19 replies to this topic

[Matt]

There is a big thing that goes on every year where hundreds of thousands of people take part in a test via interactive TV or internet. This time an IQ test was done and it was timed, 70 questions on different aspects of intelligence. I was a bit tired when I took it and I've been under a lot of stress for the last few months which may have affected my score... but I got 115 anyway which is above 80th percentile I believe...

Vegetarians beat meat eaters 113 vs 105

NOTE: On one or two sections the pictures may be difficult to see on some monitors, this may alter your score slightly if you can't see some key details (which happened to me).

This is only for people living in the UK... So anyone from here try it!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/testthenation/iq/

last nights results : http://www.bbc.co.uk...lts/index.shtml

[kylyssa]

I wonder if the difference in scores between veggies and omnivores has more to do with socio economic status than with diet? There are very few vegetarians among the poor.

Also, perhaps, vegetarians are a tiny bit higher of IQ than the average population on average. They think, therefore they decide to become vegetarians. LOL

[Matt]

Yeah possibly... that would make sense!

I went over my friends and did the test and got an IQ of 124.
I needed a BIGGER and more clear picture to see the pictures (which I believe mostly failed me because of my blurry crap monitors). I also never researched the answers before I did the test again, I didn't have a clue which ones I did correct or not the first time.

Whether or not this is valid I don't know, but thats the honest truth, my screen was just too old to see the details on the pictures properly. My main improvement after looking at my results were, as I thought, on the picture section.

Edited by Matt, 04 September 2006 - 12:43 PM.

[JohnDoe1234]

I wish I could take it... but I'm in the US

Although the last IQ test that I took, some willy-nilly one from a popup gave me a score of 115, and it told me I left 1 question unanswered... guess I didn't see it, lol

[garethnelsonuk]

I attempted to take it - seems the flash animation they used doesn't like linux :(
I've had IQ scores vary with online tests anywhere from 120 to 180. This varies depending upon my mental state at the time and the american bias you often see in such tests.

[Matt]

No bias in this test that I can really see...

[kylyssa]

IQ tests can have a good deal of value, it just depends on what you are using them for.

For me they became a bit of an obsession. I suffered a brain injury and feared my intelligence had dramatically dropped from rather intelligent to downright retarded. At first, I'm sure that was correct - I could not even speak properly for quite some time. Once I was able to speak, read, and write again I took an IQ test. There was a 40 point difference between that test and pre-injury tests. I spazzed out and I cried (did I mention my brain injury made me emotionally labile? sigh...) for a couple of days. Then I calmed down and realized it wasn't as bad as it could be, I was alive and while damaged, I was by no means a vegetable.

I've been working on improving my health and mind. I realize now that much of my poor performance was due to anxiety and my continuing recovery. I also began a regimen of nootropics which has had a remarkable effect, whether placebo or biochemical I don't really care.

My last several tests have all been within 20 points of my previous highs. I am quite pleased with that but I'm not considering myself recovered yet.

I can't quite understand being unhappy with what your IQ is unless it's been higher and slipped for some reason or another. If that's the case, feel free to PM me and I might have some suggestions on "IQ repair."

[JohnDoe1234]

Wow, Sorry to hear that, mind if I ask what kind of accident it was?

[justinb]

If you guys want a real assessment of your intelligence take a proctored test or serious IQ test that is available over the internet.

Like here

Or here

These are high-range IQ tests though, so usually only people in the 115 to 130 range can begin to take them.

[caston]

My parents told me that when I was a kid in primary school they gave me a IQ test and it was within the top 5%. My brothers was even higher. I have no interest in testing my IQ now that I am an adult.

I disagree with the vegeterianism. Red meat contains are lot of things like iron, B12 and l-carnosine thare are essential for the body.

[kylyssa]

Wow, Sorry to hear that, mind if I ask what kind of accident it was?

It was not an accident but an assault.

Edited by kylyssa, 05 September 2006 - 11:45 PM.

[caston]

Did they go to jail?

