Can IQ Ratings Degrade with Age?

by Stefanie
(Canada)

My mother told me that when I was about 6 years old i took an IQ test and had a score of 133.

Now, at the age of 17, I re-took an IQ test and scored 120.

Does this mean that with age, we lose intelligence?

Comments for Can IQ Ratings Degrade with Age?

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starstarstarstarstar 		Thanks Olivia & Others
by: Saqib

When I started this thread, I had no idea that so many educated guests would add value to my poorly drafted question. Just to pay them thanks for their time to reply this question, I would love to add my two cents.

Does intelligence decreases in old age?

Thanks to all who said yes. A well supported period from the age of 17 to 40 is considered the best years when you can perform wonders. Then like other physical capabilities, your intelligence level starts decreasing.

It is a property of your brain which is a physical mass.

However, one thing can beat the intelligence!

Your experience.

When you can mix up your experience with your intelligence, you can reduce degradation of intellectual properties.

P.S. Recently, I saw some good activity on this thread. I went through my original thread and was embarrassed to found a lot of grammatical mistakes. Thoughts were incoherent. I had used some extreme words like 'believe' etc. First I thought to redraft the idea as I have done recently with some other articles on my site. Then I decided to leave it as it is and instead enter into the discussion, to pay gratitude to my participating guests. You have respected the idea while ignoring my poor language. Thanks agin
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starstarstarstarstar 		Yes
by: Olivia

An IQ test is personalized depending on age, sex and other factors. The fact that you had a bigger IQ growing up than you have now, only means that you have not cultivated your intelligence as good as you.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		The fact of the matter
by: Anonymous

The fact of the matter really is that IQ is just as assessment of your capacity to use your knowledge at a particular point in time, at a certain age, with your specific knowledge, given a defined set of how the world is.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Degrade with Age
by: Anonymous

Undeniably believe that which you stated. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the net the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get irked while people think about worries that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
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starstarstarstarstar 		Really a very good
by: Anonymous

Really a very good read and very motivating.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Thanks
by: Norris

Yeah, there are so many possible reasons for such fashion as people tend to be more careless and won’t be thinking as simple as what they had in the childhood times. Mainly, the thought process changes completely and the knowledge base will also be vast.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possible Factors
by: AR

There are a number of possible explanations for this discrepancy. First is the comparative reliability of each test. Not everything that calls itself an iq test is equally valid. Sometimes free ones are old used ones. Sometimes people just make stuff up or use part of a genuine test or just throw random questions out there and call it an iq test - I'm referring now to the kinds you encounter on the internet.

Assuming the second test was valid, there are some things that could affect your performance. In the book 'Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis for Gifted Children and Adults,' (worth reading if you may have high intelligence) they authors talk about a boy who had hypoglycemia. He would get completely average scores (which 120 is not, by the way) on achievement testing before lunch, and start to get extraordinary scores after lunch. Sleep deprivation can have a similar effect. If you've recently had a baby, for instance, or are working too much or partying too much, don't expect your scores to be accurate. And to a certain point, test-taking techniques matter. After a psychologist explained to me how he arrived at my son's iq score I realized perfectionism can slow you down and sometimes you have to rev yourself up and blow through a section, even if you get a few wrong.

Sometimes an overall high iq score (such as on the original test) was caused by a really high subtest combined with several lower subtest scores. If the test you took later does not includes the same subtests, it may be missing your area of high ability, bringing down your factored "general" iq score.

Having a bad day can bring down a score.

Learning disabilities or the approach of the test monitor (psychologist, etc.) can affect the score.

It could also have been the original test results that were off, much as we may not like to contemplate this possibility. Of course they could have been low rather than high, as well, if a learning disability or mental disorder such as ADHD was in the picture.

I think depression can have an effect.

Can intelligence actually decrease with age? They say normally, a slow decline of fluid intelligence begins at about 26, while crystallized intelligence (knowledge) actually increases with age, barring some disease or affliction of the body that affects the brain. There is also the possibility that poor nutrition in youth hampered your full possible development. Hopefully not.

Brains can regenerate themselves, albeit slowly. There are foods to help with this. Coconut oil, supposedly. Various supplements. Also, mental agility from the creakiness of maybe not using your brains as much after school can be counteracted by reading more and doing more. There's a limit to how much this can raise your score, but it does have an effect.

And that's all the information I have. All the best.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Read me
by: Anonymous

IQ test are prepared to every one to answer .

every IQ Test Have a corresponding level according to age

simple question given to the youth ....
which they can doodle the answer to a high grades.

and to a grown up person which take effort on answering the test

Yes there are gifted child ...

that's why there are IQ test .. if a child score very high the proctor or maybe the teachers that concerns pulls out these gifted child to determine real gifted ones ...


that's why people invented retakes


My comment may not be as convincing as the others but it maybe taken for consideration
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Yes, but there's good news....
by: Nathaniel G

To answer the question, in your case, it does look like IQ can degrade with age. The good news is, it can also upgrade - I took an IQ test three years ago and then took one yesterday, and found out that my IQ went up by 18 points!
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		to stephanie
by: Anonymous

Well I suppose so if your asking this question, if you read the article thoroughly, IQ tests have an age variant.

obviously, you can't ask a 6 year old to do long division in their head, but you can ask what the word buoyant (just a random word that i would think most 6 year olds would not know)means to a 17 year old. The main point I guess I'm trying to get across is different questions for different ages.

It could also mean you are not progressing as fast as you were at age 6.

I am no psychologist and do not pretend to be one, but that is what would make sense.
Rating
starstarstarstar 		Degradation of IQ Ratings!
by: Saqib Ali Ateel

Most of the psychologists believe that IQ ratings decrease with age as the people lose intelligence in the old. However, the age of 17 is neither old nor you have lost intelligence. In my opinion the teenage and up to 40 is the period when you show brightest of the colors.

There are other explanations of your decrease in the IQ ratings:

1- The different may be due to difference of the intelligence scales that you were tested at the age of six and at the age of 17. Different scales have different algorithms to test your intelligence.

2- The difference of IQ ratings may be due to improvement in the standards of IQ tests. You know the testing industry has been changing the standards of the IQ tests after every couple of years just to net the maximum number of people in the average category. If they don't do so there are chances that within a couple of years majority of the people may be counted as geniuses. And the IQ specialists prefer to keep the title of geniuses to either themselves or their races.

Whatever the reason may, you must be sure that you are not losing any intelligence. In my humble opinion you have gained a lot of intelligence because you have questioned veracity of the IQ ratings that intelligence tests are persistent to tag you with.

Lastly, let the employers and the testing industry worry about the IQ results. They are not going to play any role in your success or failure. There are only a couple of principles to have a successful life:

1- Be sure of your targets.
2- Do whatever you can do daily to move towards your goals.
3- Be persistent when you feel the targets are far.

Believe me, you can win your dreams even at the IQ of 100 though you are above average.

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