Clear Language, Clear Mind

I have/had this conversation on OKCupid. It seemed shareworthy. I’m red, and the other person is blue.

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There is already social stratification because of better genes among different groups. Indeed, this is the topic of The Bell Curve. :)

Of course, in the beginning this technology will be for the rich people, who will by that have even smarter+healthier children than they already have. The same is true for better schools. But such biotech falls quickly in price (say, logarithmic speeds cf. price of genome sequencing) and will soon benefit large parts of society, in the sense that people can have smarter and more healthy kids. But even when only the rich will get it, this will also benefit the rest, since society as a whole benefits from having smarter+more healthy people (to begin with, it will give society a larger pool of potential leaders).

In practice, one would start by expanding the battle against hereditary diseases for the simple reason that these are the easiest to find the genes for. For instance, screening for certain diseases during pregnancy is already widely practiced, e.g. Down’s syndrome. In Denmark 99% of women who are diagnosed as being pregnant with a Down’s syndrome fetus abort it. This has dramatically lowered the number of Down’s syndrome people in Denmark, thus saving parents from the hassle, and saving society (=everybody) from the economic disadvantage such a person is/would be.

We already know of many such genes for diseases/disease risks, while we don’t know of a single well-confirmed case for intelligence. We will find them in the next few decades. The reason they are hard to find is that there are probably 1000s of genes that affect intelligence, but a single gene has only a tiny effect (positive or negative), say 0.5 IQ. This means that one needs a huge sample to spot them from statistical noise (i.e. high powered studies).

Of course, USA is really fucked up in the relative wealth department. :) I particularly liked this video about that problem: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oOwjN9qV2ls

-Emil :)

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I’m curious about your interpretation of “better genes” and exactly in what way they contribute to one’s social standing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but your perspective sounds a bit deterministic if you’re convinced that the dominant influence on where you end up in the hierarchy is genetics, especially if your interpretation of “better genes” is centered around IQ (considering IQs in the very highest ranges are actually negatively correlated with success). It also sounds like you don’t believe environmental factors make much of a dent overall, am I correct?

Tangent: it seems you’re pretty focused on meritocracy, and while that’s a noble sentiment and a nice idea (like Marxist communism), it unfortunately doesn’t exist in the wild (also like Marxist communism). It’s been my observation that under the facade of well-meaning plans, every large community, social structure, organization, etc. is essentially based on a Hollywood mentality: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I’m not arrogant enough to assume that my own experience is representative of the entire range of experiences, but I have yet to find a self-proclaimed “meritocracy” that truly *was* that.

But back on the topic of social stratification, assuming we were able to influence the leadership potential of a given group, is it not true that when an individual or group acquires power they are unlikely to give that power up voluntarily? And will, generally speaking, restrict the ability of other individuals or groups to attain power as well?

And yes, the USA is fucked up in a lot of areas, but wealth is a pretty big one. Also, sorry if I seem a bit contentious, devil’s advocacy is just a beloved pastime of mine. And the better informed your conversation partner, the more fun it tends to be. I don’t need attribution, but if the anonymity was bothering you, my name’s ****** :)

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The Signal and the Noise Why So Many Predictions Fail – but Some Don’t Nate Silver 544p

 

It is a pretty interesting book especially becus it covers some areas of science not usually covered in popsci (geology, meteorology), and i learned a lot. it is also clearly written and easy to read, which speeds up reading speeds, making the 450ish pages rather quickly to devour. From a learning perspectiv this is awesome as it allows for faster learning. it shud also be mentioned that it has a lot of very useful illustrations which i shared on my social networks while reading it.

 

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“Fortunately, Dustin is really cocky, because if he was the kind of person

who was intimidated—if he had listened to those people—it would have ruined

him. He didn’t listen to people. He continued to dig in and swing from his heels

and eventually things turned around for him.”

Pedroia has what John Sanders calls a “major league memory”—which is to

say a short one. He isn’t troubled by a slump, because he is damned sure that

he’s playing the game the right way, and in the long run, that’s what matters.

Indeed, he has very little tolerance for anything that distracts him from doing

his job. This doesn’t make him the most generous human being, but it is ex­

actly what he needs in order to play second base for the Boston Red Sox, and

that’s the only thing that Pedroia cares about.

“Our weaknesses and our strengths are always very intimately connected,”

James said. “Pedroia made strengths out of things that would be weaknesses for

other players.”

 

This sounds like low agreeableness to me. I wonder if Big Five can predict baseball success?

 

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The statistical reality of accuracy isn’t necessarily the governing paradigm

when it comes to commercial weather forecasting. It’s more the perception of

accuracy that adds value in the eyes of the consumer.

For instance, the for-profit weather forecasters rarely predict exactly a

50 percent chance of rain, which might seem wishy-washy and indecisive to

consumers.41 Instead, they’ll flip a coin and round up to 60, or down to 40, even

though this makes the forecasts both less accurate and less honest.42

 

Floehr also uncovered a more flagrant example of fudging the numbers,

something that may be the worst-kept secret in the weather industry. Most com­

mercial weather forecasts are biased, and probably deliberately so. In particu­

lar, they are biased toward forecasting more precipitation than will actually

occur43—what meteorologists call a “wet bias.” The further you get from the

government’s original data, and the more consumer facing the forecasts, the

worse this bias becomes. Forecasts “add value” by subtracting accuracy.

 

thats interesting. never heard of this.

 

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This logic is a little circular. TV weathermen say they aren’t bothering to

make accurate forecasts because they figure the public won’t believe them any­

way. But the public shouldn t believe them, because the forecasts aren’t accurate.

This becomes a more serious problem when there is something urgent—

something like Hurricane Katrina. Lots of Americans get their weather infor­

mation from local sources49 rather than directly from the Hurricane Center, so

they will still be relying on the goofball on Channel 7 to provide them with

accurate information. If there is a mutual distrust between the weather fore­

caster and the public, the public may not listen when they need to most.

 

Nicely illustrating for importance of honesty in reporting data, even on local TV.

 

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In fact, the actual value for GDP fell outside the economists’ prediction

interval six times in eighteen years, or fully one-third of the time. Another

study,18 which ran these numbers back to the beginnings of the Survey of Pro­

fessional Forecasters in 1968, found even worse results: the actual figure for

GDP fell outside the prediction interval almost h a l f the time. There is almost

no chance19 that the economists have simply been unlucky; they fundamentally

overstate the reliability of their predictions.

 

In reality, when a group of economists give you their GDP forecast, the

true 90 percent prediction interval—based on how these forecasts have actually

performed20 and not on how accurate the economists claim them to be—spans

about 6.4 points of GDP (equivalent to a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2

percent).*

 

When you hear on the news that GDP will grow by 2.5 percent next year,

that means it could quite easily grow at a spectacular rate of 5.7 percent instead.

Or it could fall by 0.7 percent—a fairly serious recession. Economists haven’t

been able to do any better than that, and there isn’t much evidence that their

forecasts are improving. The old joke about economists’ having called nine out

of the last six recessions correctly has some truth to it; one actual statistic is that

in the 1990s, economists predicted only 2 of the 60 recessions around the world

a year ahead of time.21

 

and this is why we cant have nice things, i mean macroeconomics

 

-

 

I have no idea whether I was really a good player at the very outset. But the

bar set by the competition was low, and my statistical background gave me an

advantage. Poker is sometimes perceived to be a highly psychological game, a

battle of wills in which opponents seek to make perfect reads on one another by

staring into one another’s souls, looking for “tells” that reliably betray the con­

tents of the other hands. There is a little bit of this in poker, especially at the

higher limits, but not nearly as much as you’d think. (The psychological factors

in poker come mostly in the form of self-discipline.) Instead, poker is an incred­

ibly mathematical game that depends on making probabilistic judgments amid

uncertainty, the same skills that are important in any type of prediction.

 

The obvious idea is to program computers to play poker for u online. If they play against bad humans, they shud bring in a steady flow of cash for almost free.

 

-

 

 

“Fortunately, Dustin is really cocky, because if he was the kind of person

who was intimidated—if he had listened to those people—it would have ruined

him. He didn’t listen to people. He continued to dig in and swing from his heels

and eventually things turned around for him.”

Pedroia has what John Sanders calls a “major league memory”—which is to

say a short one. He isn’t troubled by a slump, because he is damned sure that

he’s playing the game the right way, and in the long run, that’s what matters.

Indeed, he has very little tolerance for anything that distracts him from doing

his job. This doesn’t make him the most generous human being, but it is ex­

actly what he needs in order to play second base for the Boston Red Sox, and

that’s the only thing that Pedroia cares about.

“Our weaknesses and our strengths are always very intimately connected,”

James said. “Pedroia made strengths out of things that would be weaknesses for

other players.”

