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Malcolm Gladwell
Bold = updated on
March 8 2008
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Average IQ and Intelligence Tests
Intelligence is usually described by IQ or Intelligence quotient. It is a number derived from tests measuring a person's ability to take in and use information of an intellectual nature. The average IQ is 100.
Within populations there is a bell curve distribution of intelligence typified by the example above. Average IQ is 100. The membership of certain High Intelligence societies eg Mensa is predicated on achieving an IQ in the top 2%. This corresponds to an IQ of 148 or higher (on the Cattell scale where 1 standard deviation = 24) or 132 on Stanford Binet (1 s.d=16).
It is believed that most intelligence is genetic but other factors, particularly environment eg correct childhood nutrition or too few hours of sleep can affect IQ. There is a belief that IQ can be increased through various techniques such as doing puzzles, avoiding routine, learning a musical instrument or a foreign language. These are all tasks that increase synaptic connections in the brain but this has not been demonstrated or proven scientifically.