ISMED Newsletters

» Return to News Gram Archive Main Menu

News Gram™ April 2006

April 2006 ~ Volume 12, No. 9

For generations, parents have agonized over the intelligence of their children. How many of us have heard an otherwise normal woman announce to the world that her son just happens to be brilliant, possessed of an off-the-charts IQ. What such a charming woman may not know is that the definition of intelligence is complex. Most psychiatrists think of IQ as the ability to assimilate new facts, to remember recent and remote events, to reason, to recognize the difference between the abstract and the concrete and to solve problems.

Intelligence varies widely. Culture affects its extent as does genetic endowment. In 1939, David Wechsler at New York University Hospital authored the WAIS, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. He also produced the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the WISC, and the Wechsler Primary Scale of Intelligence, or WPPSI, for children 4 to 6-1/2 years old. A good way to get a picture of the different sides of intellectual capacity is to look at the WAIS.

The test divides intellectual ability into six verbal skills and 5 performance skills. Here’s a brief account of each one:

VERBAL SKILLS

Information – This subtest covers general information and is influenced by cultural variables. People from low socioeconomic groups and little schooling perform more poorly than those from higher groups.

Comprehension – A person’s ability to conform to social conventions and exercise social judgment is the main focus of this subtest. The ability to understand proverbs and know how to behave under specific circumstances is used as a measure of comprehension.

Arithmetic – Though negatively influenced by anxiety, poor attention and comprehension, this subtest measures the person’s ability to perform ordinary arithmetic and related operations. 

Similarities – “What do a pear and a peach have in common?” is the kind of question asked in this section. It is a sensitive indicator of overall IQ, in part because it involves the ability to abstract.

Digit Span – Immediate retention is measured in this part of the WAIS. The subject has to learn series of two to nine digits, which are immediately recalled forward and backward. The results are influenced by anxiety, poor attention span and brain impairment.

Vocabulary – IQ is highly correlated with vocabulary. In the WAIS, the subject is given 35 different words of increasing difficulty to define. Idiosyncratic definitions may point to personality issues.

PERFORMANCE

Picture Completion – The subject is asked to complete a picture in which part is missing. Visual and perceptual deficits become apparent through mistakes the person makes.

Block Design – The examiner asks the subject to match colored blocks and visual designs. Impairment of left-right dominance in the central nervous system impairs normal performance on this part of the test.

Picture Arrangement – In this subtest, the subject has to arrange a series of pictures so that they tell a story. This part of the WAIS says something of the person’s cognitive style as well.

Object Assembly – The subject must assemble objects in their proper order and organization. Manual dexterity, visuoperception and somatoperception are the areas tested.

Digit Symbol – In this subtest, the subject is given a code that matches symbols with digits. The task is to match a series of digits to their corresponding symbols is as short a time as possible.

This brief account of the WAIS provides insight into the nature of human intelligence. Normal IQs are in the range of 90-110, while scores of 120 are referred to as superior (See diagram). There is a demarcation at 130 above which a person is rated as very superior. At the other end of the IQ spectrum, scores of 70 or less are regarded as retarded. That range covers 2.2 percent of the population. In other words, 2 people out of every 100 score in the mentally deficient range.

IQ is influenced by many different forces such as upbringing, socioeconomic context, physical illness, and cultural values. Personality, for instance, is often neglected in an age when the only things that seem to count are test scores. Yet the moral stature, the esthetic sensibility and the ability to relate to other people are all elements of personality functioning. We often forget that the success of a person has to do with much more than his or her intelligence. What is more important is that each person be matched with the proper set of challenges in his life so that he can realize the potential contained within.

•   •   •

» Return to News Gram Archive Main Menu