This sounds like low agreeableness to me. I wonder if Big Five can predict baseball success?

-

The statistical reality of accuracy isn’t necessarily the governing paradigm

when it comes to commercial weather forecasting. It’s more the perception of

accuracy that adds value in the eyes of the consumer.

For instance, the for-profit weather forecasters rarely predict exactly a

50 percent chance of rain, which might seem wishy-washy and indecisive to

consumers.41 Instead, they’ll flip a coin and round up to 60, or down to 40, even

though this makes the forecasts both less accurate and less honest.42

Floehr also uncovered a more flagrant example of fudging the numbers,

something that may be the worst-kept secret in the weather industry. Most com­

mercial weather forecasts are biased, and probably deliberately so. In particu­

lar, they are biased toward forecasting more precipitation than will actually

occur43—what meteorologists call a “wet bias.” The further you get from the

government’s original data, and the more consumer facing the forecasts, the

worse this bias becomes. Forecasts “add value” by subtracting accuracy.

thats interesting. never heard of this.

-

This logic is a little circular. TV weathermen say they aren’t bothering to

make accurate forecasts because they figure the public won’t believe them any­

way. But the public shouldn t believe them, because the forecasts aren’t accurate.

This becomes a more serious problem when there is something urgent—

something like Hurricane Katrina. Lots of Americans get their weather infor­

mation from local sources49 rather than directly from the Hurricane Center, so

they will still be relying on the goofball on Channel 7 to provide them with

accurate information. If there is a mutual distrust between the weather fore­

caster and the public, the public may not listen when they need to most.

Nicely illustrating for importance of honesty in reporting data, even on local TV.

-

In fact, the actual value for GDP fell outside the economists’ prediction

interval six times in eighteen years, or fully one-third of the time. Another

study,18 which ran these numbers back to the beginnings of the Survey of Pro­

fessional Forecasters in 1968, found even worse results: the actual figure for

GDP fell outside the prediction interval almost h a l f the time. There is almost

no chance19 that the economists have simply been unlucky; they fundamentally

overstate the reliability of their predictions.

In reality, when a group of economists give you their GDP forecast, the

true 90 percent prediction interval—based on how these forecasts have actually

performed20 and not on how accurate the economists claim them to be—spans

about 6.4 points of GDP (equivalent to a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2

percent).*

When you hear on the news that GDP will grow by 2.5 percent next year,

that means it could quite easily grow at a spectacular rate of 5.7 percent instead.

Or it could fall by 0.7 percent—a fairly serious recession. Economists haven’t

been able to do any better than that, and there isn’t much evidence that their

forecasts are improving. The old joke about economists’ having called nine out

of the last six recessions correctly has some truth to it; one actual statistic is that

in the 1990s, economists predicted only 2 of the 60 recessions around the world

a year ahead of time.21

and this is why we cant have nice things, i mean macroeconomics

-

I have no idea whether I was really a good player at the very outset. But the

bar set by the competition was low, and my statistical background gave me an

advantage. Poker is sometimes perceived to be a highly psychological game, a

battle of wills in which opponents seek to make perfect reads on one another by

staring into one another’s souls, looking for “tells” that reliably betray the con­

tents of the other hands. There is a little bit of this in poker, especially at the

higher limits, but not nearly as much as you’d think. (The psychological factors

in poker come mostly in the form of self-discipline.) Instead, poker is an incred­

ibly mathematical game that depends on making probabilistic judgments amid

uncertainty, the same skills that are important in any type of prediction.

The obvious idea is to program computers to play poker for u online. If they play against bad humans, they shud bring in a steady flow of cash for almost free.

-

I recently got interested in a new field en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_epidemiology

Cognitive epidemiology is a field of research that examines the associations between intelligence test scores (IQ scores or extracted g-factors) and health, more specifically morbidity (mental and physical) and mortality. Typically, test scores are obtained at an early age, and compared to later morbidity and mortality. In addition to exploring and establishing these associations, cognitive epidemiology seeks to understand causal relationships between intelligence and health outcomes. Researchers in the field argue that intelligence measured at an early age is an important predictor of later health and mortality differences.^[1][2]

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I decided to scout the academic literature. Here’s some for those also curious.

Special issue of Intelligence, 2009, about cognitive epidemiology.

1. Introduction to the special issue on cognitive epidemiology

2. The association of childhood intelligence with mortality risk from adolescence to middle age Findings from the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s cohor

3. Cognition and incident coronary heart disease in late midlife The Whitehall II study

4. Can we understand why cognitive function predicts mortality Results from the Caerphilly Prospective Study (CaPS)

5. Cognition and survival in a biracial urban population of old people

6. Fluid intelligence is independently associated with all-cause mortality over 17 years in an elderly community sample

7. Reaction time and established risk factors for total and cardiovascular disease mortality

8. IQ in childhood and the metabolic syndrome in middle age Extended follow-up of the 1946 British Birth Cohort Study

9. The association between IQ in adolescence and a range of health outcomes at 40 in the 1979 US National Longitudinal Study of Youth

10. Does a fitness factor contribute to the association between intelligence and health outcomes

11. Intelligence in childhood and risk of psychological distress in adulthood The 1958 National Child Development Survey and the 1970 British Cohort S

12. Level of cognitive performance as a correlate and predictor of health behaviors that protect against cognitive decline in late life The path through life study

13. Intelligence and persisting with medication for two years Analysis in a randomised controlled trial

14. How intelligence and education contribute to substance use Hints from the Minnesota Twin family study

15. Cognitive epidemiology With emphasis on untangling cognitive ability and socioeconomic status

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Some other papers that i found:

Why is intelligence correlated with semen quality Biochemical pathways common to sperm and neuron function and their vulnerability to pleiotropic mutations

Why do intelligent people live longer

The relationships between cognitive ability and dental status in a national sample of USA adults

Rare Copy Number Deletions Predict Individual Variation in Intelligence

Looking for ‘System Integrity’ in Cognitive Epidemiology

Intelligence and semen quality are positively correlated

Intelligence Is It the Epidemiologists’ Elusive Fundamental Cause of Social Class Inequalities in Health

Does IQ explain socioeconomic inequalities in health Evidence from a population based cohort study in the west of Scotland

Cognitive epidemiology J Epidemiol Community Health-2007-Deary-378-84

beyond the hoax – alan sokal

Much of the material is the same as in Sokal and Bricmont’s earlier book. But there is some new material as well. I especially found the stuff on hindu nationalism and pseudoscience interesting, and the stuff on pseudoscience in nursing. Never heard of that before, but it wasnt totally unexpected. All health related fields hav large amounts of pseudoscience. It is unfortunate that the most important fields are those most full of pseudoscience!

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Part III goes on to treat weightier social and political topics using the

same lens. Chapter 8 analyzes the paradoxical relation between pseudo­

science and postmodernism, and investigates how extreme skepticism can

abet extreme credulity, using a series of detailed case studies: pseudosci­

entific therapies in nursing and “alternative medicine”; Hindu nationalist

pseudoscience in India21; and radical environmentalism. This investigation

is motivated by my suspicion that credulity in minor matters prepares the

mind for credulity in matters of greater import — and, conversely, that the

kind of critical thinking useful for distinguishing science from pseudoscience

might also be of some use in distinguishing truths in affairs of state from

lies. Chapter 9 takes on the largest and most powerful pseudoscience of all:

organized religion. This chapter focusses on the central philosophical and

political issues raised by religion in the contemporary world: it deplores the

damage that is done by our culture’s deference toward “faith”, and it asks

how nonbelievers and believers can find political common ground based

on shared moral ideas. Finally, Chapter 10 draws some of these concerns

together, and discusses the relationship between epistemology and ethics as

they interact in the public sphere.

 

surely this is true.

 

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#115 The idea that theories should refer only to observable quantities is called operationalism.-, far

from being postmodernist, it was popular among physicists and philosophers of physics in the first

half of the twentieth century. But it has severe flaws: see Chapter 7 below (pp. 240-245) as well as

Weinberg (1992, pp. 174-184).

 

i thought this was a part of logiclal positivism, and it seems that it was. i knew about operational definitions.

 

plato.stanford.edu/entries/operationalism/

 

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When all is said and done, the fundamental flaw in Merchant and Hard­

ing’s metaphor-hermeneutics is not exegetical but logical. Let us grant for the

sake of argument that some of the founders of modem science consciously

used sexist metaphors to promote their epistemological and methodological

views (this much is probably true, even if Merchant and Harding have exag­

gerated the case). But what would that entail for the philosophy (as opposed

to the history) of science? Apparently the critics wish to claim that sexism

could have passed from metaphor into the substantive content of scientific

methods and/or theories. But if modem science does in fact contain sexist

assumptions, then surely the feminist theorists ought to be able to locate and

criticize those biased assumptions, independently of any argument from his­

tory. Indeed, to do otherwise is to commit the “genetic fallacy”: evaluating an

idea on the basis of its origin rather than its content.

