Raven’s matrices are only one example of an IQ test. Performance across a wide range of domains, from pattern recognition to sensory discrimination to knowledge to reaction time is correlated. This widespread pattern of correlations is likely due to the performance on these many domains sharing causes, with the broadly shared causes being called g.
Since g affects your performance on tests, IQ tests to an extent measure g. However, as you point out, you can often just practice a test to become better. This practice will only make you better at that specific test, though; training your pattern recognition skill with matrices will not make you better at distinguishing the weights and colors of objects using your senses. That is, practice doesn’t change your g, but instead improves the test-specific skills called s.
Your IQ score is a combination of g and s factors (and other factors too). And it doesn’t even exist unless you take an IQ test. So it can’t be a stable innate characteristic of an individual. But g—that is, whatever underlies performance across wildly different tests—must exist independently of the tests, as a characteristic of the individual, and empirically it appears reasonably stable in adulthood, and highly genetic.
Raven’s matrices are only one example of an IQ test. Performance across a wide range of domains, from pattern recognition to sensory discrimination to knowledge to reaction time is correlated. This widespread pattern of correlations is likely due to the performance on these many domains sharing causes, with the broadly shared causes being called g.
Since g affects your performance on tests, IQ tests to an extent measure g. However, as you point out, you can often just practice a test to become better. This practice will only make you better at that specific test, though; training your pattern recognition skill with matrices will not make you better at distinguishing the weights and colors of objects using your senses. That is, practice doesn’t change your g, but instead improves the test-specific skills called s.
Your IQ score is a combination of g and s factors (and other factors too). And it doesn’t even exist unless you take an IQ test. So it can’t be a stable innate characteristic of an individual. But g—that is, whatever underlies performance across wildly different tests—must exist independently of the tests, as a characteristic of the individual, and empirically it appears reasonably stable in adulthood, and highly genetic.