The True IQ Blog
Long-form, sourced articles on intelligence, memory, reasoning, learning and the science of cognitive measurement. Every piece is written by a named author, reviewed before publication and updated when the evidence moves. Written for curious readers, not only for specialists.
Interpreting scores
How accurate are online IQ tests? An honest assessment
Written by people who build one: where online cognitive tests are genuinely informative, where they systematically mislead, and how to tell a careful test from a flattering one.
IQ score ranges explained: what 85, 100, 115 and 130 actually mean
A practical reference for reading IQ bands: the percentile behind each range, how wide the error bars are, and why the labels attached to them do more harm than good.
Applied cognition
Cognitive ageing: what actually declines, what improves, and what you control
Ageing does not drain a single reservoir of intelligence. Different abilities follow different curves, and several of the strongest risk factors are modifiable.
Test anxiety: why you underperform, and what reliably helps
Anxiety does not make you less capable. It occupies the mental workspace your reasoning needs. Here is the mechanism and the interventions with evidence behind them.
Working memory: the bottleneck behind almost every hard problem
Working memory is the small, noisy workspace where thinking happens. Understanding its limits explains why complex problems feel hard and how to design around it.
How to solve matrix reasoning puzzles: the five rule families
Almost every matrix item is built from one of five underlying rules. Learn to recognise them and the puzzles stop feeling like guesswork.
Can you actually improve your cognitive abilities? What the evidence says
Brain-training apps promise a smarter you. The research tells a more modest and more useful story about what really moves cognitive performance.
Foundations
Seven persistent myths about IQ, debunked
Genius thresholds, ten-percent brains, fixed scores and Mensa destiny: the most common claims about IQ, and what the research actually shows.
IQ vs EQ: do they measure the same kind of intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is often sold as the thing that matters more than IQ. The truth is less tidy: they are different constructs, measured differently, predicting different things.
How IQ is measured: from Binet to modern matrix tests
A short history of intelligence testing, from Alfred Binet's school screenings to the visual matrices and item-response models behind modern online assessments.
What is IQ, really? A plain-English guide to intelligence quotients
IQ is one of the most discussed and most misunderstood numbers in psychology. Here is what it actually measures, how the scale was built, and what it cannot tell you about a person.
Start with the essentials
New here? These two reference pages explain what a score means and how ours is produced.