How Do You Measure An Intellectual Giant?

Robert Wadlow of the United States was the tallest human in history. He was measured at just over 8 foot 11 and weighed 485 pounds before he died at the young age of 22. His early death was due to the fact that he could not stop growing even up to the day he passed away because he had an unusually high level of human growth hormone.

The tallest living man according to the Guinness Book of World Records is currently Sultan Kösen of Turkey, who has been measured at 8 foot 3. In addition to Kösen, there are also other extremely tall individuals such as Bao Xishun at 7 foot 9, and Zhao Liang at roughly 8 foot 1, both of China.

Measuring height is rather straightforward as long as you have a measurement device that is tall enough. It is quite obvious that some people are taller than others and that even among the tallest people, there are differences in height.

However, what if you are trying to measure an intellectual giant, rather than a physical giant? It is not immediately intuitive how to measure someone's intellectual height. Intelligence is not like height which can be directly measured, and so we can only measure it indirectly. As I mentioned in an earlier post (which can be found here) one measure that can reasonably be used is the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT).

Of course, the SAT is only one measure, and it is an indirect and certainly imperfect measure of intelligence. However, for evidence that the SAT likely measures intelligence to a large degree for a college population see this paper published in the prestigious journal Psychological Science by Meredith Frey of Otterbein University and Douglas Detterman of Case Western Reserve University. For evidence that the SAT likely measures intelligence for a gifted middle school population see this paper by David Lubinski, Rose Mary Webb, Martha Morelock and Camilla Benbow.

When The Measure Doesn't Have Enough Headroom

The picture below shows four people from left to right: Bao Xishun, Zhao Liang, Sultan Kösen, and the average Turkish man. Let's say that we have a measuring tape that only extends up to 6 feet and no more. As can be seen in the picture we have no problem measuring the average man, but we have literally truncated the heads of the three giants.

This is essentially what happens when we try to measure intellectual giants (extremely gifted students) using the SAT in the 11^th grade. Because the ruler only extends to a certain height (analogous in this case to a perfect score of 800 on each subtest), we are not able to adequately measure many people in the extremely gifted range. For example, even though Bao, Zhao, and Sultan are each well over 6 feet, by using the measuring tape in the picture below we will be able to assess their heights at 6 feet and no more. Similarly, by trying to measure intellectual giants using the SAT in the 11^th grade, we will find that their scores cluster near or at 800, the ceiling of the subtest. However, perhaps many of these students could score 1000 or even 1500 on a subtest if it was difficult enough.

Using the SAT on Gifted Students in the 7^th Grade

One method of increasing the headroom of an intellectual measure that is designed for typical older students is to give it to atypical younger students. For example, talent search centers across the country-including the Duke University Talent Identification Program-allow thousands of 7^th graders to take the SAT. It turns out that gifted 7^th graders produce a very similar distribution of scores as typical 11^th graders. By giving the SAT to students at an earlier age, this increases the headroom of the measure and allows the intellectually tall to be able to be distinguished from the intellectually giant. This is depicted in the picture below, which extends the ruler from just 6 feet to 9 feet which gives enough headroom for Bao, Zhao, Sultan and the average man.

Using the analogy to height, in addition to the people who are near the tallest in the world, there are also very tall individuals such as Yao Ming (7 foot 6), Shaquille O'Neal (7 foot 1), and Michael Jordan (6 foot 6) who are somewhat shorter. Similarly, there are gifted students all throughout the range from the smart to the super smart to the ultra smart. But without the measurement tool with enough headroom, we can't adequately capture their intellectual heights.

So who is the Sultan Kösen in terms of intellectual height? Although there are many candidates, because we only have an indirect measure of intelligence through a standardized test, it is much harder to make absolute comparisons between the very smartest people. We do, however, know this:

Many intellectual giants exist, but they are typically of average physical height.

Intelligence Essential Reads

How Do You Know What You Know?

How Gifted Children Change in the Teenage Years

© 2011 by Jonathan Wai

You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or G+. For more of Finding the Next Einstein: Why Smart is Relative go here.

Gifted Awareness Week took place in New Zealand from June 14-19. This post is in support of the awareness of the needs of gifted students from all over the world.