 

Putting aside the florid accusations of rape and torture, the argument of

Merchant and Harding boils down to the assertion that the scientific rev­

olution of the seventeenth century displaced a female-centered (spiritual,

hermetic, organic, geocentric) universe in favor of a male-centered (ratio­

nalist, scientific, mechanical, heliocentric) one.21 How should we evaluate

this argument?

 

To begin with, one might wonder whether the gender associations claimed

for these two cosmologies are really as univocal as the feminist critics

claim.22 (After all, the main defender of the geocentric worldview — the

Catholic Church — was not exactly a female-centered enterprise, its adora­

tion of the Virgin Mary notwithstanding.) But let us put aside this objection

and grant these gender associations for the sake of argument; for the princi­

pal flaw in the Merchant-Harding thesis is, once again, not historical but log­

ical. Margarita Levin puts it bluntly: Do Merchant and Harding really “think

we have a choice about which theory is correct? Masculine or feminine, the

solar system is the way it is.”23

 

The same point applies not only to astronomy but to scientific theories

quite generally; and the bottom line is that there is ample evidence, indepen­

dent of any allegedly sexist imagery, for the epistemic value of modem sci­

ence. Therefore, as Koertge remarks, “if it really could be shown that patri­

archal thinking not only played a crucial role in the Scientific Revolution but

is also necessary for carrying out scientific inquiry as we know it, that would

constitute the strongest argument for patriarchy that I can think of!”24

 

true story :D

 

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Of course, the feminist science-critics are not only archaeologists of

300-year-old science; some of their critique is resolutely modem, even post­

modern. Here, for instance, is what Donna Haraway, professor of the history

of consciousness (!) at the University of Califomia-Santa Cruz and one of

the most acclaimed feminist theorists of science, says about her research:

 

For the complex or boundary objects in which I am interested, the

mythic, textual, technical, political, organic, and economic dimensions

implode. That is, they collapse into each other in a knot of extraordinary

density that constitutes the objects themselves. In my sense, story telling

is in no way an ‘art practice’ — it is, rather, a fraught practice for narrat­

ing complexity in such a field of knots or black holes. In no way is story

telling opposed to materiality. But materiality itself is tropic; it makes us

swerve, it trips us; it is a knot of the textual, technical, mythic/oneiric,

organic, political, and economic.2

 

As right-wing critic Roger Kimball acidly comments: “Remember that this

woman is not some crank but a professor at a prestigious university and

one of the leading lights of contemporary ‘women’s studies.’ ”26 The saddest

thing, for us pinkos and feminists, is that Kimball is dead on target.

 

women’s studies is nearly completely trash. reminds me of the article about black studies in the US: chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/the-most-persuasive-case-for-eliminating-black-studies-just-read-the-dissertations/46346

 

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This theory is startling, to say the least: Does the author really believe

that menstruation makes it more difficult for young women to understand

elementary notions of geometry? Evidently we are not far from the Victorian

gentlemen who held that women, with their delicate reproductive organs,

are unsuited to rational thought and to science. With friends like this, the

feminist cause has no need of enemies.

 

the worst enemy of women: women.

 

-

 

[after quoting Lacan]

Mathematicians and physicists are used to receiving this sort of stuff in

typewritten envelopes from unknown correspondents. Lacan’s grammar and

spelling are better than in most of these treatises, but his logic isn’t. To put it

bluntly, Lacan is a crank — an unusually erudite one, to be sure, but a crank

nonetheless.59

 

interesting. i will ask Sokal to expand on that theme.

 

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So, if we look critically at realism, we may be tempted to turn toward

instrumentalism. But if we look critically at instrumentalism, we feel forced

to return to a modest form of realism. What, then, should one do? Before

coming to a possible solution, let us first consider radical alternatives.

 

surprisingly true.

 

-

 

[after quoting Plantinga]

Let us stress that we disagree with 90% of Plantinga’s philosophy; but if he is so eloquently on

target on this particular point, why not give him credit for it?

 

i was surprised they quoted him, but then, they make that comment. perfect play!

 

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Let me stress in advance that I will not be concerned here with explaining

in detail why astrology, homeopathy and the rest are in fact pseudoscience;

that would take me too far afield. Nor will I address, except in passing, the

important but difficult problems of understanding the psychological attrac­

tions of pseudoscience and the social factors affecting its spread.28 Rather,

my principal aim is to investigate the logical and sociological nexus between

pseudoscience and postmodernism.

 

footnote 28:

For a shrewd meditation on the former question, see Levitt (1999, especially pp. 12-22

and chapter 4). The latter question is indirectly addressed by Burnham (1987), in the context

of a fascinating history of the popularization of science in the United States in the nineteenth

and twentieth centuries.

 

For my own part, I have been struck by the fact that nearly all the pseudoscientific systems

to be examined in this essay are based philosophically on vitalism: that is, the idea that living

beings, and especially human beings, are endowed with some special quality ( “life energy”,

elan vital, prana, q i ) that transcends the ordinary laws of physics. Mainstream science has

rejected vitalism since at least the 1930s, for a plethora of good reasons that have only become

stronger with time (see e.g. Mayr 1982). But these good reasons are understood by only a tiny

fraction of the populace, even in the industrialized countries where science is supposedly held

in high esteem. Moreover — and perhaps much more importantly — the anti-vitalism charac­

teristic of modem science is deeply unsettling emotionally to most (perhaps all) people, even

to those who are not conventionally religious. See again Levitt (1999). Of course, none of these

speculations pretend to any scientific rigor; careful empirical investigation by psychologists

and sociologists is required.

 

vitalism -.-

 

-

 

Sokal mentions the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Rosa experiment.

 

the proponents must really feel bad… even a child can disprove their beliefs. how study are they??? hopefully, it was only a fringe idea, right, right?

 

When I first heard about Emily’s experiment, I admired her ingenuity but

wondered whether anyone really took Therapeutic Touch seriously. How

wrong I was! Therapeutic Touch is taught in more than 80 college and uni­

versity schools of nursing in at least 70 countries, is practiced in at least

80 hospitals across North America, and is promoted by leading American

nursing associations.32 Its inventor claims to have trained more than 47,000

practitioners over a 26-year period, who have gone on to train many more.33

At least 245 books or dissertations have been published that include “Thera­

peutic Touch” in the title, subject headings or table of contents.34 All in all,

Therapeutic Touch appears to have become one of the most widely practiced

“holistic” nursing techniques.

 

sigh!

 

-

 

cited from pseudoscience source:

[0]ur intuitive faculty is nothing other than a source of sound premises about the

nature of reality…. [T]here exists within us a source of direct information about

reality that can teach us all we need to know.

 

top #1 reason not to teach Plato’s nonsense.

 

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But of course, those who believe in Genesis or transubstantiation do not

consider these ideas to be crazy; quite the contrary, they think that they have

good reasons to hold their beliefs. Indeed, Harris argues convincingly that

whenever any person P believes any proposition X — at least in the ordi­

nary sense of the English word “believe” — this requires, first of all, that P

must believe X to be true, i.e. to be a factually accurate representation of

the world; and secondly, that P must think he has good reasons to believe

X, in the sense that he envisions his belief as caused, at least in part, by

the fact that X is true. As Harris puts it (p. 63), “there must be some causal

connection, or an appearance thereof, between the fact in question and my

acceptance of it.”

 

this kind of causal reliabilism will not work. cf. plato.stanford.edu/entries/platonism-mathematics/#EpiAcc

 

-

 

 

The rhetoric and reality of gap closing—when the “have-nots” gain but the “haves” gain even more.

Abstract
Many forms of intervention, across different domains, have
the surprising effect of widening preexisting gaps between
disadvantaged youth and their advantaged counter-
parts—if such interventions are made available to all stu-
dents, not just to the disadvantaged. Whether this widening
of gaps is incongruent with American interests and values
requires an awareness of this gap-widening potential when
interventions are universalized and a national policy that
addresses the psychological, political, economic, and
moral dimensions of elevating the top students—tomor-
row’s business and science leaders—and/or elevating the
bottom students to redress past inequalities and reduce the
future costs associated with them. This article is a first step
in bringing this dilemma to the attention of scholars and
policymakers and prodding a national discussion.

interesting points no doubt.

