Intelligence.

[brewer]

I can only speak for myself (maybe for others) but intelligence definitely declines with age/disease.

Or is it that the intelligence changes? Sorry, my oldtimers is getting in the way.

[Cato]

Nature vs. nurture. I think cognitive ability is capped by genetics, but for all sorts of reasons most people rarely come close to reaching their potential.

[Minimalist]

If someone eats lead and mercury from a young age I'm pretty sure that affects his or her intelligence.

Reading the fucking bible has as a similar impact.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Both affect intelligence as psychologists measure it, I suspect in roughly equal proportions.

[Shining_Finger]

They aren't accurate at all. Real IQ tests are carried out by professionals and not over the internet. I've heard they cost lots of money in some places and they take lots of time. Much longer than a simple IQ test on the internet.

Well, then, I imagine very few of us ever took such "professional" Iq tests.

I did, particularly 3. 
The last one I took rated me Above Average, although I have scored much higher than that on the one before, and much lower than both on the one before that one. 
So if you want my opinion Original Poster, I would say that one of the following three are true. 
1. Intelligence can fluctuate a lot. 
2. IQ tests are inaccurate. 
3. Intelligence can fluctuate, and IQ Tests are somewhat inaccurate.

[robvalue]

Nature vs. nurture. I think cognitive ability is capped by genetics, but for all sorts of reasons most people rarely come close to reaching their potential.

I agree with this.

The problem with IQ tests particularly is they don't mean much past a certain age, if I recall correctly. When you're young, your mental faculties are rapidly developing. So you can see how far ahead or behind the curve you are. But at a certain age, things start to generally plateau for any individual, or even get worse. Using age as a quotient then becomes less meaningful.

That's from what I remember reading about IQ tests, a while ago. I took one (a proper one) when I was about 13-15, but I don't know what would happen if I tried to take one now. For a variety of reasons I'd expect my score to be lower. My brain isn't as sharp as it was anyway, and CFS fucks with my head and slows down my thinking procedures. And being 39 might make the results meaningless for the above reasons.

Do they even offer them past a certain age? It's been so long that I'm out of the loop about it. I also agree that they only measure a very specific kind of "intelligence" and should by no means be considered definitive.

[Alex K]

I've said it many times, probably even in this thread: why should I take any attempt seriously to map something as complex and manifold as the operation of the brain entirely on one number. The brain does many different things from pattern recognition, association, calculations, symbolic manipulation, spatial thinking, memory feats, just off the top of my head.

[robvalue]

I agree.

You're really just testing how good the person is at "these types of questions".

You'd need to do some really extensive tests of all different kinds to come up with anything viable, and like you say, it would have to be multi-faceted.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Nature vs. nurture. I think cognitive ability is capped by genetics, but for all sorts of reasons most people rarely come close to reaching their potential.

I agree with this.

The problem with IQ tests particularly is they don't mean much past a certain age, if I recall correctly. When you're young, your mental faculties are rapidly developing. So you can see how far ahead or behind the curve you are. But at a certain age, things start to generally plateau for any individual, or even get worse. Using age as a quotient then becomes less meaningful.

That's from what I remember reading about IQ tests, a while ago. I took one (a proper one) when I was about 13-15, but I don't know what would happen if I tried to take one now. For a variety of reasons I'd expect my score to be lower. My brain isn't as sharp as it was anyway, and CFS fucks with my head and slows down my thinking procedures. And being 39 might make the results meaningless for the above reasons.

Do they even offer them past a certain age? It's been so long that I'm out of the loop about it. I also agree that they only measure a very specific kind of "intelligence" and should by no means be considered definitive.

I've never taken an actual IQ test, I'll probably score average if I did. But I'm curious, what type of questions did this IQ test have? Did it have questions that just test pattern analysis? Like what comes after 1,3,6,10,_ etc?

[Alex K]

I've never taken an actual IQ test, I'll probably score average if I did. But I'm curious, what type of questions did this IQ test have? Did it have questions that just test pattern analysis?  Like what comes after 1,3,6,10,_ etc?

The ones I've taken had a lot of that, and picture versions of that, with a series of pictograms or geometric figures where something changes from the last, and you're supposed to find the pattern and identify the next one missing. A lot of that stuff.