IQ测的只是智力吗？

A new study suggests that the ability of IQ tests to predict your future — in areas such as job success, education and any brushes with the law — has a lot to do with how motivated you are when you take the test.

一项新的研究表明，IQ测试的预测未来能力——在事业成功，教育和跟法律接触这些方面——跟你测试时的积极性有关。

In other words, an IQ test may provide good insight into a test-taker’s life, “but it might not predict it for the reason you think,” explained study author Angela Lee Duckworth, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

换句话说，一个IQ测试可以对测试者的生活有很好的了解，“但是它不能预测你所认为的原因。”美国宾夕法尼亚大学副教授，该项研究作者Angela Lee Duckworth说。

Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are valued in part because researchers have linked scores to success or failure later in life. “It predicts how long you’ll live, whether you’ll stay married, your grade point average,” Duckworth noted.

IQ测试从某种程度上是有用的，因为研究人员把分数跟后来生活的成功与否联系起来。“它预测你的寿命有多长，你是否能维持你的婚姻，你的平均成绩。”Duckworth指出。

On top of that, IQ tests seem to measure not only intelligence but the ability to become smarter.

另外，IQ测试不仅测试智力，还测试你变得更聪明的能力。

“Social scientists think they’re accurate measures of how well people can learn: this kid’s got a 120, so they can learn really well,” Duckworth said. “This kid’s got an IQ of 95, so they can’t learn that well.”

“社会科学家认为这是测试人们学得怎样的准确方法：这个孩子IQ是120，所以他学得非常好。”Duckworth说。“如果这个孩子的IQ是95，那么他就学得没那么好。”

But not everyone who takes an IQ test gives it their full attention. “I do a lot of work in urban classrooms, and it was salient to me that some of these kids did not care,” Duckworth explained. “They put their pencils and heads down after one or two questions. It was obvious that they were not trying to do it. They hadn’t even started trying.”

但并不是每个人都特别重视IQ测试。“我在市区的教室花了很大风功夫，可是明显的，一些孩子并不关心。”Duckworth解释说。“只有一两个问题他们会用笔和脑记下。很明显他们不想做这些。他们甚至不进行尝试。”

Duckworth said that she and her colleagues “wanted to know how much of the test’s predictive power is measuring what it should be measuring, and how it much of it is from your actual motivation.”

Duckworth说她和同事们“想知道这个测试对测试它该测试的预测能力有多大，和大部分的预测能力是如何从你的实际动机中产生的。”

They first reviewed previous studies, and found that giving incentives to test-takers to do a good job boosted scores.

他们首先检查先前的研究，发现鼓励测试者好好做测试会提高分数。

In addition, the authors analyzed data from a long-term study that followed 250 teenage boys from Pittsburgh into adulthood. They were videotaped while taking an IQ test, and researchers gauged how motivated they appeared.

此外，作者还分析了一个对250个匹兹堡男孩从青少年到成年的长期研究数据。他们进行IQ测试时被录到录像带上，然后研究人员判断他们表现的积极性有多高。

When they adjusted their statistics to take away the influence of motivation upon the results, the researchers found that the IQ tests did a poorer job of predicting what would happen to the boys later in life.

当他们调整信息降低积极性对结果的影响时，研究人员发现IQ测试对这些男孩后来生活的预测能力不准确。

It’s possible that some of the things that make someone motivated — compliance, a natural interest in solving problems, competitiveness — are high in those who do well on the tests and may help them do better in life, Duckworth said.

很可能是有些事提高某些人的积极性——服从，对解决问题的天生兴趣，竞争——都是那些在测试中表现较好，帮助他们生活中过得更好的人较常出现。

However, the findings “don’t say these IQ scores are all about motivation,” Duckworth said. “It’s not saying anyone can get 140 if they try hard enough.”

然而，调查结果“并没有说这些IQ分数都是跟积极性有关的。”Duckworth说。“这并不是说如果一个人非常努力，他的IQ就能达到140.”

Robert Sternberg, a psychology professor and provost at Oklahoma State University, praised the study but added that the findings aren’t exactly shocking. “To almost anyone except some subset of those psychologists who study IQ testing, it will come as little surprise that motivation is an extremely powerful determinant of performance in school and in life,” he said.

心理学教授和克拉荷马州州立大学教务长Robert Sternberg赞成这个研究，但表明调查结果还不完全令人震惊。“除了研究IQ测试的一些小团体，几乎所有人都不会对积极性是在学习和生活中表现的决定性因素感到惊讶。”他说。