Trouble with Geniuses Part 1

By Shannon Hancock, Steven Schuffenhauer, Peter Capuano, and Julian Oliver

What is an IQ test?

• In 1905, French psychologist Alfred Binet along with Theodore Simon, developed the Binet Simon Test.

• This test was to measure the intelligence of mentally disabled children based on that:

1) As children grow they grow more mentally capable and

2) Some children perform above their chronological ages, some perform about average, and some perform below average.

Test Scores vs. Quality of the student?

• The tests and quizzes you take are how well you apply the new knowledge you learned from school. If the quality of a student is different, they might do better on the test if it had different worded questions or a different structure to the test, but it has the same answers.

• That would be a better way to test students. Not every student is the same at taking tests, and some students just aren’t good at taking tests or quizzes.

High IQ’s

• People with high IQ’s in our society are looked at as better people than those with lower IQ’s.

• If a person is hiring for a job and its between you and someone else, the person hiring will most likely take the smarter person.

• If you have a high IQ people with think you have more potential than other people and can do more.

• If you have a high IQ you will think differently from other people. You use your imagination more to solve different types of questions.

Divergent verse Convergent

• A divergent test is a test with no right answer. It encourages you to use your mind and think deep.

• A convergent test is a test that settles in no one correct answer.

• Just because divergent test don’t have one correct answer doesn’t mean they are easier than convergent.

• Divergent tests requires you to use you imagination, to really out think someone else.

How would 10,000 hours affect these geniuses?

• The 10,000 hour rule affects people in chapter 3 because everyone of the “geniuses” had to put in a lot of time to learn what they did.

• But after the 10,000 hours they geniuses and the other people no quite as smart were basically on the same playing field because after the 10,000 hours.

• I didn’t matter after that because they were all so smart that their extra intelligence didn’t help them.

What are the differences between the Divergence Test and the Convergence Test?

Divergence Test• Test on creativity

• More open minded

• Multiple answers

• Administrators of this test want to see uniqueness in answers.

Convergence Test• Test on problem solving

• More tunnel vision

• One right answer

• Administrators want to see if the answer is right or wrong.

To have a high IQ, you tend to specialize and think deep thoughts. Is this true?

• This is not necessarily true because as stated in the chapter, the high IQ doesn’t determine how creative one’s mind is.

• On page 88 it shows how a boy named Florence who is considered a “prodigy”, with one of the highest IQs in his school, is incapable of creative thinking. His response to a question from a divergence test, (which is a test designed to explore ones imagination), lacked creativity.

• So How can one have deep thoughts and not be creative?

“There is nothing about an individual as important as his IQ, except possibly his morals.” - Terman What do you think about his statement?

• I disagree. I think things such as personality, natural talent, creativity, and social skills play a big role on how successful one becomes.

• As stated in the article, out of the child geniuses , (who had very high IQ’s), that were chosen by Terman, only a few grew up to be very successful. On page 89 it says, “The majority had careers that could only be considered ordinary, and a surprising number ended up with careers that even Terman considered failures.”

• This goes to show that an individual’s IQ score is not all that important.