Building Blocks 

24” x 28” – an acrylic painting by Marilynne – $ 450
Stacking blocks in a prescribed order is a challenge in IQ tests.

IQ News and You
When I was nine years old, a friend of my mother’s was taking university courses in educational psychology. For one class she needed practice subjects to give IQ tests to and used my brother and me as volunteer subjects. The test was quite thorough and included tactile manipulatives as well as pencil and paper answers. Though not at genius level, I remember receiving a score that was enough over average to satisfy my parents. From that day on, they accepted the test result as gospel, and increased their expectation of how well I should do in school. My grades acceptable, because in my father’s eyes a girl was not expected to be a brain. Schooling was there to make me a good mother and educated companion to my future husband. Since I was not as important as my brother, I was not overly pressured. In the long run his lack of attention turned me into an achiever.

My brother did not fare as well as I even though he registered equally high on the Stanford Binet scale. He did not react well to my father’s expectations and pushed back by not completing assignments, cutting classes, and just skating through his high school years. School bored him. For many months he hid in his bedroom engrossed in reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover, yet his poor grades trumped his independent study in my parent’s eyes. At the end of high school went so far as to falsify his report card by giving himself straight As, and for a few summer months the family was happy. When he never received a college acceptance letter, however, my mother went to school to find out what was going on and discovered that his A grades were really Fs.

“What will he amount to?” my father shouted. “He is good for nothing. Get out of the house.” Though this brother caused a great deal of chaos, his turbulent childhood turned him into an independent thinker. My father gave up, washing his hands of him so to speak, assuming he would slither through life, amounting to nothing.

Thankfully the story does not end badly. After four years in the military, where he managed to get himself assigned to Germany instead of Vietnam, he graduated in urban studies from a four year college to become a productive development entrepreneur. The test he had taken as a child had neglected to measure drive and perseverance. Though he did not like school, no one considered his ability to concentrate on things he did enjoy. Internal motivations, fear of failure and craving for success to prove to his father that he was OK were strong factors in his ambition. In addition, the test never evaluated his interaction with friends or his ability to organize and impress others. And most importantly it did not take into account that people have the power to change their brain.

One benefit of IQ tests like the Stanford Binet or Weschler IV is that they can identify gifted students early. Many of these children are the ones who wind up bored in school and need extra nurturing at an early age. Talented and gifted programs used to be available for these children, but in much of the nation, due to budget cuts, TAG has unfortunately been eliminated. The tests also help educators identify those below average in order to provide extra instruction for those who risk falling behind. Since No Child Left Behind there appears to be more emphasis on helping slow learners.

The downside of the test for a high scoring child is that it can actually stifle potential. Repeatedly telling a person how smart he or she is may get interpreted as this should be easy for me. When solving a difficult problem the child may not take the challenge and instead give up. I have friends who are very intelligent but have little drive to succeed and so they sit around feeling sorry for themselves. At the other end of the spectrum, the low IQ student may develop a poor self-image and label himself as being dumb, deciding that it is not worth trying.

Expectations: In 1964 classic study was conducted in a San Fransico elementary school by Harvard professor Robert Rosenthal. Teachers were informed that the test he was going to administer had the ability to predict which kids were about to achieve a dramatic growth in their IQ. Once the test was taken he randomly chose several children from each class and informed the teachers “those selected were on the verge of an intense intellectual bloom.” Over the next two years Rosenthal followed the children and discovered that expectations affected teachers interactions in many subtle ways. Those expected to succeed were given more time to answer questions, more specific feedback, and received more approvals. They were consistently touched, nodded to and smile at, and as a result increased their IQ score.

More recently, psychologist Howard Gardner has been trying to change expectations by getting people to think more generally about intelligence. He talks of different types of smart rather than only the linguistic and logical-mathematic abilities usually evaluated by IQ tests. Visual-spacial,interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, auditory-musical are abilities rarely appraised in school testing programs. Yet those strengths, along with a desire to succeed and fortitude, can be more important than traditional IQ measurements.

