I.Q. Tests for the High Range — Goals

The goals of this web location

Research of validity of the tests

This concerns questions like:

• Do high-range tests for mental abilities share a general factor, and is this the same as the general factor - called g - found in regular I.Q. tests?
• If so, what proportion of the variance in high-range scores is accounted for by their general factor?
• If they do not share a general factor beyond a particular level, at which level does the breakup occur?

Note it is not a priori certain that high-range tests measure g, as from mainstream research it is known the general factor is most important (that is, accounts for the largest proportion of the variance) at low I.Q. levels, and plays an ever smaller role the higher you go. Also, inheritance of I.Q., correlation of I.Q. with elementary cognitive tasks (chronometrics), and the "Flynn effect" all go down as I.Q. goes up. We do not know if g is still operating at the levels where high-range tests operate. With high-range tests are meant here: tests created specifically for the very highest mental ability levels, taken by self-selected candidates who on average score somewhat above the 99^th centile of the adult Western population.

Purposely, tests of highly diverse nature and contents are used to reveal whether a common factor still expresses itself across that great diversity of item types. For if tests were used that are similar to each other, the inevitable positive intercorrelations among them might result from their similarity and therefore still not prove a possible general factor.

Research of genius

• What is the relation between high-range I.Q. and genius?
• Which other traits than I.Q. are relevant regarding genius?

Communication

Sufficiently high scores on some of the tests give entrance to I.Q. societies, thus offering opportunity to communicate with intellectual equals or draw possible other benefits of membership. These benefits and memberships in return serve as encouragement to take the tests, thus enabling more data to be collected.

Esthetic experience

Apart from being psychometric instruments, the tests are a form of art, and one may experience enjoyment, beauty, and wholeness while solving them, not dissimilar to the sensation of unravelling the structure of the universe, or, if one prefers, witnessing the creation of the world; the dynamite in the mind otherwise the privilege of genius.

Not the goals of this web location

The C.I.A. connection

Evil tongues whisper that via Paul Cooijmans' tests the Central Intelligence Agency is selecting hyper-intelligent yet deeply unethical individuals for the discrete execution of a number of highly intricate yet dirty assignments. Do not believe these slanderous rumours. Under no circumstance spread them on, not even in jest.

The Taliban connection

Similarly, it must be forcefully denied that I.Q. Tests for the High Range is in reality a branch of fundamentalism called IQ-Taliban (and if it were, it would be spelt I.Q.-Taliban, as explained in the Psychometitor's article Why "I.Q.-Taliban" is spelt with periods).

The Nazi connection

Furthermore, no truth is in claims to the effect that Paul Cooijmans is a Nazi who serves soup only to who rigidly adhere to the Rules of conduct for high-range test candidates.

The cerebral disconnection

Finally, there is no question of that the Psychometitor has (a) a tumor in the amygdala, (b) undergone a lobotomy, or (c) no right cerebral hemisphere altogether.