“Asia’s missing women” as a problem in applied evolutionary psychology

Abstract:  In many parts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, women and children
are so undervalued, neglected, abused, and so often killed, that sex ratios are now strongly
male biased. In recent decades, sex-biased abortion has exacerbated the problem. In this
article I highlight several important insights from evolutionary biology into both the origin
and the severe societal consequences of “Asia’s missing women”,  paying particular
attention  to  interactions between evolution, economics and culture. Son preferences and
associated cultural practices like patrilineal inheritance, patrilocality and the Indian Hindu
dowry system arise among the wealthy and powerful elites for reasons  consistent with
models of sex-biased parental investment.  Those practices then spread via imitation as
technology gets cheaper and economic development allows the middle class to grow
rapidly.  I will consider evidence from India, China and elsewhere that grossly male-biased
sex ratios lead to increased crime, violence, local warfare, political instability, drug abuse,
prostitution and trafficking of women. The problem of Asia’s missing women presents a
challenge for applied evolutionary psychology to help us understand  and ameliorate sex
ratio biases and their most severe consequences

—

interesting problem. id heard of the problem in China, but not in the other countries, and definitely didnt expect it from Starcraftland aka. South Korea.

The g factor, the science of mental ability – Arthur R. Jensen, ebook download pdf free

 

This is a very interesting book. Without a doubt the best about intelligence that i hav read so far. I definitely recommend reading it if one is interested in psychometrics. It can serve as a long, good, but a bit dated introduction to the subject. For shorter introductions, probably Gottfredson’s why g matters is better.

 

 

Quotes and comments below. Red text = quotes.

——-

 

Galton had no tests for obtaining direct measurements of cognitive ability.

Yet he tried to estimate the mean levels of mental capacity possessed by different

racial and national groups on his interval scale of the normal curve. His esti­

mates—many would say guesses—were based on his observations of people of

different races encountered on his extensive travels in Europe and Africa, on

anecdotal reports of other travelers, on the number and quality of the inventions

and intellectual accomplishments of different racial groups, and on the percent­

age of eminent men in each group, culled from biographical sources. He ven­

tured that the level of ability among the ancient Athenian Greeks averaged “ two

grades” higher than that of the average Englishmen of his own day. (Two grades

on Galton’s scale is equivalent to 20.9 IQ points.) Obviously, there is no pos­

sibility of ever determining if Galton’s estimate was anywhere near correct. He

also estimated that African Negroes averaged “ at least two grades” (i.e., 1.39a,

or 20.9 IQ points) below the English average. This estimate appears remarkably

close to the results for phenotypic ability assessed by culture-reduced IQ tests.

Studies in sub-Saharan Africa indicate an average difference (on culture-reduced
nonverbal tests of reasoning) equivalent to 1.43a, or 21.5 IQ points between

blacks and whites.8 U.S. data from the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT),

obtained in 1980 on large representative samples of black and white youths,

show an average difference of 1.36a (equivalent to 20.4 IQ points)—not far

from Galton’s estimate (1.39a, or 20.9 IQ points).9 But intuition and informed

guesses, though valuable in generating hypotheses, are never acceptable as ev­

idence in scientific research. Present-day scientists, therefore, properly dismiss

Galton’s opinions on race. Except as hypotheses, their interest is now purely

biographical and historical.

 

yes there is. first, one can check the historical record to look for dysgenic effects. if the british are less smart than the ancient greeks, there wud probably hav been som dysgenic effects somwher in history. still, this is not a good method, since the population groups are somwhat different.

 

second, soon we will know the genes that cause different levels of intelligence. we can then analyze the remains of ancient greeks to see which genes they had. this shud giv a pretty good estimate, altho not perfect since, that 1) new mutations hav com by since then, 2) som gene variants hav perhaps disappeared, 3) the difficulty of getting a representativ sample of ancient greeks to test from, 4) the problems with getting good enuf quality DNA to run tests on. still, i dont think these are impossible to overcom, and i predict that som decent estimate can be made.

 

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A General Factor Is Not Inevitable. Factor analysis is not by its nature

bound to produce a general factor regardless of the nature of the correlation

matrix that is analyzed. A general factor emerges from a hierarchical factor

analysis if, and only if, a general factor is truly latent in the particular correlation

matrix. A general factor derived from a hierarchical analysis should be based

on a matrix of positive correlations that has at least three latent roots (eigen­

values) greater than 1.

For proof that a general factor is not inevitable, one need only turn to studies

of personality. The myriad of inventories that measure various personality traits

have been subjected to every type of factor analysis, yet no general factor has

ever emerged in the personality domain. There are, however, a great many first-

order group factors and several clearly identified second-order group factors, or

“ superfactors” (e.g., introversion-extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism),

but no general factor. In the abilities domain, on the other hand, a general factor,

g, always emerges, provided the number and variety of mental tests are sufficient

to allow a proper factor analysis. The domain of body measurements (including

every externally measurable feature of anatomy) when factor analyzed also

shows a large general factor (besides several small group factors). Similarly, the

correlations among various measures of athletic ability show a substantial gen­

eral factor.

 

 

Jensen was wrong about this, altho the significance of that is disputed afaict. see:

How important is the General Factor of Personality? A General Critique (William Revelle and Joshua Wilt), PDF

 

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In jobs where assurance of competence is absolutely critical, however, such

as airline pilots and nuclear reactor operators, government agencies seem to have

recognized that specific skills, no matter how well trained, though essential for

job performance, are risky if they are not accompanied by a fairly high level of

g. For example, the TVA, a leader in the selection and training of reactor op­

erators, concluded that results of tests of mechanical aptitude and specific job

knowledge were inadequate for predicting an operator’s actual performance on

the job. A TVA task force on the selection and training of reactor operators

stated: “ intelligence will be stressed as one of the most important characteristics

of superior reactor operators.. . . intelligence distinguishes those who have

merely memorized a series of discrete manual operations from those who can

think through a problem and conceptualize solutions based on a fundamental

understanding of possible contingencies.” 161 This reminds one of Carl Bereiter’s

clever definition of “ intelligence” as “ what you use when you don’t know

what to do.”

 

funny and true

 

-

 

The causal underpinnings of mental development take place at the neurolog­

ical level even in the absence of any specific environmental inputs such as those

that could possibly explain mental growth in something like figure copying in

terms of transfer from prior learning. The well-known “ Case of Isabel” is a

classic example.181 From birth to age six, Isabel was totally confined to a dimly

lighted attic room, where she lived alone with her deaf-mute mother, who was

her only social contact. Except for food, shelter, and the presence of her mother,

Isabel was reared in what amounted to a totally deprived environment. There

were no toys, picture books, or gadgets of any kind for her to play with. When

found by the authorities, at age six, Isabel was tested and found to have a mental

age of one year and seven months and an IQ of about 30, which is barely at

the imbecile level. In many ways she behaved like a very young child; she had

no speech and made only croaking sounds. When handed toys or other unfa­

miliar objects, she would immediately put them in her mouth, as infants nor­

mally do. Yet as soon as she was exposed to educational experiences she

acquired speech, vocabulary, and syntax at an astonishing rate and gained six

years of tested mental age within just two years. By the age of eight, she had

come up to a mental age of eight, and her level of achievement in school was

on a par with her age-mates. This means that her rate of mental development—

gaining six years of mental age in only two years—was three times faster than

that of the average child. As she approached the age of eight, however, her

mental development and scholastic performance drastically slowed down and

proceeded thereafter at the rate of an average child. She graduated from high

school as an average student.

 

What all this means to the g controversy is that the neurological basis of

information processing continued developing autonomously throughout the six

years of Isabel’s environmental deprivation, so that as soon as she was exposed

to a normal environment she was able to learn those things for which she was

developmentally “ ready” at an extraordinarily fast rate, far beyond the rate for

typically reared children over the period of six years during which their mental

age normally increases from two to eight years. But the fast rate of manifest

mental development slowed down to an average rate at the point where the level

of mental development caught up with the level of neurological development.

Clearly, the rate of mental development during childhood is not just the result

of accumulating various learned skills that transfer to the acquisition of new

skills, but is largely based on the maturation of neural structures.

 

this reminds me of the person who suggested that we delay teaching math in schools for the same reason. it is simply more time-effective, and time is costly, both for the child who has limited freedom in the time spent in school, and for soceity becus that time cud hav been spent on teaching somthing else, or not spent at all and thus saved money on teachers.

 

the idea is that som math subjects takes very long to teach, say, 8 year olds, but can rapidly to taught to 12 year olds. so, using som invented numbers, the idea is that instead of spending 10 hours teaching long division to 8 year olds, we cud spend 2 hours teaching long division to 12 year olds, thus saving 8 eights that can be either used on somthing else that can be taught easily to 8 year olds, or simply freeing up the time for non-teaching activities.