Good News: Scientists have discovered that the brain can reorganize itself when confronted with new challenges, even through adulthood. A consortium of researchers including Columbia University, Harvard, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Abbott Labs have developed a program called Luminosity. Basically they have developed a series of exercises aimed at increasing memory, attention, speed, flexibility, and problem solving. It works for those who commit themselves to the process. Living life fully also trains the brain. The boy with the average IQ mentioned above spent much of his young adult years working in jobs that required him to think on his feet. He eventually launched his own company, having to reinvent and improve it over the years in order to be flexible with the times and economy. As he worked he boosted his memory, attention to details and organizational skills.

Bad News: The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports: “ Young people who smoke cannabis for years run the risk of a significant and irreversible reduction in their IQ.” The findings come from a longitudinal study conducted in New Zealand with approximately 1,000 people. Their international team found that those who started using cannabis below the age of 18 – while their brains were still developing – suffered an average of 8% drop in their intelligence, putting them at a great disadvantage throughout their lives. It will be interesting to follow future studies around IQ as cannabis becomes legal in more states.

Interesting News: According to the London Telegraph we are entering the science fiction world of mind enhancing drugs. A British think tank believes that these drugs might be as common as drinking coffee in a few years. Students, who want to improve their grades and those who are losing memory will benefit by new chemical developments. British medical society says “The ethical debate about whether or not to use drugs to improve performance in normal schoolchildren and students will probably be resolved over the next 20 years. Similarly, there will be continued debate about the ethics of using cognition enhancers in the workplace.”

I wonder about the side effects of these drugs and would cautiously look at the results of longitudinal studies before ingesting. What may be good for one body system could be bad for another. According to BBC writer, Mark Kohn in article about pills designed to boost brainpower: “Drugs and catastrophe are seemingly never far apart.” There are other ways to enhance intelligence. The Telegraph also informs, “that a good light’s sleep really does improve the brain.”

Great News: There recently have been many changes in how scientists access the aging brain. They used to look at it in terms of neuron failure. Now, according to University of Southern California’s Monika Guttman, it is clear that if you don’t have a specific disease that causes loss of nerve cells, then most of your neurons remain healthy until you die. New research suggests that the rate of change may be related to life style factors. For instance, lower weight may affect lower rates of disease like Alzheimers. Other factors include education: “Those who use it, don’t lose it as quickly.” New neurons are created by mental and physical exercises. Those who continue to read and question, do puzzles, get a good night’s sleep, stay away from drugs, and exercise regularly are actually increasing their mental capacities. Brain researchers suggest that people try new activities as they age. Changing job, hobbies and exercise routines will help build new synapses and capacities for thinking. Having fun also reduce stress, another inhibitor to a healthy aging brain.

My Thoughts: Keep your brain busy, healthy and wise. Eat well, exercise and challenge yourself with puzzles, games and new adventures. Play…it is good for you. Sleep … it is restorative. Learn new tidbits of information through reading and travel. Take the time to think . . . it promotes neural pathways to increased knowledge. Smile . . . you may be on Candid Camera.

Artwork is always for sale: Go to eichingerfineart.com for pricing or email me at marilynne@eichingerfineart.com

I enjoy your comments. Please respond on my blog page below.
Lots of references:
http://education.seattlepi.com/pros-cons-iq-testing-schools-2014.html – Pros and cons of IQ testing.

http://www.lumosity.com/landing_pages/837?gclid=CjwKEAjws5CrBRD8ze702_2dyjYSJAAAJK9yyltcNqBvx8olsDea_7KDtzxLvTSNNnZutKB-bSBluRoCaxTw_wcB – Luminosity – Brain training games.

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/how-does-marijuana-use-affect-your-brain-body – Marijuana and the brain.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140729 –  the-truth-about-smart-drugs

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/3347174/A-good-nights-sleep-really-does-improve-the-brain.html – Sleep and the brain

https://news.usc.edu/7569/The-Aging-Brain/ – Monika Guttman on the Aging Brain

http://www.livescience.com/36143-iq-change-time.html – Can your IQ change?

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/09/18/161159263/teachers-expectations-can-influence-how-students-perform – 1964 test given to show how teacher’s expectations influence IQ.