Behaviourism is an empiricist psychological lens propagated by scholars like Ivan Pavlov, John B Watson and B. F. Skinner, who shifted the focus from internal states and non-observable notions like free will to the observable behaviours of individuals. This was a huge leap, given Sigmond Freud’s theories of the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious had submerged the field of Psychology in notions of the internal minds and concepts of will whether they be dictated by intentional choices or suppressed desires. The problem with this was that it made Psychology majorly theory based. Behaviourists like Skinner who proposed their ideas several decades later were thus quite radical in stressing on carrying out actual experiments be it on animals (e.g., Skinner Box) or on humans (e.g. Teaching Machines). This move away from free will was not as much to deny its presence as to concede that given that free will is unpredictable by nature, it can’t be studied and hence psychologists should focus on those aspects that can be understood through repeatable and controlled experiments. Behaviourists believed that the consequences that each of one’s actions have create specific cases of contingencies. These contingencies result in either reinforcements or punishments, both of which can be used to modify and control behaviour. In fact, when our teacher scolds us in class for not doing our homework (punishment) or rewards us with a toffee on making a wonderful project (positive reinforcement), she is trying to reduce undesirable behaviours and encourage desirable ones in us, respectively. In a way behaviourism heavily relies on the environment and nurture, even though the behaviourists also accept the other end of this age-old dichotomy, i.e. nature. It is this concept of nature and the innateness associated with it that gave rise to Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests.

The concept of IQ test was introduced by the French psychologist Alfred Binet and further developed by other American psychologists like Henry Goddard and Robert Yerkes as a measure of innate intelligence as opposed to acquired knowledge. The aim of these was to identify the present natural cognitive ability of the test-taken with no predictions about the future with the intention of thereafter nurturing them in ways best suitable for the particular candidate through combinations of positive and negative reinforcements and punishments to create a learning environment and contingencies that can improve their cognitive skills. In other words, these tests were originally not as focused on identifying the hidden gem in the class as they were in detecting those students that required special attention. In fact, Goddard even came up with a categories, albeit with a quite problematic nomenclature, like “Moron”, “Imbecile”, and “Idiot” in the descending order of intelligence to group such individuals so that lessons can be planned for them accordingly. Today these tests continue to be formally important in their use as a part of the admission process to various educational programs as well as for identifying gifted students – for instance, organizations like MENSA and the Triple Nine Society. Interestingly, over the last many decades, IQ tests have also gained substantial status as an informal popular quiz taken just for the purpose of self-assessment that one might choose to brag about on their social media platforms. Spinoffs like these can be found under categories like “Intelligence Games”, “Mind Games” and “What’s Your IQ” in various online gaming sites.

In this update, I will be looking at IQ tests primarily aimed at self-assessment as a means of entertainment albeit restricting myself to the book IQ and Psychometric Tests: Assess your personality, aptitude and intelligence (2nd Edition, 2007 [2004]) by Philip Carter that proclaims its main purpose to be “identify your strengths and weaknesses”. I will look at some Verbal Intelligence Test questions and analyzing it uses and limits as well as the extent to which it serves its purpose. The section begins as follows:

Synonym IQ Test

“Test 1: Synonym Test

A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as, or a very similar meaning to, another word. Examples of synonyms are: calm and placid […].

You have 30 minutes to complete the 20 questions. You should work as quickly as possible as some questions will take more time to solve than others.”

Restricting the first test to a single pre-identified topic with a pre-set number of questions, reduces the test-taker’s anxiety by giving them a sense of certainty about the type and number of questions to be expected, which in turn creates a positive environment in which they can proceed to perform. Furthermore, the definition and examples provided for the associated topic also gives them a quick warm-up, increasing their understanding and consequently their confidence, especially if they are already familiar with the topic in which case seeing their pre-existing knowledge match with the given text will act as a positive reinforcement and encourage them to proceed. Again, the guideline about the speed at which they should work also prepares them for unforeseen difficulties they might encounter in the course of the exam, given that “some questions will take more time to solve”. While this might make them feel tense, their pre-knowledge about this possibility also prepares them for it and hence ultimately reduces the amount of stress they might have felt while actually encountering the more time-taking questions in the absence of this warning.

Additionally, the 20 questions have been divided into 3 parts “Questions 1 to 5”, “Questions 6 to 10”, “Questions 11 to 20” in line with the increasing level of difficulty seen in Binet’s Intelligence Test Model. Below are samples from the 3 sections:

“Sample from Questions 1 to 5:

Select the word in brackets with the closest meaning:

Brusque (crude, curt, unkind, elastic, wieldy)

Sample from Questions 6 to 10:

Select two words that are closest in meaning:

Flawless, ulterior, unwelcome, secret, overt, literate

Sample from Questions 11 to 20:

Which two words below are most similar to the phrase “get the wrong idea”?

Misconceive, miscalculate, misconstrue, misinform, misapply, misconduct”

“Questions 1 to 5” can immediately be perceived as the beginner level where the test-taker must only focus on finding a synonym for the given word, i.e., one of the two synonyms is fixed here. Resultantly, they have to compare 1 word with 5 other words. However, “Questions 6 to 10” challenge the test-taker further by making it their onus to figure out which word has a synonym in the given list. Here, there is no fixed word meaning the number of comparisons here increases manifold: Word 1 – 5 comparisons, Word 2 – 4 comparisons, Word 3 – 3 comparisons, Word 4 – 2 comparisons, Word 5 – 1 comparison, making it a total of 5+4+3+2+1= 15 comparisons > 5 comparisons in the previous section. The given sample from the “Questions 11 to 20” section not only requires them to know the meaning of the given 6 word choices, but also the socially popular phrase “get the wrong idea”. Thus, the last section differs from the previous two by testing the practical knowledge of the test-taken in addition to their lexical grasp. This question is made further difficult by giving word options with the same negative prefix “mis-” in line with the negative sense hinted in the given phrase due to the presence of the word “wrong”. This prevents the test-taker from blindly selecting the option with a known negative prefix and thus requires them to know the meaning of the given words.

The above analysis suggests that the given test is useful in mainly testing the lexical knowledge of the test taker with a supplementary, albeit limited focus on practical knowledge. Given that none of the questions have cues that force the test-taker to use their reasoning and logical skills, the test doesn’t fair well as an indicator of innate knowledge as it heavily depends on the test-taker’s preexisting knowledge. Resultantly, the test is limited in its ability to determine the potential of the test-takers and merely indicates what they already know were able to successfully recall on the test day. This might prove to be disadvantageous to students with anxiety issues whose memory fails them under stressful situations like test-taking. Such students will probably fare better in tests that depend more on context-laden questions while the given test might provide a wrong judgement of their intelligence. Thus, it might give a skewed perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of some of the test-takers and thereby fail its purpose.

References:

Carter, Philip. 2007 [2004]. IQ and Psychometric Tests: Assess your personality, aptitude and intelligence (2nd Edition). London, Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Dybwad, Gunnar. 1974. “Whom Do We Call Mentally Retarded?”

Skinner, B. F. 2013 [1969]. Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis. USA: B. F. Skinner Foundation.