Hi,
Are there any reliable indicators of an individual’s IQ during their infancy? What is a strong indicator, if there is one, that the infant will mature into a “genius”. Is environment a large determining factor? If Einstein’s environment had been different, would he have emerged as a towering genius?
I look forward to your feedback
davidmich
No.
Greetings,
Enclosed in this post you will find my feedback. I hope you enjoy.
Currently I am unaware of any indicators at birth that will predict higher than average IQ. Obviously if your baby is healthy and doesn’t suffer from any known congenital deffects then he’s on track for being at least average, if not above.
Sincerely,
drewtwo99
You asked about the right tail of the curve, but there is evidence that low Apgar scores in infantspredicts low IQ.
Well, in my experience being my granddaughter is a pretty reliable indicator.
Of high IQ, of cuteness,…
The old nature versus nurture argument. From what I read, you need to pick your parents well to have a high IQ. Environment can then add some, but even subtract more for IQ scores. For example lock a kid in a closest for 15 years then give them an IQ test. Probably not even going to score average if both parents were geniuses. Of course that’s an extreme example.
I have a nephew who was extremely smart as a child. He figure out how to climb up a dresser by pulling out each drawer a little to make a ladder at 18 months old plus a lot of other things. He didn’t take an IQ test back then. He graduated second in his class at Ohio State as a chemical engineer. Smart guy but if he got involved in drugs; with the wrong crowd; played video games 24/7, things could have worked out differently.
Genius and IQ have very little to do with one another. The title of genius is essentially an accolade awarded after the fact to people who make important intellectual breakthroughs (in the sciences, the arts, or whatever). The vast majority of people with very high IQs never do any such thing, and although they are unlikely to be stupid, I know of no evidence that geniuses tend to have extraordinarily high IQs, although some of them may. (Of course, most geniuses, over the course of history, never had their IQs measured.)
I’m inclined to agree with you njtt. Thank you all fro your helpful comment.
davidmich
Not only could you not tell with Einstein anything about his intelligence as a baby, I wonder when you’d have known even into adulthood. Given that he was working as a patent clerk and not showered with scholarships and research grants, I suspect the recognition came pretty late in life.
Also, I don’t want to slight Einstein in the slightest, but his theory of relativity came along at just the time in history when it could have come along. In other words, people were doing experiments on the speed of light, discovering things about the atomic structure, etc. that Einstein depended on for his own work. An Einstein working 40 years earlier would not have had the body of work to rely on; an Einstein 40 years later would have been reading about relativity in a textbook. He was a genius to put together the necessary pieces, but I don’t think he was so unique or superior that someone else wouldn’t have made the same breakthrough within a few decades of when Einstein did it.
This is a long way of agreeing with the idea that “genius” is basically a title we give to people who have achieved something important. Our assumption of intelligence is almost after-the-fact.
You know how you put your finger in the hand of a newborn, so they can grab onto it in that way babies instinctively do? When I did that with Celtling, only minutes old, her eyes still closed, she gently began exploring it with both her hands, feeling along trying to figure it out. I knew immediately this was going to be a challenge! LOL!
Has there ever been a study of the IQs of recognized “geniuses”? (It’s a real question, not rhetorical.) What is the average IQ of a Nobel Prize winner? Of leading classical musicians, etc.?
I came across this here survey of IQs of various professions, and there really aren’t many surprises. Occupations you would expect to have higher IQs (e.g., doctors and professors) have a higher average IQ than occupations you would expect to have lower IQs (e.g., janitors). But of course using the standard of “important intellectual breakthroughs”, we’re talking about a tiny segment of medicine/professors/what-have-you.
I think that the title of genius is something that can only be conferred by a man’s peers. I confess that my own understanding of relativity is both tenuous and fleeting. I am ill equipped to judge how great a leap of understanding developing that theory took. I would think, however, that beating out your peers by “a few decades” would be the very definition of genius.
I remember reading when I was a child about Newton discovering gravity and thinking “Well, duh” (I did not really think that, I thought whatever the equivalent was in the 50’s). It was not until much later in life that I was able to even begin to appreciate the subtlety of his discovery (and only by reading what his peers and heirs had to say about it).
Not so.
Einstein was neither a tremendous child prodigy who far surpassed other children of his age nor someone who appeared to be a little slow as a child. He was someone who was clearly very smart. He was extremely good in some subjects and not so good in others. Could you have said that he was obviously going to do well in some academic field? Yes. Could you have said that he would certainly revolutionize physics? No.
As far as predictors of IQ from infancy … depending on your definition of “reliable” perhaps yes.
So at least some of the variance in later childhood IQ is predictable from early childhood performance on items like reaction time.
As far as “genius” … I agree that above average intelligence is requisite but so are other factors like persistence, tenacity, creativity, critical thinking skills, so on. Many of those are learned and of cultural origin to no small degree.
In my opinion:
- I think none.
- There’s none.
- I think not.
- I think so yes.
Yeah look at their parents.
That’s what i was gonna say - the only indicator (and it’s a loose one) is the intelligence of the parents.
But it’s not like smart babies kick at the womb more than dumb babies.
Statistically speaking, a baby will grow up to be average.
And correct for regression to the mean. I found this to be a pretty interesting read on the subject. Can’t speak to its veracity because I’m not an academic on the subject.
making compound sentences with letter blocks.