 

see: www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/ for the original papers

 

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Perhaps the most problematic test of overlapping neural elements posited by

the sampling theory would be to find two (or more) abilities, say, A and B, that

are highly correlated in the general population, and then find some individuals

in whom ability A is severely impaired without there being any impairment of

ability B. For example, looking back at Figure 5.2, which illustrates sampling

theory, we see a large area of overlap between the elements in Test A and the

elements in Test B. But if many of the elements in A are eliminated, some of

its elements that are shared with the correlated Test B will also be eliminated,

and so performance on Test B (and also on Test C in this diagram) will be

diminished accordingly. Yet it has been noted that there are cases of extreme

impairment in a particular ability due to brain damage, or sensory deprivation

due to blindness or deafness, or a failure in development of a certain ability due

to certain chromosomal anomalies, without any sign of a corresponding deficit

in other highly correlated abilities.22 On this point, behavioral geneticists Will-

erman and Bailey comment: “ Correlations between phenotypically different

mental tests may arise, not because of any causal connection among the mental

elements required for correct solutions or because of the physical sharing of

neural tissue, but because each test in part requires the same ‘qualities’ of brain

for successful performance. For example, the efficiency of neural conduction or

the extent of neuronal arborization may be correlated in different parts of the

brain because of a similar epigenetic matrix, not because of concurrent func­

tional overlap.” 22 A simple analogy to this would be two independent electric

motors (analogous to specific brain functions) that perform different functions

both running off the same battery (analogous to g). As the battery runs down,

both motors slow down at the same rate in performing their functions, which

are thus perfectly correlated although the motors themselves have no parts in

common. But a malfunction of one machine would have no effect on the other

machine, although a sampling theory would have predicted impaired perform­

ance for both machines.

 

i know its only an analogy, but whether ther ar one or two motors tapping from one battery might hav an effect on their speed. that depends on the setup, i think.

 

-

 

Gc is most highly loaded in tests based on scholastic knowledge and cultural

content where the relation-eduction demands of the items are fairly simple. Here

are two examples of verbal analogy problems, both of about equal difficulty in

terms of percentage of correct responses in the English-speaking general pop­

ulation, but the first is more highly loaded on G f and the second is more highly

loaded on Gc.

 

1. Temperature is to cold as Height is to

(a) hot (b) inches (c) size (d) tall (e) weight

2. Bizet is to Carmen as Verdi is to

(a) Aida (b) Elektra (c) Lakme (d) Manon (e) Tosca

 

first one, i wanted to answer <small>, since <cold> is on the bottum of the scale of temperature, so i wanted somthing that was on the bottom of the scale of height. but ther is no such option, but tall is also on the scale of height, just as cold is on the scale of temperature. with no other better option, i went with (d), which was correct.

 

second one, however, made no sense to me. i did look for patterns in spelling, vowels, length, etc., found nothing. i then googled it. its composers and their operas.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Bizet

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Verdi

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aida

 

-

 

Another blood variable of interest is the amount of uric acid in the blood

(serum urate level). Many studies have shown it to have only a slight positive

correlation with IQ. But it is considerably more correlated with measures of

ambition and achievement. Uric acid, which has a chemical structure similar to

caffeine, seems to act as a brain stimulant, and its stimulating effect over the

course of the individual’s life span results in more notable achievements than

are seen in persons of comparable IQ, social and cultural background, and gen­

eral life-style, but who have a lower serum urate level. High school students

with elevated serum urate levels, for example, obtain higher grades than their

IQ-matched peers with an average or below-average serum urate level, and,

amusingly, one study found a positive correlation between university professors’

serum urate levels and their publication rates. The undesirable aspect of high

serum urate level is that it predisposes to gout. In fact, that is how the association

was originally discovered. The English scientist Havelock Ellis, in studying the

lives and accomplishments of the most famous Britishers, discovered that they

had a much higher incidence of gout than occurs in the general population.

Asthma and other allergies have a much-higher-than-average frequency in

children with higher IQs (over 130), particularly those who are mathematically

gifted, and this is an intrinsic relationship. The intellectually gifted show some

15 to 20 percent more allergies than their siblings and parents. The gifted are

also more apt to be left-handed, as are the mentally retarded; the reason seems

to be that the IQ variance of left-handed persons is slightly greater than that of

the right-handed, hence more of the left-handed are found in the lower and upper

extremes of the normal distribution of IQ.

 

Then there are also a number of odd and less-well-established physical cor­

relates of IQ that have each shown up in only one or two studies, such as vital

capacity (i.e., the amount of air that can be expelled from the lungs), handgrip

strength, symmetrical facial features, light hair color, light eye color, above-

average basic metabolic rate (all these are positively correlated with IQ), and

being unable to taste the synthetic chemical phenylthiocarbamide (nontasters are

higher both in g and in spatial ability than tasters; the two types do not differ

in tests of clerical speed and accuracy). The correlations are small and it is not

yet known whether any of them are within-family correlations. Therefore, no

causal connection with g has been established.

 

Finally, there is substantial evidence of a positive relation between g and

general health or physical well-being.[36] In a very large national sample of high

school students (about 10,000 of each sex) there was a correlation of +.381

between a forty-three-item health questionnaire and the composite score on a

large number of diverse mental tests, which is virtually a measure of g. By

comparison, the correlation between the health index and the students’ socio­

economic status (SES) was only +.222. Partialing out g leaves a very small

correlation ( + .076) between SES and health status. In contrast, the correlation

between health and g when SES is partialed out is +.326.

 

how very curius!

 

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Certainly psychometric tests were never constructed with the intention of

measuring inbreeding depression. Yet they most certainly do. At least fourteen

studies of the effects of inbreeding on mental ability test scores—mostly IQ—

have been reported in the literature.132′ Without exception, all of the studies show

inbreeding depression both of IQ and of IQ-correlated variables such as scho­

lastic achievement. As predicted by genetic theory, the IQ variance of the inbred

is greater than that of the noninbred samples. Moreover, the degree to which

IQ is depressed is an increasing monotonic function of the coefficient of in-

breeding. The severest effects are seen in the offspring of first-degree incestuous

matings (e.g., father-daughter, brother-sister); the effect is much less for first-

cousin matings and still less for second-cousin matings. The degree of IQ de­

pression for first cousins is about half a standard deviation (seven or eight IQ

points).

 

In most of these studies, social class and other environmental factors are well

controlled. Studies in Muslim populations in the Middle East and India are

especially pertinent. Cousin marriages there are more prevalent in the higher

social classes, as a means of keeping wealth in family lines, so inbreeding and

high SES would tend to have opposite and canceling effects. The observed effect

of inbreeding depression on IQ in the studies conducted in these groups,

therefore, cannot be attributed to the environmental effects of SES that are often

claimed to explain IQ differences between socioeconomically advantaged and

disadvantaged groups.

 

These studies unquestionably show inbreeding depression for IQ and other

single measures of mental ability. The next question, then, concerns the extent

to which g itself is affected by inbreeding. Inbreeding depression could be

mainly manifested in factors other than g, possibly even in each test’s specificity.

To answer this question, we can apply the method of correlated vectors to in-

breeding data based on a suitable battery of diverse tests from which g can be

extracted in a hierarchical factor analysis. I performed these analyses1331 for the

several large samples of children born to first-and second-cousin matings in

Japan, for whom the effects of inbreeding were intensively studied by geneticists

William Schull and James Neel (1965). All of the inbred children and compa­

rable control groups of noninbred children were tested on the Japanese version

of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). The correlations among

the eleven subtests of the WISC were subjected to a hierarchical factor analysis,

separately for boys and girls, and for different age groups, and the overall av­

erage g loadings were obtained as the most reliable estimates of g for each

subtest. The analysis revealed the typical factor structure of the WISC—a large

g factor and two significant group factors: Verbal and Spatial (Performance).

(The Memory factor could not emerge because the Digit Span subtest was not

used.) Schull and Neel had determined an index of inbreeding depression on

each of the subtests. In each subject sample, the column vector of the eleven

subtests’ g loadings was correlated with the column vector of the subtests’ index

of inbreeding depression (ID). (Subtest reliabilities were partialed out of these

correlations.) The resulting rank-order correlation between subtests’ g loadings

and their degree of inbreeding depression was + .79 (p < .025). The correlation

of ID with the Verbal factor loadings (independent of g) was +.50 and with the

Spatial (or Performance) factor the correlation was —.46. (The latter two cor­

relations are nonsignificant, each with p < .05.) Although this negative corre­

lation of ID with the spatial factor (independent of g) falls short of significance,

the negative correlation was found in all four independent samples. Moreover,

it is consistent with the hypothesis that spatial visualization ability is affected

by an X-linked recessive allele.34 Therefore, it is probably not a fluke.

