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Astonishing (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

At the end of the day, reducing intelligence down to one single number is already kind of questionable. What does it mean for someone to be 1 point more intelligent than another person?

[–] spikespaz 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

If you took a test as a child, it was probably WISC-V.

This assessment provides the following scores:

A Composite Score that represents a child's overall intellectual ability (FSIQ)

Primary Index Scores that measure the following areas of cognitive functioning: Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), Visual Spatial Index (VSI), Fluid Reasoning Index (FRI), Working Memory Index (WMI), and the Processing Speed Index (PSI).

Ancillary Index Scores are also provided: The Quantitative Reasoning Index (QRI) ; Auditory Working Memory Index (AWMI); Nonverbal Index (NVI); General Ability Index (GAI); and the Cognitive Proficiency Index (CPI).

Which seems very reasonable to me. This was originally intended to be an aptitude test, not strictly to measure your intelligence.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is supposed to quantify intelligence but how are these criteria quantified? Seems like the same fundamental issue

[–] spikespaz 0 points 1 year ago

I don't know, when I got tested it seemed like they were testing the right stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's a well-made test that provides fairly accurate results. Even if what they claim to be measuring in each category isn't reflected in the test, it is, at the very least measuring the abilities required to take the test and that exactly.

It seems pretty straightforward to see how good a kid is at solving a puzzle, right?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's the composite score, and especially the heavy emphasis on it as some innate unchangeable thing, that's the questionable part.

[–] spikespaz 1 points 1 year ago

Absolutely, but it's still useful. Allegedly Alfred Binet did not approve of the eventual applications of the test he designed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It's also, there are several different axes that you could measure intelligence along, spatial intelligence and awareness, emotional intelligence and so on. Also intelligence is a sliding scale, there are definitely times of the day, week month and year when I am less able to solve problems and more likely to cause them and then you're into the social aspects, it's been demonstrated that people's ability to think straight is affected by how precarious their existence is and so on.