High-IQ society

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A high-IQ society is an organization that limits its membership to people who have attained a specified score on an IQ test, usually in the top two percent of the population (98th percentile) or above. [1] [2] These may also be referred to as genius societies. [1] [3] The largest and oldest such society is Mensa International, which was founded by Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware in 1946. [4] [3]

Contents

Entry requirements

High-IQ societies typically accept a variety of IQ tests for membership eligibility; these include WAIS, Stanford-Binet, and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, amongst many others deemed to sufficiently measure or correlate with intelligence. Tests deemed to insufficiently correlate with intelligence (e.g. post-1994 SAT, in the case of Mensa and Intertel) are not accepted for admission. [5] [6] [7] As IQ significantly above 146 SD15 (approximately three-sigma) cannot be reliably measured with accuracy due to sub-test limitations and insufficient norming, IQ societies with cutoffs significantly higher than four-sigma should be considered dubious. [8] [9] [10]

Societies

Some societies accept the results of standardized tests taken elsewhere. Those are listed below by selectivity percentile (assuming the now-standard definition of IQ as a standard score with a median of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 IQ points). Since the 1960s, Mensa has experienced increasing competition in attracting high-IQ individuals, as various new groups have emerged with even stricter and more exclusive admissions requirements. [11] Notable high-IQ societies include:

NameEstablishedNo. of membersApprox. no. of countriesEligibility / RarityApprox. IQ
Mensa International 1946 145,000 (as of 2022) [12] 100Top 2 percent of population (98th percentile; 1 person out of 50)130
Intertel 1966≥ 1,700 (as of July 2024) [13] 40Top 1 percent (99th percentile; 1 out of 100)135
Triple Nine Society 1978 1,900 (as of September 2022) [14] 46Top 0.1 percent (99.9th percentile; 1 out of 1,000)146
Mega Society [1] 198236 (as of October 2024)UnknownTop 0.0001 percent (99.9999th percentile; 1 out of 1,000,000; not reliably measurable with current tests)171.3

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intelligence quotient</span> Score from a test designed to assess intelligence

An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. Originally, IQ was a score obtained by dividing a person's mental age score, obtained by administering an intelligence test, by the person's chronological age, both expressed in terms of years and months. The resulting fraction (quotient) was multiplied by 100 to obtain the IQ score. For modern IQ tests, the raw score is transformed to a normal distribution with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. This results in approximately two-thirds of the population scoring between IQ 85 and IQ 115 and about 2 percent each above 130 and below 70.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mensa International</span> Largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world

Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. Mensa formally comprises national groups and the umbrella organisation Mensa International, with a registered office in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, England, which is separate from the British Mensa office in Wolverhampton.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triple Nine Society</span> High IQ society

The Triple Nine Society (TNS) is an international high-IQ society for adults whose score on a standardized test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population. The society recognizes scores from over 20 intelligence and academic aptitude tests. TNS was founded in 1978. Since 2010, it has been a non-profit 501(c)(7) organization incorporated in Virginia, USA. It is the second-largest high-IQ society after Mensa. As of February 2024, TNS reports a member base of over 1,900 adults in 50 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Terman</span> American educational psychologist, academic, and eugenicist (1877–1956)

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The Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT) was created by Raymond Cattell in 1949 as an attempt to measure cognitive abilities devoid of sociocultural and environmental influences. Scholars have subsequently concluded that the attempt to construct measures of cognitive abilities devoid of the influences of experiential and cultural conditioning is a challenging one. Cattell proposed that general intelligence (g) comprises both fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc). Whereas Gf is biologically and constitutionally based, Gc is the actual level of a person's cognitive functioning, based on the augmentation of Gf through sociocultural and experiential learning.

