What is the IQ of a gifted?
Each and every one of us possess certain cognitive abilities , varying greatly depending on each person. These allow us to be able to adapt to the environment and solve problems, establishing strategies and allowing us to carry out a great diversity of behaviors.
Assessing the degree to which we have them allows us to make a prediction of the ability to adapt and deal with situations, having developed different mechanisms for this. One of the concepts used to calculate intelligence is the IQ or IQ, which makes it possible to assess it and compare it with the population mean.
In most people we will find an intellectual capacity that is variable but is usually within the average. However, we can also find the case of people who either have less than average abilities (intellectual disability case) or they surpass it by far, the latter being the case of the gifted.
To establish at what point one passes from a normal intelligence to the high intellectual capacities could be difficult to the naked eye, but that is why concepts like the IC can be of some utility. What is the IQ of a gifted? Let's see it throughout this article.
- Related article: "The theories of human intelligence"
Intelligence and IQ
Before going into depth on what is the IQ of a gifted, we must first mention what we call intelligence and what exactly we mean by the concept of intellectual quotient.
With regard to intelligence or cognitive ability, although the concept is known by all, there is great difficulty in providing a concrete, unitary definition that makes clear what its limits are in relation to other concepts. further there is a lot of controversy regarding the definition of this skill or ability , existing diverse theories on the matter that even discuss if we can consider it a unique capacity or rather a set of capacities or multiple intelligences.
In broad strokes, we understand as intelligence the ability of human beings (or other types of beings) to use their cognitive resources efficiently and optimally in order to adapt and respond to environmental demands, thanks to it and among other things, capturing and understanding internal or external information at great speed, generate strategies that allow the achievement of concrete objectives , solve problems or even anticipate events and anticipate difficulties.
The measurement of cognitive abilities
Although the concept to be treated may be this, the truth is that measuring something so intangible is complex. For this, one of the possible ways to do it is to evaluate the performance of the subject in different tasks that require the resolution of different types of tasks associated with intelligent behavior and from which to observe different facets of it.
In this sense, the first intelligence test was born, designed to evaluate the intellectual performance of children and made by Binet and Simon after having been commissioned by the French government (in order to evaluate the students and establish educational measures for those minors who could not follow an ordinary education). It would arise in one of the revisions of this test the concept of Mental Age, in which the mental capacity was valued according to the average age at which the majority of children could solve the same problems.
However, after observing that the existence of specific differences had different importance depending on age, psychologist William Stern would end up generating what is now known as Intellectual Quotient or IQ. This quotient is a method that evaluates the cognitive capacity based on the division of mental age and chronological age, multiplying it later by one hundred (thus eliminating decimals), and allows obtaining a comparable score with the measurement of other subjects of the same age .
It is this concept that is used today to the extent of intelligence , although there are several controversies in this regard (for example, it is necessary to take into account the Flynn effect through which the measured CI increases over the centuries not due to greater intelligence but to aspects such as greater contact with activities intellectuals and technological development).
What is the IQ of a gifted?
The Intellectual Quotient or CI is a relative measure of intelligence, whose meaning only makes sense compared to the average population. In this sense, it has been established that the intelligence follows a normal distribution in the population , considering the average of it a score of 100 and observing a standard deviation (a concept that tells us about the variability expected in the scores) of 15 points.
In this sense, we would consider a normal intelligence (the one that has most of the population) that reflects an IQ that oscillates between 85 and 115. Below 85 and up to 70 we talk about limit intelligence , and above 115 and even 130 brilliance or intellectually gifted people.
The existence of capacities well below or well above the average will be considered as such only when they exceed the two standard deviations above or below. Thus, only below an IC 70 we would be talking about intellectual disability (which as it went down would be getting more and more severe), while above 130 we would be talking about high abilities or giftedness.
In this way and responding to the question that gives rise to this article when we speak of gifted we are talking about people who in the evaluation of their intelligence or cognitive ability have obtained scores whose transformation to IQ would indicate an IQ higher than 130. is independent of sex or age , as long as we are before a subject over 12 years of age and the group with which the subject is compared is the same age group.
Does being gifted suppose to have a high Intellectual Quotient?
When we speak of a gifted person, it is easy to identify him with a person whose Intellectual Quotient is above 130. But, while this is not uncertain (in fact, the WHO definition is this), for some authors the mere possession of this level of capacity would not be enough to talk about true giftedness.
And it is that to obtain a certain score in an intelligence test that indicates an intellectual capacity above the average is not the only requirement to be considered gifted: it also takes into account that said intellectual capacity is shown in most domains and types of intelligence (that is, it would not be enough to be excellent in logical-mathematical skills or music, but also in other areas, in which case we would be just someone talented), know how to apply their abilities in an adaptive way and the existence of a high creativity or capacity for it.
- Maybe you're interested: "Gifted students: individual differences between children with extraordinary intelligence"
Examples of giftedness
Giftedness is a very uncommon characteristic in the population, with about 2% of the population having high cognitive abilities. But nevertheless, many of them have made notable contributions and well-known figures from different fields have been made, including science, economics or art. Here are four well-known examples.
1. Marilyn Monroe
Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, was considered one of the sexiest and most attractive women in the world. But despite being remembered for its beauty, its films, its relationships and its tragic death, the truth is that behind it all was a woman with a level of intelligence superior to that of Albert Einstein. Specifically, five points above: Marilyn Monroe had an IC of 165.
2. Stephen Hawking
The recently deceased genius of physics and astrophysics, known for his studies on the universe and especially for his studies on black holes, he was a person with an extremely high IQ , with an IQ of 152.
3. Marilyn vos Savant
Maybe this name is not as well known in our country as the other two, but this writer and columnist of North American origin, who is also among other things director of finance at Jarvik Heart, lecturer (having been named one of the five most outstanding speakers in 1999) and member of societies such as Mensa or the National Association Council for Gifted Children is the person who holds the Guinness Record with the highest IQ, with an IQ of 228 .
