An IQ question

[Otto Kretschmer]

Since IQ tests have the celling of 160, are IQs higher than that possible or not?

[Phi for All]

9 minutes ago, Otto Kretschmer said:

Since IQ tests have the celling of 160,

Can you verify this premise for us first? Do you have any evidence this is so? I'm not a fan of IQ tests, but I've never heard of a ceiling score of 160. I have heard of people who supposedly have a higher score.

[swansont]

It’s a distribution that’s supposed to have a median of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, so scores above 160 are possible but rare.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient

[John Cuthber]

4 hours ago, Otto Kretschmer said:

Since IQ tests have the celling of 160, are IQs higher than that possible or not?

They were when I got my IQ tested at school...

[Peterkin]

6 hours ago, Otto Kretschmer said:

Since IQ tests have the celling of 160, are IQs higher than that possible or not?

Of course it's possible. I don't know which particular test has a 160 ceiling, or how it's calculated.

There are many to choose from.

The most commonly used when I was in school was Stanford-Binet, which has a top score of 160, so that's probably the one on which you were measured; but I believe it's been supplanted since by the The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, which tops at 155.

The highest measured score I know of, back in 1968 or so, was 190 +/- (off the normal scale, it becomes less and less definitive). The young man in question had serious mental health issues, though perfectly lucid and articulate, he was in and out of hospital with severe depression from about age 17 to when I knew him at 25. 

Quote

Theoretically, there is no limit to IQ scores. 200 is often seen as the theoretical peak score but some people have shot past that number.

http:// https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/who-has-the-highest-iq

 

Edited January 23 by Peterkin

[dimreepr]

18 hours ago, Otto Kretschmer said:

Since IQ tests have the celling of 160, are IQs higher than that possible or not?

Does an arbitrary test have a ceiling? 

Ask the builder,,,

[Sensei]

If you type "iq test" in the search box of an Internet search engine, one of the first results is the "Mensa IQ Challenge".

https://www.mensa.org/public/mensa-iq-challenge

They offer a test with 35 questions to be solved in 25 minutes, which is average 42-43 seconds for each. If you don't know the correct answer, they suggest you guess it..

They claim that time is not measured. If we believe this, it means that only points count. So you can get from 0 to 35 correct answers. The score will range from 85 to 145 IQ points.

19 hours ago, Otto Kretschmer said:

Since IQ tests have the celling of 160, are IQs higher than that possible or not?

Looking at my example above, you have 1) a limited number of questions you need to answer 2) limited time to do so (or unmeasured time) 3) the probability of guessing the correct answer without any intelligence.

ps. People in express chess often lose due to lack of time to move..

 

Edited January 23 by Sensei

[Peterkin]

That's not the Mensa test I was given, sometime back in the bronze age. That took an hour and half, went on and on. One of my fellow inductees scored 152. She was a lively, interesting person, while the membership we encountered was mostly trendy young couples with whom we had nothing in common. We dropped out pretty soon - no loss.

[Carrock]

On 1/23/2024 at 6:10 PM, Peterkin said:

That's not the Mensa test I was given, sometime back in the bronze age. That took an hour and half, went on and on. One of my fellow inductees scored 152. She was a lively, interesting person, while the membership we encountered was mostly trendy young couples with whom we had nothing in common. We dropped out pretty soon - no loss.

As Strange mentioned a long time ago, confirmed by some of my friends, the Mensa lower membership limit is 148 and Mensa pass scores range from 149 to 152 - at least from 5 samples (6 including Peterkin's example).

Explains the fact that an an improbably large number of apparently intelligent people think a good use of their time is to hang out with people who, like them, are good at 'passing' IQ tests.

 

On 1/22/2024 at 6:23 PM, Otto Kretschmer said:

Since IQ tests have the celling of 160, are IQs higher than that possible or not?

The test has to be optimised for an IQ range. The highest IQ for an individual test corresponds to getting all the answers correct.

[Peterkin]

2 hours ago, Carrock said:

Explains the fact that an an improbably large number of apparently intelligent people think a good use of their time is to hang out with people who, like them, are good at 'passing' IQ tests.

They seemed to have a pretty lively community. Lots of talk about how to raise children and where best to live. They had pot-luck parties and outings - no different from any group of people with something in common. It's not their fault my friend and I - both single and political - didn't fit in. 

[dimreepr]

14 hours ago, Carrock said:

As Strange mentioned a long time ago, confirmed by some of my friends, the Mensa lower membership limit is 148 and Mensa pass scores range from 149 to 152 - at least from 5 samples (6 including Peterkin's example).

Explains the fact that an an improbably large number of apparently intelligent people think a good use of their time is to hang out with people who, like them, are good at 'passing' IQ tests.

 

The test has to be optimised for an IQ range. The highest IQ for an individual test corresponds to getting all the answers correct.

When I replied to a Mensa ADVERT, I was given a quiz that I had to pay for to see my results; how ironic is that???