Is it common for one's IQ to go down?

Question

I was a highly gifted child. I could read at age 3 and was doing high school math starting at 6, although I was EXTREMELY shy. My parents tried as much as they could to foster my giftedness, and I was in a special program at my public school.

I remember my mother telling me a few years back that my IQ was around 140 or 150 as a child. Now, at 22 years old, when I test it, it only comes out to around 116. I feel terrible, like my life has been wasted. My whole life I have felt different than everyone else, and that still hasn't changed. It's really interfered with the quality of my life. Yet intelligence was always the one thing I had, the one thing that made me feel a little better. Now, I don't even have that.

Anyway, my question is: is it possible for one's IQ score to decrease over a lifetime? Is this a common happening? Anyone else in the same situation? I feel so alone.

Answer 1

It is pretty common for IQ to go down with age. Its not really that big a deal though. Its just a paper test, and was invented (partially anyway) by a guy who wrote a book called the "Psychic life of microorganisms" Alfred binet was really a silly person. You still are different from everyone else. We are all unique and have talents and perspectives that make us better at some things than others. As an adult it really never is a good idea to base your entire self-evaluation on someone else's assessment. Where's the self in that? You are still young and have a rare opportunity now to reinvent yourself as someone who is more than an arbitrary number on a sheet of paper.

Answer 2

I wonder how your Mother arrived at the information that your IQ was 140. Does she have a report or is it just from memory. It is unlikely that this information is correct. Even if this information is correct, IQ testing of children has a wide SEM (standard error of measurement) for young children. For example, a hypothetical score of 120 might have an SEM of 10 meaning that the true score has a 80% chance of being anywhere between 110 and 130. 110 to 130 is called the confidence interval. The SEM is much larger for young children which makes for a wider confidence interval.. Also the percent of confidence is selected by the examiner. A person hearing the range of scores has a tendency to pick the high end of the confidence interval. A second thing to consider is that IQ's are not static--they do change over time.

Answer 3

On what test did you score 116? A professional test?


Childhood scores can be inaccurate, yes. It depends highly on what age you were tested at. Check to see when you were tested. If you were tested before the age of 10-12 then your score of 140-150 was not an accurate measure of your adult intelligence, and therefore your IQ could very well have dropped. There is very low confidence in the scores of children under 10, and in reality they should only be used to access present performance, not how you will perform in many years.

IF you were tested after the age of 12 I highly doubt your IQ could drop more than 10 points and I would blame this drop on either a faulty test or something was effecting your performance (Sleep deprivation, hunger, ect).

As a final possibility, your mother could have recalled your IQ incorrectly. Maybe you should find the accessment results to confirm this score.

Answer 4

Not usually. ONe's IQ as a kid has a 0.7 correlation with their IQ as an adult. Plus there are many factors that can artifically decrease an IQ measure (stress, fatigue etc) but not many things that can artifically increase it. I find those online tests to be pretty bogus. Plus the tests are scored on accuracy and time. Best to start looking at other signs of giftedness. Do you have ideas that noone else seems to think of? So you understand concepts more quickly than other people? These sorts of observations should serve as more of your yardstick of intelligence because they are real world tests.

P.S. online tests as the are scored by time, may be affected by internet latency

Answer 5

There are different tests. The whole idea of IQ is a little messed up. I was given the test as child and it was 142, but academically it I was a pretty poor student. I never learned to spell well.

My definition of intelligence:

That intellectual ability which exceeds an individuals ability to use constructively, disposable intellect.

Answer 6

The IQ test takes your age into consideration, therefore more is expected of you as you get older. If you do not develop your skills, you will no longer have the advantage you once had over others.

Answer 7

IQ tests are bull. Intelligence is a pretty complex thing, can we really boil it down to a number? Don't let the man tell you how smart you are.

Answer 8

YES - your IQ diminishes quickly as soon as a
Pop quiz is placed before your eyes - you forget
EVERYTHING you thought you knew on the subject -

when the prof takes the papers up - your memory returns
and your IQ is restored!

Answer 9

Yes, you have to keep learning, or your IQ could diminish.

Answer 10

If you do not use it you loose it.