Ronald K. Hoeflin (born February 23, 1944) is an American philosopher by profession, creator of the MegaMorris, Scot. "The one-in-a-million I.Q. test".

Omni magazine ''Omni'' was a science and science fiction magazine published in its domestic American market as well as the UK. It contained articles on science, parapsychology, and short works of science fiction and fantasy. It was published as a print version ...

, April 1985, pp 128-132. and Titan"Mind Games: the hardest IQ test you'll ever love suffering through",

, pp 90 ff, April 1990 intelligence tests. In 1988, Hoeflin won the American Philosophical Association's Rockefeller Prize for his article, "Theories of Truth: A Comprehensive Synthesis." His article argues for the interrelated nature of seven leading theories of truth. Hoeflin claims an IQ of 164, admitting his scores have ranged from 125 to 175, depending upon the cognitive abilities tapped into.

Biography

Hoeflin was born on February 23, 1944, to William Eugene Hoeflin (July 1, 1902 — 1993) and Mary Elizabeth Dell Hoeflin (born May 15, 1913 in Ocklocknee,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

), who married in 1938. Hoeflin has one sister (born 1939), who eventually pursued a career in ballet, and one brother (born 1942), who is now a computer programmer specializing in actuarial work.Hoeflin, Ronald. "About the Author." ''Noesis'', Issue #176 February 2005.
/ref> Hoeflin grew up in

St Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. As a young child he memorized pi to 200 places."The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World" by A. J. Jacobs (Simon & Schuster, 2005) He received a PhD in Philosophy from

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

for Social Research. For over a decade, he has been working on a thirteen-volume treatise titled "The Encyclopedia of Categories", which has now been published online and is available for free download.

Intelligence tests and societies

For over sixty years, psychologists such as

Leta Stetter Hollingworth Leta Stetter Hollingworth (25 May 1886 – 27 November 1939) was an American psychologist, educator, and feminist. Hollingworth also made contributions in psychology of women; clinical psychology; and educational psychology. She is best known for ...

, author of the book ''Children Above 180 IQ'', have suggested that people with extremely high IQs are radically different from the general population. Identifying such people would require IQ tests with reliability not currently available for extreme ranges of IQ. Ronald Hoeflin has stated to have been a member of Mensa,

Intertel Intertel (previously the International Legion of Intelligence) is a high-IQ society founded in 1966, that is open to those who have scored at or above the 99th percentile (top 1%) on one of various standardized tests of intelligence. It has been ...

, the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry and the

Triple Nine Society The Triple Nine Society (TNS) is an international high IQ society for adults whose score on a standardized test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population. The society recognizes scores from over 20 different ...

, which he co-founded, as well as the

Prometheus Society The Prometheus Society is a high IQ society, similar to Mensa International, but much more restrictive. The entry criterion, achievable by a number of tests, is designed to be passable by 1 in 30,000 of the population, while Mensa entry is achiev ...

and the

Mega Society The Mega Society is a high IQ society open to people who have scored at the one-in-a-million level on a test of general intelligence claimed to be able to discriminate at that level. It was founded in 1982 by Ronald K. Hoeflin to facilitate psyc ...

, both of which he founded. Hoeflin attempted, along with Kevin Langdon, to develop an IQ test that could measure adult IQs greater than three standard deviations from the population median, or IQ 145 ( sd 15). Hoeflin's Mega Test was an unsupervised IQ test without time limit consisting of 48 questions, half verbal and half mathematical. It was published in

, in April 1985, and the results were used to norm the test. Hoeflin standardized the test six times, using equipercentile equating with

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...

and other scores, and some extrapolation at the highest level.

Societies Founded by Ronald Hoeflin

Believing that people at the highest IQ levels would be able easily to communicate with each other and have much in common, Hoeflin founded several societies for those with the highest scores. All are active today. These societies are (along with year founded, percentile, and minimum IQ (sd 16)):

Individuals with top scores on Hoeflin tests

The highest scorers on the Mega Test had their names printed in the '' Guinness Book of World Records'' and were also profiled (along with Hoeflin) by '' Esquire'' under the title ''The Smartest Man in America''. The Guinness book of World Records has since retired the category of "highest IQ" after concluding that IQ tests are not consistent enough to designate a single world record holder. One such individual of former World Record acclaim,

Marilyn vos Savant Marilyn vos Savant (; born Marilyn Mach; August 11, 1946) is an American magazine columnist who has the highest recorded intelligence quotient (IQ) in the ''Guinness Book of Records'', a competitive category the publication has since retired. S ...

was additionally profiled in ''New York'' magazine.Baumgold, Julie (February 6, 1989). "In the Kingdom of the Brain". New York magazine. This article also discusses Hoeflin and the Mega Society (the author of the ''Esquire'' article,

Mike Sager Mike Sager (born August 17, 1956) is an American author, journalist, and educator. A former ''Washington Post'' staff writer, ''Rolling Stone'' contributing editor, and writer at large for '' GQ'', Sager has been a contributing writer for ''E ...

, later used it as part of a book.Mike Sager, ''Wounded Warriors'', p. 121-36
/ref>) The Mega Test has been criticized by professional reviewers of psychological tests. In 1990, Hoeflin created the Titan Test, also published in Omni.

References

External links

"The Encyclopedia of Categories", Ronald Hoeflin's thirteen-volume treatise available for free download.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoeflin, Ronald K. 1944 births Living people Intelligence researchers The New School alumni American philosophers American scientists Mensans