 

A more recent study1351 of inbreeding depression, performed in India, was

based entirely on the male offspring of first-cousin parents and a control group

of the male offspring of genetically unrelated parents. Because no children of

second-cousin marriages were included, the degree of inbreeding depression was

considerably greater than in the previous study, which included offspring of

second-cousin marriages. The average inbreeding effect on the WISC-R Full

Scale IQ was about ten points, or about two-third of a standard deviation.1361

The inbreeding index was reported for the ten subtests of the WISC-R used in

this study. To apply the method of correlated vectors, however, the correlations

among the subtests for this sample are needed to calculate their g loadings.

Because these correlations were not reported, I have used the g loadings obtained

from a hierarchical factor analysis of the 1,868 white subjects in the WISC-R

standardization sample.1371 The column vector of these g loadings and the column

vector of the ID index have a rank-order correlation (with the tests’ reliability

coefficients partialed out) of +.83 (p < .01), which is only slightly larger than

the corresponding correlation between the g and ID vectors in the Japanese

study.

 

In sum, then, the g factor significantly predicts the degree to which perform­

ance on various mental tests is affected by inbreeding depression, a theoretically

predictable effect for traits that manifest genetic dominance. The larger a test’s

g loading, the greater is the depression of the test scores of the inbred offspring

of consanguineous parents, as compared with the scores of noninbred persons.

The evidence in these studies of inbreeding rules out environmental variables

as contributing to the observed depression of test scores. Environmental differ­

ences were controlled statistically, or by matching the inbred and noninbred

groups on relevant indices of environmental advantage.

 

pretty large effects. the footnote with the 14 studies mentioned is:

 

Adams & Neel, 1967; Afzal, 1988; Afzal & Sinha, 1984; Agrawal et al., 1984;

Badaruddoza & Afzil, 1993; Bashi, 1977; Book, 1957; Carter, 1967; Cohen et al., 1963;

Inbaraj & Rao, 1978; Neel, et al., 1970; Schull & Neel, 1965; Seemanova, 1971; Slatis

& Hoene, 1961.

 

-

 

Semantic Verification Test. The SVT uses the binary response console (Fig­

ure 8.3) and a computer display screen. Following the preparatory “ beep,” a

simple statement appears on the screen. The statement involves the relative

positions of the three letters A, B, C as they may appear (equally spaced) in a

horizontal array. Each trial uses one of the six possible permutations of these

three letters chosen at random. The statement appears on the screen for three

seconds, allowing more than enough time for the subject to read it. There are

fourteen possible statements of the following types: “ A after B,” “ C before

A,” “ A between B and C,” “ B first,” “ B last,” “ C before A and B,” “ C

after B and A” ; and the negative form of each of these statements, for instance,

“ A not after B.” Following the three-second appearance of one of these state­

ments, the screen goes blank for one second and then one of the permutations

of the letters A B C appears. The subject responds by pressing either the TRUE

or FALSE button, depending on whether the positions of the letters does or does

not agree with the immediately previous statement.

 

Although the SVT is the most complex of the many ECTs that have been

tried in my lab, the average RT for university students is still less than 1 second.

The various “ problems” differ widely in difficulty, with average RTs ranging

from 650 msec to 1,400 msec. Negative statements take about 200 msec longer

than the corresponding positive statements. MT, on the other hand, is virtually

constant across conditions, indicating that it represents something other than

speed of information processing.

 

The overall median RT and RTSD as measured in the SVT each correlates

about —.50 with scores on the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices given

without time limit. The average RT on the SVT also shows large differences

between Navy recruits and university students,1201 and between academically

gifted children and their less gifted siblings.1211 The fact that there is a within-

families correlation between RT and IQ indicates that these variables are intrin­

sically and functionally related.

 

One study20 reveals that the average processing time for each of the fourteen

types of SVT statements in university students predicts the difficulty level of

the statements (in terms of error responses) in children (third-graders) who were

given the SVT as a nonspeeded paper-and-pencil test. While the SVT is of such

trivial difficulty for college students that individual differences are much more

reliably reflected by RT rather than by errors, the SVT items are relatively

difficult for young children. Even when they take the SVT as a nonspeeded

paper-and-pencil test, young children make errors on about 20 percent of the

trials. (The few university students who made even a single error under these

conditions, given as a pretest, were screened out.) The fact that the rank order

of the children’s error rates on the various types of SVT statements closely

corresponds to the rank order of the college students’ average RTs on the same

statements indicates that item difficulty is related to speed of processing, even

when the test is nonspeeded.

 

It appears that if information exceeds a critical level of complexity for the in­

dividual, the individual’s speed of processing is too slow to handle the infor­

mation all at once; the system becomes overloaded and processing breaks

down, with resulting errors, even for nonspeeded tests on which subjects are

told to take all the time they need. There are some items in Raven’s Advanced

Matrices, for example, that the majority of college students cannot solve with

greater than chance success, even when given any amount of time, although the

problems do not call for the retrieval of any particular knowledge. As already

noted, the scores on such nonspeeded tests are correlated with the speed of in­

formation processing in simple ECTs that are easily performed by all subjects

in the study.

 

interesting test. the threshold hypothesis is also interesting for makers of IQ tests.

 

-

 

There are many other kinds of simple tasks that do not resemble the con­

tents of conventional psychometric tests but that have significant correlations

with IQ. Many studies have confirmed Spearman’s finding that pitch discrim­

ination is g-loaded, and other musical discriminations, in duration, timbre,

rhythmic pattern, pitch interval, and harmony, are correlated with IQ, indepen­

dently of musical training.28 The strength of certain optical illusions is also

significantly related to IQ.1291 Surprisingly, higher-IQ subjects experience cer­

tain illusions more strongly than subjects with lower IQ, probably because

seeing the illusion implies a greater amount of mental transformation of the

stimulus, and tasks that involve transformation of information (e.g., backward

digit span) are typically more g loaded than tasks involving less transforma­

tion of the input (e.g., forward digit span). The positive correlation between

IQ and susceptibility to illusions is consistent with the fact that susceptibility

to optical illusions also increases with age, from childhood to maturity, and

then decreases in old age—the same trajectory we see for raw-score perform­

ance on IQ tests and for speed and intraindividual consistency of RT in ECTs.

The speed and consistency of information processing generally show an in­

verted U curve across the life span.

 

interesting.

 

-

 

Jensen mentions the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerkes-Dodson_law

interesting. i link to Wikipedia since i think its explanation of the law is better than Jensens, who just briefly mentions it.

 

-

 

[...Localized damage to the brain

areas that normally subserve one of these group factors can leave the person

severely impaired in the expression of the abilities loaded on the group factor,

but with little or no impairment of abilities that are loaded on other group factors

or on g.]

 

A classic example of this is females who are born with a chromosomal anom­

aly known as Turner’s syndrome.1701 Instead of having the two normal female

sex chromosomes (designated XX), they lack one X chromosome (hence are

designated XO). Provided no spatial visualization tests are included in the IQ

battery, the IQs of these women (and presumably their levels of g) are normally

distributed and virtually indistinguishable from that of the general population.

Yet their performance on all tests that are highly loaded on the spatial-

visualization factor is extremely low, typically borderline retarded, even in

Turner’s syndrome women with verbal IQs above 130. It is as if their level of

g is almost totally unreflected in their level of performance on spatial tasks.

 

It is much harder to imagine the behavior of persons who are especially

deficient in all abilities involving g and all of the major group factors, but have

only one group factor that remains intact. In our everyday experience, persons

who are highly verbal, fluent, articulate, and use a highly varied vocabulary,

speaking with perfect syntax and appropriate expression, are judged to be of at

least average or probably superior IQ. But there is a rare and, until recently,

little-known genetic anomaly, Williams syndrome,1711 in which the above-listed

characteristics of high verbal ability are present in persons who are otherwise

severely mentally deficient, with IQs averaging about 50. In most ways, Wil­

liams syndrome persons appear to behave with no more general capability of

getting along in the world than most other persons with similarly low IQs. As

adults, they display only the most rudimentary scholastic skills and must live

under supervision. Only their spoken verbal ability has been spared by this

genetic defect. But their verbal ability appears to be “ hollow” with respect to

g. They speak in complete, often complex, sentences, with good syntax, and

even use unusual words appropriately. (They do surprisingly well on the Pea­

body Picture Vocabulary Test.) In response to a series of pictures, they can tell

a connected and fully elaborated story, accompanied by appropriate, if somewhat

exaggerated, emotional expression. Yet they have exceedingly little ability to

reason, or to explain or summarize the meaning of what they say. On most

spatial ability tests they generally perform on a par with Down syndrome persons

of comparable IQ, but they also differ markedly from Down persons in peculiar

ways. Williams syndrome subjects are more handicapped than IQ-matched

Down subjects in figure copying and block designs.

