased their tests were and that those tested had completely different ways of thinking about the problems asked and making associations.
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