How do you measure intelligence?>
The U.S. Army used its "General Technical" (G.T. score), an I.Q. test, as its standard for measuring intelligence. One needed above a certain score to be considered for Officer's Candidate School and some of the other schools like Neuro-psychiatric Technician School, for instance. I am not saying that I.Q. tests are the true measure of intelligence, but that they have become the default system for measuring intelligence...whether YOU accept the I.Q. test as a true measure or not.
I don't. Its to varied a subject to be singularly quantifiable.
You have posed an interesting question and the first word the springs to mind is context, in what context? For example, you can take someone from the Amazon Jungle and someone who is a graduate in philosophy and give them a 'standard' intelligence test. The philosophy graduate will probably excel whereas the person from the Amazon Jungle will probably fail miserably. However, put the philosophy graduate in the middle of the Amazon Jungle and see what happens.
I heard a story about a leading Prime Number specialist who lived all his life with his mother until she died and then he moved into his sister's house. The first night in his sister's house he knocked loudly on her bedroom door at 02:30 and she came running out thinking that the house was on fire. He asked her, 'how do you open the fridge?'
I wonder if the word intelligence is stripped of it's emotive connotations would a more accurate definition emerge? However, it still seems to me to be a matter of context, therefore, I will quote a late friend who was an author: "intelligence is the ability to make appropriate value judgments in all circumstances."
@MichaelSpinler regardless of how one measures intelligence, having a degree doesn't make anyone anything except the holder of a degree; it doesn't even make them eligible for a higher salary in most fields. it most certainly doesn't add to intelligence. your friend is confusing intelligence with formal education, and probably would also confuse formal education with education itself. this is not by any means a slam on formal education, but the degree is the acknowledgement that someone has undergone the formal education. the degree isn't the education. the formal education also doesn't make a person more intelligent although it can help a person better channel his/her intelligence. there is no guarantee that it will. all of this presupposes that no one even cheats to get the degree, and that in itself is a false supposition, but as i say i am leaving that aspect out in making my statement. your friend doesn't just have a different take on measuring intelligence, or even a different definition of intelligence. s/he is just plain wrong.
g
@MichaelSpinler i had only a b.a. degree and a tiny bit of teaching experience when i began teaching in japan. some other teachers had more or less experience and/or appropriate education than i did, but i knew one who played hangman with his students every day. that's not teaching! i mean that's ALL he did. that was his lesson. i actually taught my students, and some of them actually learned.
g
Personally? I try to take into account every separate type of intelligence. A lot of us are technically geniuses in several areas and idiots in several others or vice versa. Mechanical smarts, street smarts, nature smarts, book learnin, emotional intelligence of connecting/reading people one on one, and societal intelligence of doing the same with large groups. Spacial intelligence, verbal intelligence, math and boolean logic intelligence, tech intelligence. How you use all those forms of intelligence and whether you put in the effort to train them individually and see how they work together makes a big impact on overall intelligence.
If I see that someone has a high rate of neuroplasticity and can adapt their intelligence to several different kinds of problems, I consider them a genius. People who continue reading and learning all their lives because they can't get enough, also probably worthy of being called a genius. People like Jimi Hendrix who are considered the pinnacle of their field but who will carry tape recorders to even a shitty bands show to remind us all theres always something you can learn, even from a bad show. An artistic genius is the person who is able to act most like themselves no matter who's watching, and an economic genius is the person who can get paid for it.
i used to use a measuring cup but i could never see the ounce side, only the milliliter side, because of where they put the handle. i switched to using a tape measure but the cats broke it. now i just take a string and wrap it around the intelligence and measure the string later with a ruler.
g
First you have to define intelligence, and if you can do that then you are very intelligent indeed.
@maturin1919 So if I spend my entire life learning the number of every fire engine in the world, which would be both a skill and knowledge, and in doing so I loose my job all my friends and any chance of a meaningful or sexual relationship, is that intelligence?
@maturin1919 Can you do it?
@maturin1919 And were you born able to do that ?
Although many have challenged I.Q. tests as the true measure of intelligence, I.Q. is the default and universally used measure.
There is nothing wrong with IQ test as a way of measuring achademic problem solving skills, but there are a lot of people who have those to the highest level, who still beleive in things like gods. Real world, working intelligence needs to include things like honesty, dedication and integrity, not accepting second class answers, plus caring, taking the trouble to aquire knowledge because you feel it matters.