My problem with IQ tests

My problem with the Intelligence Quotient test is that it is supposed to be a standard assessment for determining how smart someone is in relation to their peers. But we have to as what is intelligence? Is it the amount of knowledge someone contains? Or is it the ability to learn?

Let us start off with some basic knowledge about IQ tests. For starters, they are not valid unless they are performed by a licensed psychologist. The reason for this is so that the scoring can be done by someone who is trained to be unbiased. The next determining factor about IQ tests is that you are scored for your age group only. Your score is SUPPOSED to never change because the average intelligence is supposed to remain average. So no matter what age group you fall into, If you score 132 when you are seven years old- your IQ is supposed to remain 32 points above the baseline.

And this way of testing presents problems, because you have to assume things about the person who is tested. You have to assume that the information that a person has at the time of testing was learned in the average way. That is to say that you must judge the amount of information someone has learned by the same RATE and TYPE of learning. Also you have to assume that all people are presented with all of the same information up until the time of testing.

You can isolate a Genius and have him tested. He will test at below or right at baseline. You can force information on a young child and have him memorize things and he will test above average. And then the scaling changes. Because you can put the same two children into the same social environment, and the rate of learning from the genius child far exceeds the average thinker. We arrive at incorrect results.

We also have to think about intelligence as it is influenced by our environment. And the environment for most children I would assume is a very normal and average thing. As long as the body is not malnourished development of the body and brain should mostly remain the same.

But where the environment changes, or can changeradically is when we arrive at our teenage years. Marijuana for instance can change the way a young mind develops. And since the average American teenager smokes marijuana and experiments with alcohol to some degree- This changes the average. you have to be able to account for social norms when factoring the Intelligence Quotient. Other Social norms include drinking after the age of 21 (the brain stops developing at the age of 20) but perpetual alcohol abuse not only limits our ability to think as an exercise tool. It also kills brain cells. Think of the brain like a computer. Brain cells, depending on location can be equated to the actual ability to think. Some brain cells act as storage. Some brain cells harbor our personality, some brain cells provide us with sensory data mapping. The list goes on and on.

What happens to the IQ when someone does not participate with the social norms? Well since the average is dropping that can only mean that by comparison, the people who choose to think on a regular basis are getting smarter. We should create a test that accounts for the learning process itself. Not a test that identifies the accrued knowledge compared to our peers.

I'm smart and I have almost no sense of community. This is another reason why I write. I fear the gap between us gets larger everyday. Pity me if you like, I would pity myself If I tried to escape from reality by abusing my brain.