reliability of nonverbal iq tests for iq estimates

Post Reply New Topic

i am a 22 years old italian woman who has been recently diagnosed with asd level 1( aspergers as the diagnostician phrased it even though technically it is asd). i have always been told i was intelligent but i have never bought into it , even though i have an high gpa as political science major and i will graduate in july, because i have chalked it up, since becoming an adult, to me having "intellectual" special interests and having a good vocabulary as i was born to a family of university graduates. i have long noticed that i had severe visual-processing problems, which i had mentioned, at the beginning of the evaluation, to the neuropsych who diagnosed me and administered the tests to me. this led me to suspect i had nlvd( even though it is not an official diagnosis and hence gets little recognition, in italy) as my social deficits did not seem that severe, but even with this in mind i was shocked to learn how much i failed the Ctoni 2(?) called Tinv in italian(test d'intelligenza non verbale), scoring a 75 in the borderline id range, with a 68(!) on the pictorial subtest and a 85 on the geometrical subtest. now i scored a 100 on the Raven Matrices and due to my good gpa, the neuropsych regarded these very low Ctoni scores as the result of test anxiety and low visual-spatial ability rather than the result of a low iq but i have read by researching them on google that both tests are measures of fluid intelligence that also can serve as estimates of full scale iq or general intelligence, as fluid intelligence is also highly correlated with crystallized intelligence . now ,i am almost completely computer illiterate( barely more literate than my 65 years old mother, who still has to use her computer though, as she works in an office) despite being an internet addict, and i know that italian universities and schools revolve more around rote memorization than, say, english universities. i have thought for a long time a bit that i was a bit of a parrot with some aptitude for foreign languages and little ability for inferences but i would rather believe my iq was closer to 100 than to 75.
so what i am to make of these Ctoni scores?. does someone here have an experience of an abnormally low score on a nonverbal test that, like the Ctoni from what i have read, can even have the weakness of overestimating fluid intelligence scores?. can visual-spatial processing difficulties explain such a big gap between the Raven Matrices score and the Ctoni scores?.

There seems to be a tendency for people with an "Aspergers" profile to not do well in nonverbal (also known as "performance") parts of various IQ tests.

I've gotten better in the nonverbal/performance realm over the years. When I was 15, though, I scored 150 in one verbal subtests, and 85 in a performance subtests.

I'm not sure how "reliable" they are. But like I said, the tendency stated above does exist in many Aspergian people. Though not every Aspergian exhibits this.

You sound like a bright person. Being good in "nonverbal" aspects shouldn't preclude you from success, ultimately.

Oh, wow someone else with the same skewed skillset (really thought I was the only one ). I also score low on visual processing components of IQ tests, but much better with verbal reasoning -- (and had many people insist that I'm exceptionally smart, must have a high IQ etc. I don't and don't really believe them)

I've since discovered it's a deficit in working memory that is in part responsible for my low visual processing scores, as it forms a bottleneck and forces a slower strategy (in other words I take too long in a timed test situation -- this is more obvious in card games, play slowly and I'm at an advantage, but when the pace picks up I'm at significant disadvantage).

The interesting thing about ravens' matrices is that I used to search all possible directions and find multiple solutions! Since learning that the only valid solution is left-right, row-by-row, working down, and that I should apply visual processing "tricks" e.g. (elimination of answers, reducing a visual problem to a verbal one, separate figure into elements etc.), I became a lot better at them (over 20 point increase, who said those matrices were fair?). Now there is a large gap between my ravens' matrix score and other visual processing tests.

Yep! You can learn how to solve Raven - and there´s a lot of instructive videos out there, so there´s an "inflation" going on.
As consequence: If you get a high score in a raven-based test - you are good at solving Raven or Raven-based tests at large.
Don´t take it too seriously.
However, if a testee never saw a test like that before, it can say a great deal about his/her ability.

The hush-hush around the contents of the Wais test has its reasons.

i have never seen Raven instruction videos but i had done some raven online tests before, even though i did not finish them because i did not want to get the full score as i knew my performance was not good, so this might have helped me in getting an average score(iq 100) on the Raven's matrices alongside the strategy of verbalizing to treat it like a verbal pattern recognition problem.

You´ll have to pay to get the result - test is free - but the result itself ???
I seldom get my results, because I won´t pay - but I use tests for cognitive fun.
The only valid way to a proper IQ evaluation goes through a test conducted by a professional - not via net.

There are some good playgrounds here and there, though.

One is: IQexams.net

Another one: Indiabix.com (for students to reinforce their aptitude)

Youngadult,

I once took the Weschler test and completely froze on the block design test. I did well on all of the Verbal tests. It was devastating and embarrassing to me.

I am of partial Italian heritage (father's side). My maternal branch is German.

I screwed up in the block design test, too.

But where I really screwed up was when I had to put pictures in order which depicted processes like "waking up, brushing your teeth, putting on your clothes"--things like that.

I just couldn't get it as a young kid.

actually the nonverbal iq test(the comprehensive test of nonverbal intelligence-Ctoni) where i scored in the borderline intellectual functioning range was a motor-free test . i do not think i would do well on the block design subtest in a iq test like the Wais either. anyway i recently graduated( in early july) with bachelor's degree in political science with honors but i am not a fast thinker and i have a tendency to lose focus and to get lost in my thoughts. the neuropsych likely gave me quick, nonverbal iq tests like the Raven's and Ctoni because an assessment of my cognitive functioning was needed for the diagnosis and, as i wanted to complete the evaluation and to get the results as soon as possible, longer tests would not have been suitable. i had test anxiety during both tests but my lack of focus and my desire to be done with these tests likely influenced negatively the results only with the Ctoni and not with Raven's as i was more focused in the latter case. In kindergarten i was diagnosed with childhood psychosis first and then with pervasive developmental disorder-nos but they did not administer any iq tests to me. This being italy, a country where the psychodynamic school is accepted also by neuropsychiatrists and hugely influential , they blamed my problems on the overbearing way my parents were raising me, which did not help at all and worsened my issues but was clearly not the cause of my condition. the main problem that i am having with these iq test results has more to do with my weak self-esteem than anything else, i know they are very not accurate with autistic people but i can not get the numbers 75 and 100 out of my mind(mostly the first as 100 is a perfectly average score).