Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2002 20:09:22 -0400
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Matigan's Conjecture
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Candy Madigan wrote:

> 100 is average.  I think I mentioned that somewhere.
>
> At 08:18 AM 07/09/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> >         When discussing IQ tests and measures, it is desirable to mention
> >what scale or test you are referring to since various tests define human
> >normal differently.  I was rather impressed by one (non-WSFAn) fellow's 165
> >score until he mentioned that 120 was human normal on that scale.

Yeah, I wondered about that.  Theoretically all IQ tests center at 100 and go no
further (in either direction) than 0 and 200.  My suspicion is that a) no one is
0 IQ -- I suspect the most severely damaged are at least 30 -- and that the
range from, say, 180 to 200 is compressed, the more so the higher you go.

When an IQ test is created it has to be "standardized."  A wide variety of
people are tested, and the median is found and assigned 100.  Almost all tests
should yield about the same results for someone who *is* 100 IQ.  But as you
move away from 100 (usually up) variations in tests show up as more widely
differing scores.   (The army Alpha test, for example, measures accurately up to
about an IQ of 135, and then crams everyone over that into the remaining five
points, since it tops out at 140.)

--Ted White