The 4 Variable IQ Test (spam on topic, please)

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 6:15 am

I could easily have chosen any of two, or even three, different answers for several questions. Doing that leaves me with a signficantly different score. That's one of the reasons I play little attention to tests like these. Even the better ones seem either fairly unrepresentative or too generalized in their results to be more than fun.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 6:46 am

Well, when you base someone's intelligence on 20 questions...

The tests I was forced to take were quite long and intensive, timed and the timing was part of your score. If you got say 90% of the questions "correct" within the full 2 hour time limit your score would be good. Yet, if you did the same within half the time, your score would be significantly better.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 7:10 am

@Magus: It's different. This little play-test is a test made by a person who is active on this website/community CupidOk or what was their name. We don't know anything about this person, he may have no education whatsoever in the field, and the test has not been subject to validation (a scientific study of what the test actually measures), reliability (how accurate the test measures what it should measure) or normalisation (what is an average test score for different groups with different background, age, gender, disorders, etc).

All scientific tests of personality traits, "intelligence" (that is, cognitive functions), or other behaviour, have been subject to many years of investigation (including cross-cultural validation) before it is actually used.

Most likely, you have done clinical tests that have been subject to the procedure I briefly describe above, and that's something totally different from joke-tests you just do for fun at internet.

Cuchulain82 · Post by **Cuchulain82** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 7:49 am

Here I am, via another online test:

160% interpersonal
60% visual
40% verbal
140% mathematical

Meaning that...
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 96% on interpersonal
You scored higher than 36% on visual
You scored higher than 35% on verbal
You scored higher than 69% on mathematical

However, let's remember that 58% of all statistics are made up on the spot, so I don't put too much stock in them

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:07 am

[QUOTE=C Elegans]@Magus: It's different. This little play-test is a test made by a person who is active on this website/community CupidOk or what was their name. We don't know anything about this person, he may have no education whatsoever in the field...[/QUOTE]
Actually, you can find some information about Chris Coyne (the one who asked for input on the test via email) on this page. He graduated from Harvard College with a BA in Mathematics, so I'm inclined to trust his use of distribution data, but since he probably has a Mathematical reasoning score over 200, I probably wouldn't have sex with him.

Chris Coyne and his co-founder, Christian Rudder, were the masterminds behind TheSpark.com, a very entertaining website that now seems to be defunct. Christian Rudder created a slew of funny personality tests, as well as "Spark-Science" projects such as Stinky Meat, Stinky Feet, the Fat Project, and the Date My Sister Project, all of which call his own emotional intelligence into question, if not his sanity. If you could see his parents' wedding picture, that would undoubtedly shed some light on his genetic predispositions. Unfortunately, I can't find links to any of them. He, too, has a BA in Mathematics from Harvard College, so I'm inclined to trust his use of distribution data, but I'm pretty sure I would not have sex with him.

Silur · Post by **Silur** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:36 pm

[QUOTE=VonDondu]Why would you want to fake your results? It's not an aptitude test; it's about which types of reasoning you prefer to use. None is better than the others, unless you value one more than the rest.[/QUOTE]

Well, the test states "Your percentages represent not how good you are, but rather what approach you take to thinking.". Since it is rather easy to guess which questions lead to the expected result, it is more likely that the result will reflect "what approach you think you take". For instance, I have always thought that I have a mathematical, analytical approach to problem solving, but I am in reality more dependent on visualisation since there is an upper limit to how much abstraction I can handle. This comes from a more reliable source than this test, so I'm more inclined to believe that even though my spontaneous responses still go for my nurtured view of myself. A test that only confirms my preconceptions of myself is not very useful - especially if my preconceptions are wrong.

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:42 pm

[QUOTE=Silur]Since it is rather easy to guess which questions lead to the expected result, it is more likely that the result will reflect "what approach you think you take".[/QUOTE]
I don't see the point in taking a test to find about yourself if you don't answer the questions truthfully.

[QUOTE=Silur]A test that only confirms my preconceptions of myself is not very useful - especially if my preconceptions are wrong.[/QUOTE]
But you can select the wrong answers on any test, can't you? So what use are any of them?

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:49 pm

He's got a point, it's not whether you consciously answer them wrong or not. If you know a falsehood as truth, and believe it's truth, does it make it any less false? You're going to pick the answer's in a certain way based on your personality, and it's all to easy to read the question that says "pick the first one that comes to mind", then read the four options, and pick the one that makes the most sense.

If they told you to fill in the first thought that comes to mind, rather than give you a selection, things would be different I think. Then again, you could still just cycle through a few in your head until you find one you fancy and write that down as well.

Silur · Post by **Silur** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 2:05 pm

[QUOTE=VonDondu]I don't see the point in taking a test to find about yourself if you don't answer the questions truthfully.[/QUOTE]

The issue is not whether or not I answer truthfully. If I truly believe that I prefer an analytical methodology, I will answer accordingly, but it doesn't say whether or not my conception is correct. Therefore I have found out nothing, and merely fortified my own preconceptions regardless of their validity.

