What are the intelligences iQ don’t measure, and are they biased in anyway, do they favor some types of people over others for reasons other than intelligence?
In the main, iQ tests don’t test how well you store people, places and things in your memory databanks, rather, they test your ability to recognize patterns (patterns expressed in various ways - numerical, linguistic (which involves grammar, logic and occasionally vocabulary, never spelling or rhetoric, if you will) and visual spatial being the three major sorts of patterns) and use them to make predictions about what should or will likely follow, or in other words - iQ tests test your ability to make inferences, to use the information available to make accurate predictions, to use the information provided to fill in the blanks.
With the exception of vocabulary, where the correct definition of words must be recalled, the majority of iQ tests don’t test memory, so that’s one intelligence they leave out right off the bat (a few test general knowledge, but from my experience the vast majority of IQ tests do not).
What else? Usually they’re multiple choice questions and always there’s only one right answer. Some may excel at solving problems where no solutions are provided, where as others may be poor at this, essentially handicapping the one segment of the population. Some may be good at solving problems when things aren’t so black and white, when there’s more than one right answer, or where some answers are more right than others, again, handicapping one segment of the population.
Some may have anxiety disorders, fear of failure, like myself, so they may perform better when there’s no pressure or when they’re not watching themselves and when they don’t feel like they’re being critiqued, evaluated and monitored. How this problem could be remedied, I have no idea, it’s up to the patient and their doctor to diagnose and treat themselves.
In mathematics there’s little room for argument, two plus two equals four, that is, unless you’re a Pyrrohnian Skeptic or a staunch empiricist, the sort who believes nothing is inherently right/wrong, and that mathematics only makes sense in our universe, or, it’s entirely conventional/only works because it’s internally consistent, but what about questions like this - which of the following does not belong - cat, dog, hippopautums or snake? Occasionally I run into questions like these where there’s more than right answer or it’s open to interpretation.
Snake overall is the most different from a taxological standpoint, but the general public aren’t taxologists. hippopotami are the only herbivores of the four, additionally they’re by far the largest. They’re also the only one with multiple syllables in their name. So perhaps iQ tests are biased against some people just by the way they frame the questions, by not being clear about what answer they’re looking for, and by appealing to people that interpret questions in a particular and peculiar way, not in an objectively more correct way, but in a way that conforms with academia, or in a way that conforms with normality, or with the makers of the iQ tests themselves, who may or may not have eccentiricities of their own.
Perhaps part of intelligence is being able to critique others rather than conform, and argue for your answer no matter how apparently wrongheaded it may be, kind of like what we’re doing here. Furthermore, what about creativity? Isn’t part of being intelligent being artistic, being able to create many complex patterns, not merely being able to recognize patterns that have been made by someone or something else?
What about auditory temporal, if there’s a visual spatial, sights and space, why not auditory temporal, sounds and time? Like, what note should follow, ding + dang… dong? Of course for obvious reasons, due to iQ tests being written, auditory temporal couldn’t have been incorporated, iQ tests would’ve had to been conducted very differently, but due to the internet and computers, they could easily be converted to measure auditory and temporal intelligences.
If there’s verbal iQ, why not nonverbal? Some autistic people have an unfair advantage, as many of them have no difficulty reading and comprehending what’s being said, but have a great deal of difficulty with speech, or with nonverbal cues. Many seem to have the opposite sort of disposition, they’re good at speaking and nonverbal cues, but not so good with the written word.
What about the other senses, what about smell, taste and touch intelligences?
What about intuition, or the ability to assess data, whether it be verbal, nonverbal, auditory, visual, or what have you, information that’s far to complex to have a clear right or wrong answer, or any answer, but nonetheless there could be a range of acceptable and unacceptable answers? Or how 'bout questions where you have to guess, estimate, because it’s impossible for the human mind, with the exception of a few autistic sevants, to be able to be precise with such a complex problem with so many variables, like what’s 5 trillion divided by five thousand and seventy three? Solve it in your head without a calculator in less than ten seconds. Some people’s minds may be less precise, but more skilled at making guesses and dealing with a certain amount of unpredictability.
Finally, what about psychological intelligence, not just communicative intelligence, but to be able to comprehend people’s motivations, what drives them, what they need and what they excel at, and to be able to use that information to solve complex psychosocial problems.
There’s also multitasking, which iQ doesn’t consider. Problem solving, as in, what should I do, as in performing the a task correctly as opposed to just assessing data. Introspection, know thyself, which of course would be difficult to measure. Motor skills and coordination, which are arguably intelligences. The tests themselves are presented verbally, which are biased and favor verbiage, reading over hearing. They favor symbols and abstractions of all kinds as opposed to actual, concrete things.
iQ is in its infancy really.