The fastest test to determine intelligence. Only 3 questions that seem to be simple

In 2005, MIT professor Shane Frederick developed a simple and quick test to determine your level of intelligence. Just three questions will reveal how impulsive you are and your tendency to make instant decisions. They will also help assess your ability to reflect and analyze. To understand how this test works, let’s understand some concepts.

What is reflection?

Reflexion is the turning of the mind to itself. That is, the ability to record thoughts, emotions, feelings, behavior, experiences and analyze them. It is also about the ability to refer to knowledge and skills.

Clinical psychologist (IP&CP), counseling psychologist

“I would say that in the case of reflection, we are talking about a mindset that aims to develop psychological flexibility. The ability to reflexion is the ability to stop and turn to oneself. To feelings, experiences, thoughts, experience – to the most diverse components of mental life”.

What is the role of reflexion, why is it needed? This ability is important for successfully coping with life’s tasks. It is about the ability to learn from one’s own mistakes, to analyze and draw conclusions, to distinguish between one’s own experiences and the feelings of others.

A person who is able to reflex, quickly navigates in different situations, as he has developed psychological flexibility. He is able to keep the balance between emotions and thoughts, is able to cope with the influx of feelings, but he does not fall into excessive rationalization.

Impulsiveness is the opposite ofreflexivity. It is the tendency to act under the influence of emotions or external circumstances (without conscious self-control). We are naturally predisposed to it. It’s the way the brain works. The whole point is that our emotional system (limbic) is older. It’s quicker to react. We’ve been training it for thousands of years.

But we have other parts of the brain responsible for self-control. A person develops them from childhood in various ways: through adaptation to limitations, caring for others. We get passionate about a certain thing and learn to develop in it. For example, by cramming tables with irregular English verbs.

As a reward for the effort expended, we gain the ability to reflect, understand ourselves, manage, take care of ourselves, and cope with complex tasks. This results in a particular cognitive style.

People with an impulsive cognitive style, in a situation where there are multiple choices, don’t take time to think and react quickly. They do not analyze and make many mistakes. A person with a reflective cognitive style acts slowly, weighs the steps, options and chooses the best one.

The first type of thinking is common. It is due to many reasons. For example, parents could “pity” the child and instead of talking to him, explaining why it is important to endure even boring moments, allowed not to finish what they started. In addition, families rarely discuss each other’s feelings and thoughts. There is no habit of turning to inner experience and reflection.

There are other reasons – of an organic plan. The tendency to act impulsively can be a sign of a mental disorder. Both emotional and neurological. A high degree of impulsivity is a sign of a personality disorder. Most notably sociopathy or narcissistic personality disorder.

One of the key aspects of the Frederick test is the ability to keep from giving quick answers. Accuracy and analytical thinking are rated higher than speed. Ready to test yourself?

Frederick’s Test

Questions

1- A baseball bat and a ball

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 together. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. What is the price of the ball?

2. Car

If five machines take five minutes to make five parts, how long will it take 100 machines to make 100 parts?

3. a lake with lilies

There are lilies growing in a lake, of which there are twice as many every day. It takes 48 days for them to cover the entire surface of the water. How long does it take for them to fill half of the lake?

Correct answers

1. a baseball bat and a ball.

The fastest answer is 10 cents. However, this way the total cost would be $1.20 because the bat must cost $1.10 more than the ball.

The correct option is that the ball costs 5 cents and the bat costs 1.05 cents respectively.

The question can also be answered by posing a system of equations with two unknowns. Mathematicians can try their hand at obtaining the same result.

2. Car

The more impulsive will probably answer that 100 machines make 100 parts in 100 minutes. Then increasing the number of machines also increases the production time. This is not very efficient.

In reality, however, nothing changes. More machines are needed to make more parts, but the time does not increase. The correct answer is five minutes.

Mathematically, if five machines make five parts in five minutes, then each machine makes one part in five minutes, but if the machines are working at the same time, the total time does not change.

3- A lake with water lilies

The instinctive answer is 24 days, however this is not possible. The question states that each day doubles in number. The correct answer is 47 days. The next day, the lilies double in number and cover the entire lake.

Mathematically, the demonstration is more complicated than the previous questions. Their growth is not a linear phenomenon, so you cannot apply simple proportions to them, for example.

Why want to answer impulsively?

Out of 3428 respondents from prestigious universities, only 17% guessed all three answers. Thus, the test emphasizes that few people are capable of thoughtful reflection. Why is this the case?

Solving non-trivial problems requires the ability to stop and analyze data. This is a sequence of operations: analyzing the text, thinking about options, evaluating each of them and choosing the right one. This requires stamina and analytical experience.

The automatic reaction of the limbic system is opposition. It’s like it’s screaming: “I don’t want to deal with this.” If you are able to quiet this part by bringing yourself back to the process, you can deal with impulsive responses.

Besides, we live in the information age. Clip thinking and gadgets affect concentration, attention, and the ability to tolerate frustration.

This test is very interestingly put together. It is organized along the lines of increasing complexity of tasks. A person spends cognitive resource on each one. Since the last one is the most difficult, and he may already be exhausted by the first two, the temptation to give up on the third one will be higher. It is also aimed at testing a wide variety of cognitive skills: from analyzing data to building a non-linear algorithm for a solution.

How to develop the ability to reflect?

• If you have children, it is important to discuss with them their feelings and share your own, to analyze. With other family members you should do this too.
• Keep journals. Written practices help develop this ability.
• Engage in physical activities that require endurance. This ranges from practicing at a motorcycle school or dancing to knitting and pottery. Anything that involves consistent follow-through.
• Exploring the world and referring to your own experiences. Asking yourself questions: “How have I been affected? What am I feeling? What am I thinking?”
• If difficult situations arise, consider different options, weigh them and evaluate them.
• Give yourself permission to be bored. Set aside a gadget in lines, look around, reflect.