IQ Test - Intelligence Test
An intelligence quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests attempting to measure intelligence. IQ tests are generally designed and used because they are found to be predictive of later intellectual achievement, such as educational achievement.
IQ also correlates with job performance and income, although in all cases other factors explain most of the variance. Recent work has demonstrated links between IQ and health.
In 1912, the abbreviation of "intelligence quotient" or I.Q., a translation of the German Intelligenz-Quotient, was coined by the German psychologist William Stern. A further refinement of the Binet-Simon scale was published in 1916 by Lewis M. Terman, from Stanford University, who incorporated Stern's proposal that an individual's intelligence level be measured as an intelligence quotient (I.Q.). Terman's test, which he named the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale formed the basis for one of the modern intelligence tests still commonly used today.
Almost all intelligence scales have adopted the normal distribution method of scoring. The use of the normal distribution scoring method makes the term "intelligence quotient" an inaccurate description of the intelligence measurement, but I.Q. still enjoys colloquial usage, and is used to describe all of the intelligence scales currently in use.