[QUOTE=VonDondu]But you can select the wrong answers on any test, can't you? So what use are any of them?

[/QUOTE]

Im over my head when it comes to test design, but it is possible to design tests that guard against fake answers, and I think you can even design tests that derive at least partially correct information even if the subject is faking.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:14 pm

[QUOTE=VonDondu]I don't see the point in taking a test to find about yourself if you don't answer the questions truthfully.
<snip>[/QUOTE]

A huge problem is that with such multiple choice tests there are some questions which can't simply be answered, because you feel equally about two choices or because how you feel at a given instance can change in the blink of an eye. Or even because you don't really understand, interpreate or relate to the question proberly. Also there is a differnce between your concience(sp?) self and the subconcience(another sp?) self, and while you think A, your might infact inside be B but you aren't aware of it

Naturally I only have personal experiences as "proof", but I have seen people selecting answers to a questions in various personality tests, only to find out they differed totally from their "image of self".

As for me, there were some questions in this thread, where I had a hard time picking one above the other for various reasons.

Standard multiple choice questions will never present any debth to the answer of them. For that you need more elaborated opened ended questions which needs to be interpretated much more subjectively.

[QUOTE=Silur]<snip>
Im over my head when it comes to test design, but it is possible to design tests that guard against fake answers, and I think you can even design tests that derive at least partially correct information even if the subject is faking.[/QUOTE]

Yep - it is possible, but then it requiers a larger number of questions so you can trace patterns. Last time when I took a "personality test" (some Jung type test) there were a large number of rather similar questions which I can only interpreate as a means to trace patterns and try to weed out some "faking"

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:05 pm

[QUOTE=Xandax]As for me, there were some questions in this thread, where I had a hard time picking one above the other for various reasons.

Standard multiple choice questions will never present any debth to the answer of them. For that you need more elaborated opened ended questions which needs to be interpretated much more subjectively...[/QUOTE]
If you thought those questions were so bad, then why don't you take the Dateable Test and see how people with high Mathematical reasoning scores really fare when it comes to dating?

When taking a test like that, I have to admit that I am somewhat tempted to pick the funniest answers just to see what results I will get.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:27 pm

VonDondu wrote:If you thought those questions were so bad, then why don't you take the Dateable Test and see how people with high Mathematical reasoning scores really fare when it comes to dating? When taking a test like that, I have to admit that I am somewhat tempted to pick the funniest answers just to see what results I will get.

Well, answering honestly, I got this. I really like one of the answers to the alien probe question though, that's just hilarious.

Hot Cha! You are:
64% Dateable!
That's higher than the Worldwide Dateability Average of 62%!
You are neither more nor less dateable than your peers— welcome to the land of mediocrity, home of the masses! You have an undeniable animal magnetism, but you're just as likely to attract small animals as you are to attract human beings. Nevertheless, the people you flirt with generally find you funny and cute, or "fute." You have good hygiene, which is an imporant aspect of relationships involving two or more people. Avoid seafood and walks in the woods.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:54 pm

[QUOTE=VonDondu]If you thought those questions were so bad, then why don't you take the Dateable Test and see how people with high Mathematical reasoning scores really fare when it comes to dating?

When taking a test like that, I have to admit that I am somewhat tempted to pick the funniest answers just to see what results I will get.[/QUOTE]

Well - theose tests are renowed for their ..... well, don't even know how to phrase it

(btw - 53%

hehe, like I care, I can calcualte the tip in a resturant withouth using the napkin, hah! take that you mathematical lowscore - high dating scores

).

=[HC]=Sv.Trojan · Post by **=[HC]=Sv.Trojan** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:14 pm

Well lets see my test score too.

Your brain:

80% interpersonal,
120% visual,
80% verbal,
120% mathematical <(this is a mistake

)

giles337 · Post by **giles337** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:18 pm

Funnily enough, you Didn't have to be good at maths to be mathematical

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:20 pm

I really think it's just using that category for any form of logical, analytical outlook you tend to have. I tend to boot logic and such out of my head and go by feeling and such instead so I ended up with a low score there. Makes sense to me. Although the test isn't accurate by any means.

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:26 pm

Basically what I've found is that any test that claims to be simple is also inaccurate or nonspecific. All the good tests are hours long and chock full of questions like: Do I agree with these statements?

I like the smell of gasoline

My father was a good man.

All smurfs are disease ridden mongrels.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:33 pm

Topic 3 is correct. Luckily, they've been exterminated and we've got pappa smurf locked in away in the college for experimentation purposes.

Real tests are quite intensive. These tests are funny to me given I've taken just about any test that's reliable and proven to be successful up until 6 years ago or so. Whether anything new has come out or not since then is beyond me and I haven't touched those.

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 4:15 pm

I think most places use various types of IQ tests that are pretty standard and the MMPI that has been out for ages.