What I'm about to insert
here is a non sequitur, but I think it's an important topic. One
of the key questions about intelligence to which I'd like answers is that
of how various intellectual capabilities scale as intelligence rises (probably
measured using IQ tests that don't depend upon vocabulary).. When we used
the mental age concept, we at least had that
For example,
(1) How does vocabulary increase
as intelligence increases?
(2) Does it rise more rapidly for
those with below-average intelligence, because of their more frequent exposure
to unfamiliar words and their desire to keep up, than it does for those
with above-average intelligence?
(3) How independent are total vocabulary
and verbal fluency?
(4) How does the ability to spot
relationships among common words (which would be more of a measure of "fluid
g" than would total vocabulary) scale with IQ?
(5) How do learning rates scale
with intelligence? Do they rise exponentially?
(6) How about problem-solving speeds?
Problem-solving depths?
(7) Do learning rates for rote-mechanical
learning differ from those that require comprehension? "Creative insight"?
There must surely have
been research performed in these areas. The answers may be out there in
publications, although I haven't found them in books like Arthur Jensen's
"The g Factor" or Hans Eysenck's "Genius". But if not, I think that research
is needed in these areas. Tackling this research on a formal basis would
probably require the ability to give all the participants the same IQ test
or tests. However, it could be done informally by anyone at any time. Shall
we try it? I can send a letter to the top
100 scorers on Peter Schmies' Word
Classification Test and see if they would be willing to privately
reveal IQ scores that we could match with their Word Classification scores.
Or would you like to contact them? I should think
that this would be a useful and interesting experiment.
Requesting similar information from the "Great
Literati" who took Tejay Sener's 600-Word
Vocabulary Test might be another way to cut this pie.