Background
Mark Ashton Smith earned a joint PhD in cognitive psychology and neuroscience through the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, the programme run jointly by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. It was one of the earliest dedicated cognitive neuroscience programmes; among his fellow graduate students were researchers who went on to lead work on executive function and cognitive control.
He then spent several years as a lecturer and assistant professor in the psychology department at the University of Cambridge, followed by a period as assistant professor at Bilkent University in Ankara. Since November 2023 he has been a lecturer in cognitive psychology and neuroscience at the University of Essex Online.
In 2008 he founded IQ Mindware, which develops cognitive training applications, and he directs the Cambridge Mindware Lab. His research interest sits on the question of far transfer — whether training on one cognitive task produces gains on untrained tasks — which is among the most contested questions in the field, and one he has taken a public position on.
Credentials
- DoctorateJoint PhD, cognitive psychology and neuroscience — Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh
- Current postLecturer in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Essex Online (since 2023)
- Previous postsLecturer / Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge; Assistant Professor, Bilkent University, Ankara
- FounderIQ Mindware (2008–present); Director, Cambridge Mindware Lab
- SpecialismsFluid intelligence, working memory and cognitive control, cognitive training interventions, transfer effects
What he reviews here
Dr Ashton Smith reviewed the explanatory content on this site: the way IQ scores are described, the treatment of measurement error and confidence intervals, the account of what supervised instruments do that an online screener cannot, and the claims made about score interpretation.
Two limits are worth stating plainly, because a vague reviewer credit is worth less than an exact one. He does not author the test items, and reviewing the explanatory text is not the same as validating the instrument — no online screener has been through the standardisation a clinical test undergoes, and our own methodology page says so. Review covers what the site claims about intelligence testing, not a certification that the test measures what a WAIS measures.
| Page | Scope of review | Reviewed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| IQ score guide | Deviation-IQ scale, band and percentile tables, cross-scale conversions, the limits placed on what a score can be used for | 22 July 2026 | Current |
| Free IQ test (homepage) | Score interpretation, measurement error, accuracy limits of unsupervised testing, Mensa thresholds, the account of the 2006–2018 US score trend | 22 July 2026 | Partly superseded |
| Methodology | Domain structure, scoring description, the stated size of the error band | 22 July 2026 | Superseded — awaiting re-review |
Leaving the dates alone and marking the rows superseded is the only honest option available. Moving the dates forward would claim a review that has not happened, and quietly deleting the rows would erase a real one. The methodology page carries no reviewer credit in its structured data until it has been looked at again.
Review covers the explanatory text on these three pages. Pages outside that list — the legal set, contact, and the site’s own editorial policy — are written and maintained in-house and are not part of this review.
Independence and disclosure
Dr Ashton Smith is the founder of IQ Mindware, a commercial cognitive training business. That is a relevant competing interest and it is disclosed here rather than left for a reader to discover. IQTest does not sell cognitive training, and review carries no commercial stake in the test outcome or in what visitors do after taking it.
IQTest is not affiliated with the University of Essex, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Cambridge, Mensa or Pearson. Naming an institution describes where somebody has worked; it is not an endorsement by that institution.
Contact
The site’s own commitments — sourcing, dated figures, correction handling — are on the terms page, alongside the limits of what any score here supports. What happens to your data is itemised in the data inventory and the local-storage note.
Corrections and questions about content go through the IQTest contact page. Professional enquiries for Dr Ashton Smith are best sent through his LinkedIn profile.
Biographical details on this page were taken from Dr Ashton Smith’s public academic and professional profiles and checked on 22 July 2026. If anything here is out of date or incorrect, tell us and it will be fixed.