 

Comparing Turner’s syndrome with Williams syndrome obviously suggests

the generalization that a severe deficiency of one group factor in the presence

of an average level of g is far less a handicap than an intact group factor in the

presence of a very low level of g.

 

never heard of Williams syndrome befor.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_syndrome

 

-

 

The correlation of IQ with grades and achievement test scores is highest (.60

to .70) in elementary school, which includes virtually the entire child population

and hence the full range of mental ability. At each more advanced educational

level, more and more pupils from the lower end of the IQ distribution drop out,

thereby restricting the range of IQs. The average validity coefficients decrease

accordingly: high school (.50 to .60), college (.40 to .50), graduate school (.30

to .40). All of these are quite high, as validity coefficients go, but they permit

far less than accurate prediction of a specific individual. (The standard error of

estimate is quite large for validity coefficients in this range.)

 

interesting. one thing that i hav been thinking about is that my GPA thruout my life has always been a bit abov average, but not close to the top. given that the intelligence requirement for each new step on the way thru the school system increases, one wud hav expected a drop in GPA, but no such thing happened. in fact, its the other way around. my GPA is the danish elementary school is 9.3 (9th grade) the average is ~8.1. this includes grades from non-intellectual subjects such as the ‘subject’ of having a nice hand-writing (yes seriusly). in 10th grade my average was 8.7, and the average is ~6.6. the max is 13 in all cases, altho normally grades abov 11 wer not given.

 

in gymnasiet (high school equiv.ish), my GPA was 7.8 and the average is 7.0. the slightly slower grades is becus the system was changed from a 13-step to a 7-step scale. and for comparison reasons, one can note that i went to HTX which has lower grades. the percentile level is 65th.

 

my university grades befor dropping out of filosofy were rather good, lots of 10′s, but i dont know the average, so cant compare. i suspect they were abov average again.

 

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Unless an individual has made the transition from word reading to reading

comprehension of sentences and paragraphs, reading is neither pleasurable nor

practically useful. Few adults with an IQ of eighty (the tenth percentile of the

overall population norm) ever make the transition from word reading skill to

reading comprehension. The problem of adult illiteracy (defined as less than a

fourth-grade level of reading comprehension) in a society that provides an ele­

mentary school education to virtually its entire population is therefore largely a

problem of the lower segment of the population distribution of g. In the vast

majority of people with low reading comprehension, the problem is not word

reading per se, but lack of comprehension. These individuals score about the

same on tests of reading comprehension even if the test paragraphs are read

aloud to them by the examiner. In other words, individual differences in oral

comprehension and in reading comprehension are highly correlated.12’1

 

80.. but the american black average is only about 85. is it really true that ~37% of them ar too dull to learn to read properly? compared with ~10% of whites.

 

-

 

Virtually every type of work calls for behavior that is guided by cognitive

processes. As all such processes reflect g to some extent, work proficiency is g

loaded. The degree depends on the level of novelty and cognitive complexity

the job demands. No job is so simple as to be totally without a cognitive com­

ponent. Several decades of empirical studies have shown thousands of correla­

tions of various mental tests with work proficiency. One of the most important

conclusions that can be drawn from all this research is that mental ability tests

in general have a higher success rate in predicting job performance than any

other variables that have been researched in this context, including (in descend­

ing order of average predictive validity) skill testing, reference checks, class

rank or grade-point average, experience, interview, education, and interest meas­

ures.1221 In recent years, one personality constellation, characterized as “ consci­

entiousness,” has emerged near the top of the list (just after general mental

ability) as a predictor of occupational success.

 

reminds me that i ought to look into this field of psychology. its called I/O psychology. som time back i talked with a phd (i think) on 4chan who studied that area. he said that if he had his way, he wud just rely on g alone to predict job performance, training etc. he recommended me a textbook, which i found on the internet.

 

Psychology Applied to Work, An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology – Paul M. Muchinsky

 

it seems decent.

 

-

 

A person cannot perform a job successfully without the specific knowledge

required by the job. Possibly such job knowledge could be acquired on the job

after a long period of trial-and-error learning. For all but the very simplest jobs,

however, trial-and-error learning is simply too costly, both in time and in errors.

Job training inculcates the basic knowledge much more efficiently, provided that

later on-the-job experience further enhances the knowledge or skills acquired in

prior job training. Because knowledge and skill acquisition depend on learning,

and because the rate of learning is related to g, it is a reasonable hypothesis that

g should be an effective predictor of individuals’ relative success in any specific

training program.

 

The best studies for testing this hypothesis have been performed in the armed

forces. Many thousands of recruits have been selected for entering different

training programs for dozens of highly specialized jobs based on their perform­

ance on a variety of mental tests. As the amount of time for training is limited,

efficiency dictates assigning military personnel to the various training schools

so as to maximize the number who can complete the training successfully and

minimize the number who fail in any given specialized school. When a failed

trainee must be rerouted to a different training school better suited to his apti­

tude, it wastes time and money. Because the various schools make quite differing

demands on cognitive abilities, the armed services employ psychometric re­

searchers to develop and validate tests to best predict an individual’s probability

of success in one or another of the various specialized schools.

 

 

one is tempted to say ”common sense”, but apparently, only the military dares to do such things.

 

-

 

A rough analogy may help to make the essential point. Suppose that for some

reason it was impossible to measure persons’ heights directly in the usual way,

with a measuring stick. However, we still could accurately measure the length

of the shadow cast by each person when the person is standing outdoors in the

sunlight. Provided everyone’s shadow is measured at the same time of day, at

the same day of the year, and at the same latitude on the earth’s surface, the

shadow measurements would show exactly the same correlations with persons’

weight, shoe size, suit or dress size, as if we had measured everyone directly

with a yardstick; and the shadow measurements could be used to predict per­

fectly whether or not a given person had to stoop when walking through a door

that is only 5 ‘/2 -feet high. However, if one group of persons’ shadows were

measured at 9:00 a .m . and another group’s at 10:00 a .m ., the pooled measure­

ments would show a much smaller correlation with weight and other factors

than if they were all measured at the same time, date, and place, and the meas­

urements would have poor validity for predicting which persons could walk

through a 5 ‘/2 -foot door without stooping. We would say, correctly, that these

measurements are biased. In order to make them usefully accurate as predictors

of a person’s weight and so forth, we would have to know the time the person’s

shadow was measured and could then add or subtract a value that would adjust

the measurement so as to make it commensurate with measurements obtained

at some other specific time, date, and location. This procedure would permit the

standardized shadow measurements of height, which in principle would be as

good as the measurements obtained directly with a measuring stick.

 

Standardized IQs are somewhat analogous to the standardized shadow meas­

urements of height, while the raw scores on IQ tests are more analogous to the

raw measurements of the shadows themselves. If we naively remain unaware

that the shadow measurements vary with the time of day, the day of the year,

and the degrees of latitude, our raw measurements would prove practically

worthless for comparing individuals or groups tested at different times, dates,

or places. Correlations and predictions could be accurate only within each unique

group of persons whose shadows were measured at the same time, date, and

place. Since psychologists do not yet have the equivalent of a yardstick for

measuring mental ability directly, their vehicles of mental measurement—IQ

scores—are necessarily “ shadow” measurements, as in our height analogy, al­

beit with amply demonstrated practical predictive validity and construct validity

within certain temporal and cultural limits.

 

 

interesting. however, biologically based tests shud allow for absolut measurement, say tests based on RT in ECTs, or tests based on the amount of mylianation in the brain, or brain ph levels, brain size via brain imaging scans if we can make them better measurements of g, etc.

 

-

 

Many possible factors determine whether a person passes or fails a particular

test item. Does the person understand the item at all (e.g., “What is the sum of

all the latent roots of a 7 X 7 R matrix?” )? Has the person acquired the specific

knowledge called for by the item (e.g., “Who wrote Faust?”), or perhaps has

he acquired it in the past and has since forgotten it? Did the person really know

the answer, but just couldn’t recall it at the moment of being tested? Does the

item call for a cognitive skill the person either never acquired or has forgotten

through disuse (e.g., “ How much of a whole apple is two-thirds of one-half of

the apple?” )? Does the person understand the problem and know how to solve

it, but is unable to do it within the allotted time limit (e.g., substituting the

corresponding letter of the alphabet for each of the numbers from one to twenty-

six listed in a random order in one minute)? Or even when there is a liberal

time limit does the person give up on the item or just guess at the answer

prematurely, perhaps because the item looks too complicated at first glance (e.g.,

“ If it takes six garden hoses, all running for three hours and thirty minutes to

fill a tank, how many additional hoses would be needed to fill the tank in thirty

minutes?” )?

