Can Intelligence Be Measured?

The ever-evolving intelligence of mankind has assisted the human race in segregating themselves from other species by allowing us to make our environment adapt to us instead of vice versa. The article, What is Intelligence? What Do IQ Tests Really Measure? (Part 1) written by Futurism, claims that Dr. C. George Boeree described the general definition of intelligence as “a person’s ability to learn and understand information, apply that information to solve problems, and engage in abstract reasoning.” Psychologists have attempted to use tests to measure a person’s intelligence, but the fact of the matter is intelligence is too diverse of a concept to simply measure as a whole.

One of the most prominent forms of measuring intelligence is the intelligent quotient test widely known as the IQ test, created by psychologist Alfred Binet in 1904. The article What is Intelligence? What Do IQ Tests Really Measure? (Part 1) explains the IQ tests as, “tests in which you cannot study, this means that the test measures the general intellect of a person at any age” (Futurism). In the podcast G: The Miseducation of Larry P Archival Clip said that the test was created because, “Alfred Binet saw it as a chance to benefit the individual pupil. To diagnose problems so the child can get special help.” He wanted to pinpoint the kids that needed extra help so they can get the attention they need. But as Stuart Ritchie mentions in the podcast a psychologist named Charles Spearman performed some experiments with the IQ test and, “his analyses of the tests were that they all seemed to correlate positively together. People who are good at one type of test, tend to be good at them all.”

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Creating a dangerous concept that IQ tests are a tool to measure a person’s, “General intelligence.” (Ritchie). Society has become so insistent on people passing these intelligence tests through various educational systems and getting their college degree, that it has led people to view individuals that do not have jobs that require such intellect as unintelligent and at points inferior. In the podcast David Robson mentions that Binet “believed that intelligence was malleable, and that the human mind had, you know, so many different facets that had to be considered.” In our world “the ways we judge each other’s intelligence is through the work we do” (Rose xix). People fail to grasp that the intelligence test does not test “pure” or overall intelligence, in the introduction of The Mind at Work Mike Rose informs us that “ it is undisputed that formal education will affect one’s score on an intelligence test, since the tests tend to be heavy on verbal and numerical items.” (xxii).

What mankind needs to understand is that “intelligence is a variable and dynamic; that social context is crucial to its emergence and display; that creativity, emotion, aesthetic response, and the use of the body- removed from traditional psychometric definitions and tests of intelligence- must be considered as aspects of intelligent behavior.” (Rose xxii). Common industrial or service jobs require their aspects of intelligence for them to be performed properly. We need to stop basing people's overall mental compacity on tests because then we are undervaluing the capabilities of the human mind. Our dependence on intelligence tests has contributed to major civil and human rights violations in the past century. According to the article Intelligent intelligence testing by Etienne Benson, “It has helped the U.S. military place its new recruits in positions that suit their skills and abilities.” But on the other hand Benson admits that “intelligence testing has also been accused of unfairly stratifying test-takers by race, gender, class and culture; of minimizing the importance of creativity, character and practical know-how; and of propagating the idea that people are born with an unchangeable endowment of intellectual potential that determines their success in life.” The intelligence that was once used to pick out the kids that needed more help is now being used to punish and terrorize people.

An instance where intelligence tests were being used to do more harm than good was mentioned by Pat in the broadcast; “ The Nazi version of eugenics started in the mid-1930s, when they began forcibly sterilizing and then executing thousands of people that they'd classified as mentally ill, disabled, or what they called feeble-minded. Meaning that they'd scored low on an IQ test. This program was called T4, and it was a precursor to, and essentially a training ground for the mass executions of Jewish people that over the next several years would become the Holocaust.” Another example of injustices the intelligence test has contributed to was discussed in the podcast with the Larry P case, when numerous black children put in a mental retardation class because they did not do so well on the IQ test. In the broadcast, Armando Menecal mentioned how he got the department of education employee that tested the children to admit “that yes, he believed that there were more mentally retarded Black people than white people. And Peckham goes, 'Wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you saying you really believe that there are more Blacks who are mentally retarded?' And the guy said, 'Yes!”’ Brandon Gambel brings up the fact that experience and background has a lot to do with how a person answers questions on an intelligence test; “If that child is not from that cultural frame and that cultural experience, they may give different answers.” In conclusion, the reason and the way intelligence tests are evaluated has to be adjusted.

Society needs to be reminded that the intelligence test only test measures certain aspects of a person’s intelligence and it is not the whole picture; with that we need to understand that culture plays a huge role in the way people answer question so psychologist should consider all these segments when evaluating or scoring someone’s test. Einstein mentions in “With Other Opinions and Aphorisms, he writes “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.”’(Futurism).