Completely OT

[AgentZero]

Once again, I wish to avail of the vast repository of knowledge that is this forum to answer a question that has nothing to do with SE...
Just for fun, I decided to take an IQ test (www.tickle.com) and scored 156. Rather impressive, you may think, however I took a different IQ test from the same website a couple months ago and scored 182. The only difference between now and then is that right now I'm really quite sick.
My question is, why does being sick make you dumber?

[Puke]

IQ tests, especially the kind you will find at places like Tickle, are not very accurate. they usually express a bias towards certain language speakers and cultural upbringings. there is really no such thing as an entirely unbiased IQ test.

but to answer your question, your reaction time and ability to correlate information is controlled by your neurochemistry. which is impacted by being sick. or drunk. or emotionally distraught. or any number of other things.

[Arkcon]

AgentZero said:
"Just for fun, I decided to take an IQ test (www.tickle.com) and scored 156. Rather impressive, you may think, however I took a different IQ test from the same website a couple months ago and scored 182."

Search your local library for a tiny book written decades ago called -- "How to lie with statistics". It addresses this problem specifically.

Short answer, you won't get exactly the same answer with each measurement, and 25 IQ points is not a significant difference.

If the website wanted to be responsibile, they'd highlight that by providing % error information. Like political polls do.

[Fyron]

IQ tests really only test how good you are at taking IQ tests... IQ tests only test one small, not so significant in the big picture portion of your intellect.

[Iansidious]

Tell me about Mr. Fyron. I took a fun quiz on MSN a month ago. I SUCKED on the grammer protion. But, I passed with flying colours on the meaning of foreign words, like trompe l'oeil, auld lang syne, etcetera, iechyd da. I'm good with words, but, terrible with English grammer(I do know the basics, its the details I dilike.).

[AgentZero]

I am fully aware of the limitations of IQ tests, but in my Last two years of High School, I was subjected to an enormous battery of IQ Tests, EQ (emotional quotient) and even a few IQQ (IQ Quotient test -a test to see how good at taking IQ tests you are. Of course they didn't tell us that at the time). I think over the two years I took something like 140 of the things. All throughout, my IQ results never varied by more that 6 points up or down. So I found it a bit shocking that according to http://members.shaw.ca/delajara/IQtable.html being sick dropped me from having an IQ in the 1 in 6,709,882 range to the 1 in 4,298 range. Which one has to admit, is a pretty big drop.
The main point of my question was that if anyone, possibly someone with medical background, knows what's going on inside me that is making me, well, dumber, while I'm sick, I'm very curious to know what it is.

[Fyron]

Puke answered that question, more or less. Anything that alters the neurochemical balance in your brain will affect such tests.

[Rathar]

IQ tests were designed by and administered to largely a western european based/raised audience. As such they are only useful in determining the "intelligence" of such and are very very biased towards what such western european minds consider "intelligent".. And then you toss in the impact of error bars and it's not surprising that some internet lowest common denominator test produces wildly disparate results..

To make a long story short these types of tests aren't "science" but mostly polls registering popular opinion..

But let me get off my soapbox.

You are sick, your body only has so much resources, since you are sick it is forced to apply a greater amount of said resources to the disease and thus you have less left to be "smart" with.

Sleep inducing expansion on this basic idea framework available upon request.

[Atrocities]

USing those same tests I scored 188, then 140, then 55.

I can honestly say that I did have an IQ of 183, but over the years I have become stupid. All those years working around vented fumes from floor polishers, chemicals from working with semi-conductors, and thousands of gallons of chemically enhanced or produced products such as milk, pop, water, coffee, diet pop, and so on.

Basically put, living makes you stupid, having a cold just helps it along. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[DarkHorse]

Nothing makes one more stupid than watching TV though. Especially that "reality" nonsense. You can almost hear IQs plummeting worldwide.

[Atrocities]

Reality TV.... please forgive me for saying this, but what in the hell are people thinking who watch these God foresaken bad language shows?

Reality TV is a waste of Reality not to mention a complete waste of what could be great fantasy TV!

[Randallw]

In totalitarian stories the public is pacified by watching dreary tv programs with no value except to keep the masses occupied. Does anyone realise how ironic it is that the public masses are kept occupied by watching "reality TV". "Big Brother" is doubly ironic since we are supposed to keep an eye on the contestants 24/7.

[Atrocities]

Well said Brother Randallw. Well said.

[David E. Gervais]

I don't need a test. I know I have an IQ and it works fine. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

BTW, 'Genius' is not about having a high IQ, it's about putting your high IQ to practical use. Also, the 'sum' intellect is a very bad way to measure a person's intelligence, because if a person is excellent in one area and not the others, the 'average' result will not show that person's special talent. (example, a person can be very 'musically' inclined and a virtual genius when it comes to making music, but not be able to cook, build, do math or much else in anything more than an average way.)

