Answered on Quora.
Well, I am supposed to have a genius IQ, but even I cannot understand what the person asking this question is trying to say.
First of all, if critical thinking is anything, it is intelligence.
Intelligence, more than anything else, is pure brain speed. And in fact, that is exactly what an IQ test tests for.
Let us say that I have a higher IQ than someone else. Mine is 147. The other person’s is 120, almost a full two SD’s below me. For some people around this level, I seem smarter than they are, but on the other hand, they are no dummies. We can communicate very well. It’s the difference between a smart person and a really smart person, which doesn’t boil down to a whole lot in the real world.
For others at ~120, I hate to say it, but I simply cannot see how I am smarter than they are, even at a near full two SD difference. Now why this is, I am not sure, but maybe we are comparing smart with very smart, and it’s hard to see a difference there.
Nevertheless, according to an IQ test, comparing me to the 120 IQ person:
- I have a faster brain.
- I have a better and bigger memory. I can remember more stuff and keep it around better.
- My memory recall is faster and more accurate. I can pull stored knowledge out of my brain faster and more correctly.
- I have better verbal and nonverbal analytical skills. I am better at “seeing the whole picture” and “tying it all together.”
- I can analyze a problem in terms of vocabulary and make sense out it and see patterns and connect them together better and perhaps faster.
- I can see patterns in objects in space and connect them up more faster and more accurately.
- I can find the answer to a new problem that I have never seen before faster and more accurately.
- My critical thinking skills work faster and more accurately.
Bottom line is simply that I have a faster brain. My brain also utilizes glucose better and faster. In addition, my brain itself may well be larger, and I may have more cells and especially connections.
I may not be more creative, and I may well have worse musical or artistic skills. These are all subtypes of intelligence.
My kinetic intelligence may well be worse. This is “physical intelligence.” It is a real thing. The best athletes actually have “intelligent bodies.” They are better and faster at moving their bodies the way they want them to than I am.
I may have worse social intelligence. Social intelligence is a very real thing. It is definitely a type of intelligence.
I may have worse street smarts, or crafty, foxy, sly, clever, or sneaky type intelligence. This “smart like a fox” intelligence is a very real thing, and it is a type of intelligence.
I may not be as wise. In fact, I may have little or no wisdom at all, and I may live my live in a completely idiotic or para-suicidal manner. Wisdom indeed is a type of intelligence.
I may well have worse mechanical skills. Mechanical skills are absolutely a type of intelligence.
I may have poor skills at higher mathematics. IQ tests only test low level mathematics. Quite a few very high IQ people barely got through high school math and struggled with Algebra 2 and Geometry, including me.
- An IQ test does not test for artistic, musical, or creative intelligence. Not at all.
- An IQ test does not test for kinetic intelligence of course. You would test that on a playing field of some sort.
- An IQ test absolutely does not test social intelligence at all. You test that out in the real world with real people, and they will be the judges of your social intelligence, not you.
- An IQ test does not test crafty, sly, or street smart intelligence. Street smart people will judge you on that on their own, and they will always be right.
- An IQ test is absolutely not a wisdom test! So many people cannot seem to figure this out as they constantly conflate raw intelligence and wisdom. They are two different things.
- An IQ test does not test mechanical intelligence at all.
- An IQ test absolutely does not test for higher math skills at all.
I hope this clarifies for people exactly what an IQ test checks for and how indeed it leaves out a number sub-intelligences which may well be very important for you and society.
