Scott Barry Kaufman

Thank you.

It's so great to be here.

Well, one of the first IQ tests was not actually called an IQ test.

It wasn't actually called an intelligence test.

It was Alfred Bernays, a Frenchman, was tasked by the Department of Education there to come up with a test that would differentiate those who needed help in school versus those that didn't need help in school.

And it was never thought of by Binet as an intelligence test.

But that was a couple of Americans, including Willis Terman at Stanford, who discovered those tests and saw opportunities to measure genius with them.

basically an individually administered test like a one-on-one uh very intimate test that was created by alfred bernet was converted into a multiple choice mass produced test that was used for all sorts of purposes that didn't have its original intent and sadly you know um alfred bernet uh died quite angry at americans and frustrated um because his uh the purpose of the test was never used in france and uh and he saw how it was being used in america

IQ tests measure a bunch of different cognitive abilities, vocabulary, spatial rotation, working memory.

So it's measuring a set of cognitive skills that aren't irrelevant to our lives, aren't important.

But I think the big question is, do we want to put the label intelligence on those sets of skills?

And to what degree...

If we aren't sky high in those things, is it really limiting us in our potential?

And those are the kind of questions that really animate me.

Well, I definitely resonate with Jamie.

I had two major IQ testing sessions.

One, I could barely hear the test instructor because I had this auditory processing disability at that time.

And I remember leaving that feeling like, oh my gosh, they're going to think I'm really stupid.

The second one was to decide what special school I should be sent to in fifth grade.

And so just having that in my mind already, that they're giving me a test to...