Measuring IQ a waist of time
HEALTH
The Brain
As time goes by the brain changes, and so does ones IQ. Studies are finding teens' intellects may be more malleable than previously thought. The smaller or larger a teenager’s brain the IQ can rise or fall as many as 20 points, and in just a few years. A young person's intelligence measure isn't as fixed as once thought a recent study found.
The researchers also found that shifts in IQ scores corresponded to small physical changes in brain areas related to intellectual skills, though they weren't able to show a clear cause and effect." If the finding is true, it could signal environmental factors that are changing the brain and intelligence over a relatively short period," said psychologist Robert Pluming at Kings College in London, who studies the genetics of intelligence and wasn't involved in the research. "That is quite astounding." Long at the center of debates over how intelligence can be measured, an IQ score—the initials stand for "intelligence quotient"—typically gauges mental capacity through a battery of standardized tests of language skill, spatial ability, arithmetic, memory and reasoning. A score of 100 is considered average. Barring injury, that intellectual capacity remains constant throughout life, most experts believe. But the new findings by researchers at University College London, reported online in Nature, suggest that IQ, often used to predict school performance and job prospects, may be more malleable than previously believed—and more susceptible to outside influences, such as tutoring or neglect." A change in 20 points is a huge difference," said the team's senior researcher, Cathy Price, at the university's Welcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. Indeed, it can mean the difference between being rated average and being labeled gifted—or, conversely, being categorized as substandard. Researchers found that dramatic changes in verbal IQ corresponded to changes in an area of the brain associated with speech; whereas nonverbal IQ changes were related to an area involved in hand movements. To better understand intelligence, Dr. Price and her colleagues studied
To be continued….To read more Karl Wallace short stories go to: .Karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
