Who is intelligent?

Intelligence is commonly understood to mean general mental ability rather than a high performance in a specific area of knowledge. Understandably it is not easy to measure an elusive quality like intelligence but one popular way of doing so is through Intelligence Quotient [IQ] tests which follow objective statistical rules which, unlike what many believe, are not constructed at the whim of psychologists. Essentially the IQ tests are not a test of acquired knowledge but of one’s ability to manipulate the elements of a problem in such a way as to find a solution which has not been part of any formal training.

In one such test a child delinquent was showed a cow, a snake and a sparrow and asked by a doctor to state the similarity between . The child could not answer the question and was judged to have a low standard of intelligence. IQ is in fact the ratio between mental age and chronological age expressed as a percentage and the average IQ is 100.  So a child of 8 just able to solve problems solved by an average 6-year-old would have an IQ of 6/8 x 100= 75 which is below average. Statistics on IQ evaluations show that only 2 per cent of people have an IQ above 130 to 140.

Intelligence is normally an inborn characteristic which is passed on to us by our predecessors and this explains why genius trends often run in families. It is believed that a person's IQ remains at, or about, the same figure for the whole of one's life. One may gain in knowledge or in experience but can only marginally improve one's intelligence above what one acquires in heredity.

Many question the accuracy of intelligence tests and should realise that there are many factors which can lower one's performance in such tests. Nervousness, illness or unfamiliarity with the type of test or even lack of confidence are some of such factors which can hamper one's performance in intelligence tests.

Psychologists undertaking such tests do not try to pretend that they are accurately assessing a child's potentialities but by taking all factors into consideration a very good guide to a person's individual abilities can be obtained. The questions asked are often tricky but the actual answer does not matter very much. What matters is whether the person is intelligent enough to spot the trick in a question.

If you also are unable to spot the similarity between a cow, a snake and a sparrow that are showed to you, the answer is that they are all alive. Sounds silly but ironically it is such silly-sounding questions which often help to determine a person's intelligence.