[kylyssa]

No. I was unable to give a very meaningful description of my assailants until about a six months later. I was also moved from the scene of the crime by a good Samaritan who probably destroyed a lot of evidence in the process.

[JohnDoe1234]

That's horrible... we're glad you made it through though!

[caston]

It's a horrible thing to say but part of me hopes your assailants overdosed on the drugs that made them do that to you if it was drugs they were on.

[mikelorrey]

I wonder if the difference in scores between veggies and omnivores has more to do with socio economic status than with diet?  There are very few vegetarians among the poor.

Also, perhaps, vegetarians are a tiny bit higher of IQ than the average population on average.  They think, therefore they decide to become vegetarians.  LOL

I'm a serious meat eater and hunter, and fisherman, and my IQ is 165. So eat that with a fork...

[jaydfox]

How accurate is the 15 point standard deviation, at higher IQs? For example, Mike Lorrey's claimed IQ is over 4 standard deviations above the mean, which would be in the top 8 out of a million (give or take). Stated another way, his claimed IQ would place him in the top 2,000 to 2,500 people in the United States.

The IQ I tested at, a few months before turning 8, would put me at about the top one in a thousand, or stated another way, I'd be in the top 240,000 people in the United States.

But is the intelligence distribution truly a bell curve, even at the tail ends of the distribution? I find it unlikely, given the dynamics that lead to the distribution. If we were genetically identical, and we had a very standard upbringing and education, then I'd expect a bell curve, albeit with a narrower standard deviation. But we have genetic differences, socioeconomic differences, cultural differences, differences in hobbies and intellectual interests. In general, many of these variables would themselves have bell curve distributions, maintaining the overall bell curve. But wealth is not distributed in a bell curve, as just one example. I doubt the bell curve is accurate beyond a few standard deviations, though the question would remain, what interval is the curve accurate over? 2 deviations? 2.5? 3? 4? 5?

[jaydfox]

I doubt the bell curve is accurate beyond a few standard deviations, though the question would remain, what interval is the curve accurate over? 2 deviations? 2.5? 3? 4? 5?

Bear in mind, you could define every IQ on the number line to be based on a person's known place in the hierarchy of intelligence. But that would make it a non-linear function of increasing intellectual capabilities. By non-linear, I don't just mean the fact that it might be exponential or polynomial or whatever, but that the difference between 125 and 120 might be greater than the difference between 130 and 125, but less than the difference between 135 and 130, yet greater again than the difference between 140 and 135. In other words, an increase of 5 points would tell you very little about the increase in intelligence, only the increase in rank among people.

Not being an expert on IQ tests, I don't know if the effort is to focus on normalizing the scale to the degree of increase of intelligence (using the actual distribution as a mere guideline), or if the effort is to focus on normalizing the scale to match the actual distribution as closely as possible. The latter seems futile, given the ever changing dynamics of society: you could never objectively compare two generations with a high degree of precision.

[kylyssa]

I wonder if the difference in scores between veggies and omnivores has more to do with socio economic status than with diet?  There are very few vegetarians among the poor.

Also, perhaps, vegetarians are a tiny bit higher of IQ than the average population on average.  They think, therefore they decide to become vegetarians.  LOL

I'm a serious meat eater and hunter, and fisherman, and my IQ is 165. So eat that with a fork...

You missed my point - an earlier poster suggested a causative relationship. I suggest the conditions that allow one to become a vegetarian are the cause of the higher IQ, not the diet itself.
I eat meat myself, preferably irradiated sashimi, but I won't say no to cute furry animal meat, either.

[chriszar]

No bias in this test that I can really see...

 

yes, all IQ tests have cultural biaises, onless it is purely mathematic and graphic, and yet, even the math test would be biaised if your schooling in math is different.

 

So, to make sure there is no biais, the test has  to be standardised locally for a given population. This is why IQ tests and many others do not change very much over time, standardisation throughout a whole population being very expensive.

 

This is also probably why there is a significant discrepancy between white and other origins in the US for example, if the tests have not been standardised for sub cultures.

 

I studied that yeaaars ago at university.