The Otis–Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT), published by the successor of Harcourt Assessment—Pearson Education, Inc., a subsidiary of Pearson PLC—is, according to the publisher, a test of abstract thinking and reasoning ability of children pre-K to 18. The Otis-Lennon is group-administered, multiple choice, taken with pencil and paper, measures verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning ability. The test yields verbal and nonverbal scores, from which a total score is derived, called a School Ability Index (SAI). The SAI is a normalized standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 16. With the exception of pre-K, the test is administered in groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IQ classification</span> Categorisation of peoples intelligence based on IQ

IQ classification is the practice of categorizing human intelligence, as measured by intelligence quotient (IQ) tests, into categories such as "superior" and "average".

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) is a group-administered K–12 assessment published by Riverside Insights and intended to estimate students' learned reasoning and problem solving abilities through a battery of verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal test items. The test purports to assess students' acquired reasoning abilities while also predicting achievement scores when administered with the co-normed Iowa Tests. The test was originally published in 1954 as the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test, after the psychologists who authored the first version of it, Irving Lorge and Robert L. Thorndike. The CogAT is one of several tests used in the United States to help teachers or other school staff make student placement decisions for gifted education programs, and is accepted for admission to Intertel, a high IQ society for those who score at or above the 99th percentile on a test of intelligence.

The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) is a nonverbal measure of general ability designed by Jack A. Naglieri and published by Pearson Education. The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test - Individual Form was first published in 1998. Two versions were published in 2007 and 2008, respectively. This includes the group administered Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test - Second Edition and the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test - Online version. The most current version is NNAT3. Like all nonverbal ability tests, the NNAT is intended to assess cognitive ability independently of linguistic and cultural background.

The Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RIAS) is an individually administered test of intelligence that includes a co-normed, supplemental measure of memory. It is appropriate for individuals ages 3–94.

The Genetic Studies of Genius, later known as the Terman Study of the Gifted, is currently the oldest and longest-running longitudinal study in the field of psychology. It was begun by Lewis Terman at Stanford University in 1921 to examine the development and characteristics of gifted children into adulthood.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to human intelligence:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intertel</span> Second-oldest high-IQ society in the world

Intertel is a high-IQ society founded in 1966 that is open to those who have scored at or above the 99th percentile, or the top one percent, on a standardized test of intelligence. It has been identified as one of the notable high-IQ societies established since the late 1960s with admissions requirements that are stricter and more exclusive than Mensa.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Groeger, Lena (January 1, 2015). "When High IQs Hang Out". Scientific American . Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  2. "The rise of children joining high-IQ society Mensa". BBC News. November 26, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "American Mensa Celebrates Its Diamond Jubilee". American Mensa. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  4. Percival, Matt (September 8, 2008). "The Quest for Genius" . Retrieved June 26, 2015.
  5. "Qualifying test scores". American Mensa. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  6. "Intertel - Join us". www.intertel-iq.org. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  7. "Test Scores". www.triplenine.org. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  8. "IQ values explained". www.triplenine.org. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  9. Perleth, Christoph; Schatz, Tanja; Mönks, Franz J. (2000). "Early Identification of High Ability". In Heller, Kurt A.; Mönks, Franz J.; Sternberg, Robert J.; et al. (eds.). International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd ed.). Amsterdam: Pergamon. p. 301. ISBN   978-0-08-043796-5. norm tables that provide you with such extreme values are constructed on the basis of random extrapolation and smoothing but not on the basis of empirical data of representative samples.
  10. Urbina, Susana (2011). "Chapter 2: Tests of Intelligence". In Sternberg, Robert J.; Kaufman, Scott Barry (eds.). The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 20–38. ISBN   9780521739115. [Curve-fitting] is just one of the reasons to be suspicious of reported IQ scores much higher than 160
  11. Schregel, Susanne (December 1, 2020). "'The intelligent and the rest': British Mensa and the contested status of high intelligence". History of the Human Sciences. 33 (5): 12–36. doi:10.1177/0952695120970029. ISSN   0952-6951. S2CID   227187677.
  12. "About Us". Mensa International. 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  13. "Intertel - Home". www.intertel-iq.org. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  14. "What is TNS?". Triple Nine Society. 2022. Retrieved September 8, 2022.

Further reading