Does a high IQ (intelligence quotient) mean better grades in school? Does it mean a better life? Is your IQ score even a valid measurement of your intelligence? Let’s take a look at these questions one-by-one.
High IQ – Intelligence
There is almost certainly a correlation between a high IQ score and being more intelligent. These tests are imperfect, though, and you can find examples of cultural biases on many of them. Also, there are specific skills that have been proven to raise scores on many tests, including IQ tests.
The last point makes sense, doesn’t it? When you know how to efficiently “work” a test, you are likely to score higher. For that matter, even a cup of coffee may boost your score. Even the fact that your score can vary from test to test shows there are factors which can be manipulated to raise your score. There may be a general correlation between IQ score and intelligence, but certainly it’s an imperfect one.
High IQ – Better Life
What evidence is there that people with higher intelligence have better lives or are happier? None that I am aware of, and how do you scientifically measure “better life?” How about a negative correlation? Many with a high IQ have committed suicide, such as Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, and Sylvia Plath, but this is just anecdotal. Various studies have shown that people with a high IQ AND a low IQ are slightly more likely to commit suicide, but even if these studies prove true, this doesn’t prove causation, only correlation.
Ready for some fun experiments on your brain? Don’t worry, you can try these at home. They are perfectly safe, and they will help you demonstrate your brainpower.
Fun Experiments
1. Sing to access your right brain.
It is easier to rhyme when you’re singing, because you are working from the part of your brain that recognizes patterns (usually the right hemisphere). Try a singing experiment. First try making a rhyming poem about something that happened today. Work on this for just a minute or two. Then try it again, but sing the poem as you make it up.
Most people find that they can easily find rhyming words when singing. You can also make a song up to remember things. Singing may help to activate your right-brain when you are working on a problem involving spatial reasoning. This last suggestion is speculative, but it can be a fun experiment to try, and no harm should come from singing.
2. Consciously control autonomic body functions.
Your pupils get bigger when it is darker, but they also get bigger when you see something you like. In fact, they get larger if you just vividly imagine something you like. Try this experiment right now. Go to the mirror and watch your eyes as you imagine someone you like, a favorite food, or anything you would like to see.
Brain fog is that sensation you have when you just can’t think clearly. Perhaps you can’t concentrate, or even figure out what you need to be concentrating on. You might stare at the paper in front of you or at the job you need to do. There may be thoughts swirling in your head, but they aren’t organized or helpful. What can you do about this? Try the following quick tips, and then the powerful techniques that follow.
Create clear space to prevent brain fog. It’s rare that a person can work better in clutter. At the very least, an organized home or office means you won’t have the thought “where is that…” distracting your mind.
Avoid sugars. To understand the concept of brain fog, eat sugary cake on an empty stomach, then try to do math problems twenty minutes later. I think you’ll get the point. This is called the “sugar blues.”
Try walking. I’m convinced the research will eventually show this to be one of the best things you can do to improve the quality of your thinking, but don’t wait for the proof. Walking has enough other health benefits anyhow.
Try more or better quality sleep. People’s sleep requirements vary, but the bare minimum for most is somewhere around five hours, and many of us suffer if we sleep less than eight. Some research indicates that after a minimum quantity (say, four hours), the quality of sleep is more important than the quantity for normal brain function.
Would you like more creative ideas? Maybe you want to exercise more creativity in solving problems at home, or in your work. Perhaps you just like the thought of having the most interesting ideas the next time you are with a group of friends. Either way, you can quickly become a font of creative ideas by using a few simple techniques. Start with the following.
1. Look at opposites.
What if instead of being bad for your teeth, candy was actually good for them? Could someone develop a candy that prevented tooth decay and perhaps even strengthened teeth? What if exercise wasn’t necessary to strengthen muscles? Could the muscle-building process that takes place from exercise be duplicated without the exercise?
2. Make things bigger or smaller.
Look at things and ask how they could be bigger or smaller and what the advantages would be. As an example, how could a refrigerator be smaller, and how would that be useful? Perhaps there could be a small, high-power, countertop drink cooler. Put your can of soda in it for a minute, and it’s chilled.
3. Challenge assumptions.
People assume that poverty causes higher crime rates. Of course there are places where there is more poverty and less crime. What are the possible explanations, and how could these hypothesis be tested?
