What is the IQ of a gifted person?

Let's see how intellectual giftedness is related to intelligence tests.

Each and every one of us possesses certain cognitive abilities, varying to a great extent from person to person.These abilities vary greatly from person to person. These allow us to be able to adapt to the environment and to solve problems, establishing strategies and allowing us to carry out a great diversity of behaviors.

Evaluating the degree to which we have them allows us to make a prediction of our ability to adapt and cope with situations, and different mechanisms have been developed for this purpose. One of the concepts used to calculate intelligence is the intelligence quotient or IQ, which makes it possible to assess it and compare it with the population average.

In most people we will find an intellectual capacity that, although variable, is usually within the average. However, we can also find the case of people who either have below-average abilities (in the case of intellectual disability) or far surpass them, the latter being the case of the gifted.

Establishing at what point one moves from normal intelligence to high intellectual abilities could be difficult at first glance, but that is why concepts such as IQ can be of some use. What is the IQ of a gifted person? We are going to see it throughout this article.

Intelligence and IQ

Before going deeper into what is the IQ of a gifted person, it is worth mentioning first of all what we call intelligence and what exactly we mean by the concept of IQ.

As far as intelligence or cognitive capacity is concerned, although the concept is known to all, there is great difficulty in providing a concrete, unitary definition that makes it clear what its limits are in relation to other concepts. Furthermore, there is a great controversy with respect to the definition of this ability or capacity, with different theories on the subject.There are several theories on the subject that even discuss whether we can consider it a single ability or rather a set of multiple abilities or intelligences.

Broadly speaking, we understand intelligence as the ability of human beings (or other types of beings) to use their cognitive resources efficiently and optimally in order to adapt and respond to environmental demands, being able to grasp and understand internal or external information at high speed, among other things, generate strategies to achieve specific objectives, solve problems or even anticipate events and foresee difficulties.solve problems or even anticipate events and foresee difficulties.

Measuring cognitive skills

Although this may be the concept to be addressed, the truth is that measuring something so intangible is complex. One of the possible ways of doing this is to evaluate the performance of the subject in different tasks that require the resolution of different types of tasks associated with intelligent behavior and from which to observe different facets of it.

In this sense, the first intelligence test, designed to evaluate the intellectual performance of children, was born. conducted by Binet and Simon after having been commissioned by the French government (in order to evaluate students and establish educational measures for those children who could not follow an ordinary education). In one of the revisions of this test, the concept of Mental Age would emerge, in which mental capacity was assessed according to the average age at which most children could solve the same problems.

However, after observing that the existence of specific differences had different importance depending on age, the psychologist William Stern would eventually generate what is known today as the Intellectual Quotient or IQ. This quotient is a method that evaluates cognitive capacity based on the division of mental age and chronological age, subsequently multiplying it by one hundred (thus eliminating decimals), and makes it possible to obtain a score comparable with the measurement of other subjects of the same age.

It is this concept that is used today in the measurement of intelligence.However, there are several controversies in this regard (for example, it is necessary to take into account the Flynn effect through which the measured IQ increases over the centuries not due to higher intelligence but to aspects such as greater contact with intellectual activities and technological development).

What is the IQ of a gifted person?

The Intellectual Quotient or IQ is a relative measure of intelligence, whose meaning only makes sense in comparison with the average of the population. In this sense, it has been established that intelligence follows a normal distribution in the populationThe average score is considered to be 100 and a standard deviation (a concept that tells us about the expected variability in the scores) of 15 points is observed.

In this sense, we would consider normal intelligence (that which most of the population has) to be that which reflects an IQ between 85 and 115. Below 85 and up to 70 we speak of borderline intelligence.and above 115 and up to 130 of brilliance or intellectually gifted people.

The existence of abilities well below or well above the average will be considered as such only when they exceed two standard deviations above or below. Thus, only below an IQ of 70 would we be talking about intellectual disability (which would become increasingly more severe as it would go down), while above 130 we would be talking about high abilities or giftedness.

Thus, and answering the question that gives rise to this article, when we talk about gifted, we are talking about people who in the evaluation of their intelligence or cognitive ability have obtained scores whose transformation to IQ would indicate an IQ above 130. is independent of sex or ageThis is independent of sex or age, as long as the subject is over 12 years of age and the group with which the subject is compared is of the same age range.

Does being gifted mean having a high IQ?

When we talk about a gifted person, it is easy to identify it with a person whose IQ is above 130. But, although this is not uncertain (in fact, the WHO definition is this), for some authors the mere possession of this level of ability would not be sufficient to speak of true giftedness.

The fact is that obtaining a certain score in an intelligence test that indicates an above-average intellectual capacity is not the only requirement to be considered gifted: it is also taken into account that such intellectual capacity is shown in most domains and types of intelligence (i.e., it would not be enough to be excellent in logical-mathematical skills or music, but it would also have to be excellent in other areas, in which case we would be dealing with someone who is only talented), knowing how to apply their abilities adaptively and the existence of a high creativity or capacity for it.

Examples of giftedness

Giftedness is a very rare characteristic in the population, with about 2% of the population being said to have high cognitive abilities. However, many of them have made notable contributions and have become well-known figures in different fields, including science, economics or art. Here are four well-known examples.

1. Marilyn Monroe

Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, was considered one of the sexiest and most attractive women in the world. But although she is remembered for her beauty, her movies, her relationships and her tragic death, the truth is that behind it all was a woman with a higher level of intelligence than Albert Einstein. Specifically, five points higher: Marilyn Monroe had an IQ of 165.

2. Stephen Hawking

The recently deceased genius of physics and astrophysics, known for his studies on the universe and especially for his studies on black holes, was a person with an extremely high IQ.with an IQ of 152.

3. Marilyn vos Savant

Perhaps this name is not as well known in our country as the other two, but this American writer and columnist, who is also, among other things, director of finance at Jarvik Heart, lecturer (having been named one of the five most outstanding speakers in 1999) and member of societies such as Mensa or the Council of the National Association for Gifted Children, is the person who holds the Guinness Record for the highest IQ, with an IQ of 228.