But I digress, if you're facinated by the whole IQ thing, join MENSA.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[David E. Gervais]

DarkHorse said:
Nothing makes one more stupid than watching TV though. Especially that "reality" nonsense. You can almost hear IQs plummeting worldwide.



Watching TV does 'Not' make people stupid. Though there sure is an overabundance of stupid shows on TV. Many of us here are in no way stupid and we watch TV. I don't know about you, but I have yet to see (hear) Babylon 5, SG1, Star Trek, or any of the other 'imho' good shows on radio, so what is a person to do? Also, there are many good-great movies that are shown on TV. The 'Real' problem with TV is that the commercials are even more stupid than the shows and therefore make even the worst shows look good. ;P

/ramble mode off.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Raging Deadstar]

Hehe, My IQ averages out over every test I've taken at around 120/130. Which isn't bad, but I don't take much notice of them. Some people are Genius' at one thing, and unable to grasp another.

I can Do basic maths and everything nessercary, but anything beyond that I suck badly at. But most thing's to do with English and Writing I fly through.

[AgentZero]

Rathar said:

You are sick, your body only has so much resources, since you are sick it is forced to apply a greater amount of said resources to the disease and thus you have less left to be "smart" with.

Sleep inducing expansion on this basic idea framework available upon request.



I'd actually quite like a 'sleep inducing expansion on the basic idea framework'. It seems while I may be dumber than usual, my curiosity retains it's almighty appetite.

[Atrocities]

When I was tested at the age of 4 or 5, I scored very very high. I skipped kindergarden and was able to do multiplication problems out to 9x9 by first grade. But the school district of Camas WA, felt that my being half blind was a distraction to the other kids. They classified it as a illness and made my life hell. My parents were forced to send me to the Vancouver Blind School for my second grade year. I had only a first grade reading and writing skill, and found brail reading to be borning. This lack of proper education regarding my reading has haunted me ever since. Hense my horrid spelling and grammer skills. (Hey nobody is perfect. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif ) I Lasted at the Blind School for a year before being bumped back into the public school system. It would seem that I was so far ahead of my classmates at the blind school, and was I was litterly board to tears. The could not figure why I was attending the school when my IQ was so high. (Hey I was a five or six year old kid at the time, all I wanted to do was play with my friends and make forts in the rec-room. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif And we made some dandy arse forts too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I always found public school to be borning, and if not for evil people, I would have gone on to higher education and perhaps be a better person than I am now. But life is what life is, and Gods will has been done, I have become far less than I was, and there really is nothing I can do about it except grin and bear it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I guess the same is true for any person in life. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif We just have to take it as it comes and try to survive it without loosing our sense of humor.

I am a firm believer that if you do not use your mind, it weakens like with any musle and your IQ, your real IQ, suffors.

So use that IQ. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Renegade 13]

I took a couple of IQ tests, and scored around 135. Now, my sisters and dad also took the exact same test, and it turns out that my dad scored slightly higher than I did. I find that really REALLY hard to believe (for various reasons), and from then on, decided that most IQ tests are a load of really stinky fecal matter.

How smart we are really doesn't matter much, its what we do with the intelligence we were born with that matters. Ambition matters more than intelligence in some ways.

[Electrum]

Renegade 13 said:
... my dad scored slightly higher than I did. I find that really REALLY hard to believe ...




Ah!
A son's view of there father.
When you 6 years old, Daddy is the biggest, strongest, smartest person you know.
When your 16, You have no Idea how dad has survived as long as he has with his obvious mental handicap.
When your 26, your amazed at how much dad has learned in the Last 10 years. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Renegade 13]

I just KNEW someone would have to say that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Atrocities]

When your 35 you wish that daddy's genes did not include bolding, gut expansion, harry back-legs-nose-and ears. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

And then there is always mom.

[AgentZero]

Renegade 13 said:my dad scored slightly higher than I did. I find that really REALLY hard to believe



It is quite odd, especially given an interesting phenomenom known as the Flynn Effect, whereby starting around the 1930s, people have scoring progressively higher marks on IQ tests at a rate of approximately 3 points per decade.
Which I probably should have mentioned before Christmas, since it's an invaluable weapon against cranky older relatives.
"In my day, we did have things so easy!"
"Yeah, because you weren't smart enough to figure out what the easy way way!"
I've used that one on a couple uncles to great effect. ;-)

[deccan]

AgentZero said:
It is quite odd, especially given an interesting phenomenom known as the Flynn Effect, whereby starting around the 1930s, people have scoring progressively higher marks on IQ tests at a rate of approximately 3 points per decade.



Wow, I didn't know this. That's highly interesting. I just googled a bunch of stuff on this.

[Raging Deadstar]

See. The easy way is Google, they never invented Google.

Ok, so they never had computers or the internet, but that just further prooves it. Computers, debateably, have made life easier, they never invented them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif