average intelligence & unintellectual interests

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I am on the spectrum and am
of above average intelligence and with highly technical/intellectual interests 49%  49%  [ 33 ]
a savant/Genius (please specify) 7%  7%  [ 5 ]
of average to lower working intelligence but with highly technical/intellectual interests 6%  6%  [ 4 ]
of average intelligence, and with unintellectual interests 13%  13%  [ 9 ]
of above average intelligence but with unintellectual interests 18%  18%  [ 12 ]
Other (please specify) 4%  4%  [ 3 ]
This poll is highly flawed (explain why) 3%  3%  [ 2 ]
Total votes : 68

sluice
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13 Jun 2009, 2:38 pm

I thought the average IQ was an 100. It is amazing we have such a wide swath of people with IQ's greater than 130 here. I don't think mine is that high. I have a difference of 20-30 points from the verbal to non-verbal scores usually, though the exact scores have shown a lot of scatter.

I did well on my MCAT and GRE back when I took them. I don't think it translates well to the real world however. I have poor short-term memory and have great trouble with organizational planning. Combine that with poor people skills, and I don't see it as that much of a big advantage.

As for my interests, some are pretty common and ordinary while others aren't so much. It is hard for me to differentiate based on popularity or its intellectual challenge. I do what I do, because I couldn't imagine not doing them.



Kajjie
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13 Jun 2009, 2:53 pm

I am currently wondering if I am on the spectrum or not.
I used to be very intelligent. Now I think I'm clever in some ways (good exam results), but very dumb in other ways.
I used to be very interested in learning and therefore be far above my age group. I am now less interseted and less advanced but I still have interest in learning about science and language and stuff. I suppose my interests are quite intellectual, but I also like art and clothes.


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zen_mistress
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14 Jun 2009, 3:46 am

ProfessorX wrote:
Wombat, much thanks for the kind words as, upon my initial diagnosis of Aspergers 82-89 is where I happened to fall on during all of the tests and all but, personally I did not feel the results were right as, I've seen a great many people do more things than what some test result says..In fact, a friend of mine whom also has Aspergers not only has a master's degree in English literature but, when he was tested on the IQ test many decades back,speaking of the 50's here he wound up being ruled out as mentally ret*d.Therefore, IQ tests are not that valid. To this very day my friend loren still writes a great many things and in fact, he's actually been trying to find a publisher for his works which, I've actually read some of it and such was very well written..


My father is a vey smart man, has a degree in History and is a brilliant philosophical thinker. He got 81 in his IQ test. I got 91 and I am also very philosophical, taking after him.... IQ tests dont seem to measure certain types of thinking, such as philosophical-ness and creativity. Also my fathers problems with executive function meant he had difficulty with the test, though he has taught maths at high school.



Sophist
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14 Jun 2009, 8:52 am

Hmm, I don't much like Intelligence Quotients as some sort of representative, static g intelligence. When I've been tested on the WISC and the WAIS, my fullscale usually ranges in the 130s (not super high but high enough to join MENSA). My VIQ (verbal) is more than 1 standard deviation higher than my PIQ (performance) indicating some learning disabilities. On the specific subtests, in the VIQ section I scored the strongest in Vocabulary, Similarities, and Comprehension, and in the PIQ I scored highest in Block Design and Symbol Search (each of these ranged 17-18, with a cutoff of 19 for each subtest). My weakest points were Picture Completion (how am I supposed to psychically know what's missing???), Arithmetic (good at math, but not in my head), and Picture Arrangement; these ranged from 9-11, which falls within the average range.

In my opinion, my IQ score tells me how I score on IQ tests. While there's some relationship with General Intelligence, obviously IQ scores ain't everything. ;) Intelligence is a fluid thing, comprising so many of-the-moment factors that coming up with a single number, or even a range of numbers, to represent a person's potential is a fatally flawed concept (one which I think Alfred Binet would agree with).

Anyways, most people, if they spend more than two seconds with me, have tended to consider me "intelligent" and admittedly I do consider myself intelligent as well, whatever that means. To me though, intelligence isn't potential but what one actually does with it. Otherwise, all the potential in the world doesn't amount to much if one's incapable of adapting those skills to life. So in this sense, in many ways I feel I've acted intelligently, and many other ways I've considered myself highly UNintelligent, heh. Like I said, fluid and dynamic.

I have various skills apart from "general intelligence", most notably falling within the realms of art (drawing, painting) and science (research, analysis). Research is my career and my joy; art is an ability and an occasional passion.

I do have some LD areas as well, most notably in reading (I seemed to get some of the disability of hyperlexia without the extreme ability to go along with it :? ) and in my working memory for math (horrible at math in my head, absolutely fine on paper).

I've usually been considered brainy, although I haven't always been drawn to the sciences and study. I have plenty of unintellectual pursuits, although I would almost always consider them "passionate". For instance, I love collecting my favorite tv series and movies on DVD, and I especially love many Britcoms. Definitely, my longest lived passion has been collecting things which I find interesting.

So, summing up:
IQ tested high but not officially "genius", always considered brainy by self and others, have certain savant-like skills (e.g., art) but also have deficit areas, and have always had both intellectual and unintellectual pursuits which I have followed passionately.


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b9
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14 Jun 2009, 9:08 am

i voted "of average to lower working intelligence but with highly technical/intellectual interests"

i have technical interests but not "intellectual" ones. i am not interested in politics or religion or history. i am not interested in philosophy or theology etc.

i think i am above average intelligence by some degree in certain ways. on line tests are ridiculous as they always try to flatter you. i wrote in one thread long ago what i got on an online test, but the test was associated with some dating forum and it obviously was not valid.

i am not very smart in many ways but i am able to calculate things i want to find out that are questions i want to answer.

most of my interests are very shallow i would suspect.
i do think about deeper things, but i can not ever communicate with anyone else what i see on a deeper level.



Danielismyname
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14 Jun 2009, 9:28 am

It doesn't matter what the interest is, or how intelligent you are in relation to said interest and what's appropriate for your cognitive ability.

Sure, certain subjects, objects and fields are more pronounced than others in prevalence, but that's probably due to the innate cognitive differences in those with an ASD (AS specifically); parts, pieces, objects and mechanics being something that's common, as is various tables.



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14 Jun 2009, 9:47 am

b9 wrote:
i voted "of average to lower working intelligence but with highly technical/intellectual interests"

i have technical interests but not "intellectual" ones. i am not interested in politics or religion or history. i am not interested in philosophy or theology etc.


If you have "technical" interests then you are probably of above average IQ.

So you prefer computers to religion?

Does that make you dumb or below average?

I don't think so.