Shankar Vedantam

If verbal skills and spatial skills were just that, skills that could be learned with practice, wasn't it odd that the kids who were good at one were often also good at the other?

Scott found himself intrigued by questions like this.

There was a second area when Nick McIntosh started to sway Scott's pre-existing views about IQ tests.

Scott's foray into the lion's den of IQ testing hadn't turned out the way he'd expected.

When we come back, how Scott responded to his moral quandary.

You're listening to Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

This is Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Do you have follow-up questions about intelligence after listening to this episode?

Maybe you have a personal story about how your potential was assessed when you were young.

If you'd be willing to share your question or story with the Hidden Brain audience, please record a voice memo on your phone.

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Early in his career, intelligence researcher Scott Barry Kaufman set out to tear down the edifice of IQ testing.

He felt it had greatly limited his own prospects as a young person.

But then he found himself convinced by much of the science behind IQ.

It left him with a quandary.