 

1) dunno

2) Goethe

3) 2/3*1/2=4/6*3/6=12/36=1/3

4) #hose*time=tank size

6*3.5=21

21 is the size of the tank

21=0.5*#hose, solve #hose

42=#hose

42-6=36

36 more hoses

 

-

 

The only study I have found that investigated whether there has been a secular

change (over thirty years) in the heritability of g-loaded test scores concluded

that “ the results revealed no unambiguous evidence for secular trends in the

heritability of intelligence test scores.” 1351 However, the heritability coefficients

(based on twenty-two same-age cohort samples of MZ and DZ male twins born

in Norway between 1930 and 1960) showed some statistically reliable nonlinear

trends over the thirty-year period, as shown in Figure 10.2. The overall trend

line goes equally down-up-down-up with heritability coefficients ranging from

slightly above .80 to slightly below .40. The heritability coefficient was the same

for the cohort born in 1930 as for the cohort born in 1960 (for both, h2 = .80).

The authors offer only weak ad hoc speculations about possible causes of this

erratic fluctuation of h2 across 22 points in time.

 

the hole is the german occupation of norway. the data from the 30s make sense to me, the depression wud result in civil unrest and the changing up of society. after a period of such, heritabilities shud stabilize again, as seen in the after war period. i dont understand the 50s down swing in heritability.

 

so, i thought it might be somthing economic. i gathered GDP data, and looked at the data. nope, not true.

 

www.norges-bank.no/pages/77409/p1_c6.xlsx

 

data from 1901 to 2000 looks like this:

gdp norway 50s

 

doesnt fit with the GDP hypothesis at all, except for missing data in the war.

 

i dunno, perhaps www.newsinenglish.no/2010/06/16/the-50s-in-norway-werent-so-nifty/

 

the authors of the study that found the drop in heritability also dont know ”We are, however, quite at a loss in explaining the dip from about 1950 to 1954. Thus, we feel that the best strategy at present is to leave the issue of secular trends open. ”

On the question of secular trends in the heritability of intelligence scores A study of Norwegian twins

-

 

Head Start. The federal preschool intervention known as Head Start, which

has been in continual existence now since 1964, is undoubtedly the largest-

scale, though not the most intensive, educational intervention program ever un­

dertaken, with an annual expenditure over $2 billion. The program is aimed at

improving the health status and the learning and social skills of preschoolers

from poor backgrounds so they can begin regular school more on a par with

children from more privileged backgrounds. The intervention is typically short­

term, with various programs lasting anywhere from a few months to two years.

 

The general conclusion of the hundreds of studies based on Head Start data

is that the program has little, if any, effect on IQ or scholastic achievement that

endures beyond more than two to three years after exposure to Head Start. The

program does, however, have some potential health benefits, such as inoculations

of enrollees against common childhood diseases and improved nutrition (by

school-provided breakfast or lunch). The documented behavioral effects are less

retention-in-grade and lower dropout rates. The cause(s) of these effects are

uncertain. Because eligible children were not randomly enrolled in Head Start,

but were selected by parents and program administrators, these scholastic cor­

relates of Head Start are uninterpretable from a causal standpoint. Selection,

rather than direct causation by the educational intervention itself, could be the

explanation of Head Start’s beneficial outcomes.

 

crazy amount of money spent for som slight health benefits. perhaps ther is a cheaper way to get such benefits.

 

-

 

The Milwaukee Project. Aside from Head Start, this is the most highly

publicized of all intervention experiments. It was the most intensive and exten­

sive educational intervention ever conducted for which the final results have

been published.55 It was also the most costly single experiment in the history of

psychology and education—over $14 million. In terms of the highest peak of

IQ gains for the seventeen children in the treatment condition (before the gains

began to vanish), the cost was an estimated $23,000 per IQ point per child.

 

holy shit. even tho i think iv seen this figur befor (in The g Factor by Chris Brand).

 

Jensen also doesnt mention the end of the project, but Wikipedia does:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Project

 

The Milwaukee Project’s claimed success was celebrated in the popular media and by famous psychologists. However, later in the project Rick Heber, the principal investigator, was discharged from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and convicted and imprisoned for large-scale abuse of federal funding for private gain. Two of Heber’s colleagues in the project were also convicted for similar abuses. The project’s results were not published in any refereed scientific journals, and Heber did not respond to requests from colleagues for raw data and technical details of the study. Consequently, even the existence of the project as described by Heber has been called into question. Nevertheless, many college textbooks in psychology and education have uncritically reported the project’s results.[3][4]

 

this reminds me why open data is necessary in science.

 

-

 

[The Abecedarian Early Intervention Project.]

Both the T and C groups (each with about fifty subjects) were given age-

appropriate mental tests (Bayley, Stanford-Binet, McCarthy, WPPSI) at

six-month intervals from age six months to sixty months. The important com­

parisons here are the mean T-C differences at each testing. (Because the test

scores do not have the same factor composition across this wide age range,

the absolute scores of the T group alone are not as informative of the efficacy

of the intervention as are the mean T-C differences.) At every testing from six

months to five years of age, the T group outperformed the C group, and the

overall average T-C difference (103.3 — 95.5 = 7.8 IQ points) was highly

significant (p < .001). Peculiarly, however, the largest T-C differences (aver­

aging fifteen IQ points) occurred between eighteen and thirty-six months of

age and then declined during the last two years of intervention. At sixty

months, the average T-C difference was 7.5 IQ points. This decrease might

simply reflect the fact that with the children’s increasing age the tests become

increasingly more g-Ioaded. The tests used before two or three years of age

measure mainly perceptual-motor functions that have relatively little g satura­

tion. Only later does g becomes the predominant component of variance in

IQ. In follow-up studies at eight and twelve years of age, the T-C difference

on the WISC-R was about five IQ points,1571 a difference that has remained up

to age fifteen. At the last reported testing, the T-C difference was 4.6 IQ

points, or a difference of 0.35ct. Scholastic achievement test scores showed a

somewhat larger effect of the intervention up to age fifteen.1571 The interven­

tion effect on other criteria of the project’s success was demonstrated by the

decreased percentage of children who repeated at least one grade by age

twelve (T = 28 percent, C = 55 percent) and the percentage of children with

borderline or retarded intelligence (IQ < 85) (T = 12.8 percent, C = 44.2

percent).1561

 

Thus this five-year program of intensive intervention beginning in early in­

fancy increased IQ (at age fifteen years) by about five points. Judging from a

comparable gain in scholastic achievement, the effect had broad transfer, sug­

gesting that it probably raised the level of g to some extent. The finding that

the T subjects did better than the C subjects on a battery of Piaget’s tests of

conservation, which reflect important stages in mental development, is further

evidence. The Piagetian tests are not only very different in task demands from

anything in the conventional IQ tests used in the conventional assessments, but

are also highly g loaded.1571 The mean T-C difference on the Piagetian conser­

vation tests was equal to 0.33a (equivalent to five IQ points). Assuming that

the instructional materials in the intervention program did not closely resemble

Piaget’s tests, it is a warranted conclusion that the intervention appreciably

raised the Level of g.

 

im still skeptical as to the g effects. id like to see the data about them as adults, and a larger sample size.

 

again, Wikipedia has mor on the issue, both positiv and negativ:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abecedarian_Early_Intervention_Project

Significant findings

Follow-up assessment of the participants involved in the project has been ongoing. So far, outcomes have been measured at ages 3, 4, 5, 6.5, 8, 12, 15, 21, and 30.[5] The areas covered were cognitive functioning, academic skills, educational attainment, employment, parenthood, and social adjustment. The significant findings of the experiment were as follows:[6][7]

Impact of child care/preschool on reading and math achievement, and cognitive ability, at age 21:

• An increase of 1.8 grade levels in reading achievement
• An increase of 1.3 grade levels in math achievement
• A modest increase in Full-Scale IQ (4.4 points), and in Verbal IQ (4.2 points).

Impact of child care/preschool on life outcomes at age 21:

• Completion of a half-year more of education
• Much higher percentage enrolled in school at age 21 (42 percent vs. 20 percent)
• Much higher percentage attended, or still attending, a 4-year college (36 percent vs. 14 percent)
• Much higher percentage engaged in skilled jobs (47 percent vs. 27 percent)
• Much lower percentage of teen-aged parents (26 percent vs. 45 percent)
• Reduction of criminal activity

Statistically significant outcomes at age 30:

• Four times more likely to have graduated from a four-year college (23 percent vs. 6 percent)
• More likely to have been employed consistently over the previous two years (74 percent vs. 53 percent)
• Five times less likely to have used public assistance in the previous seven years (4 percent vs. 20 percent)
• Delayed becoming parents by average of almost two years

(Most recent information from Developmental Psychology, January 18, 2012, cited in uncnews.unc.edu, January 19, 2012)

The project concluded that high quality, educational child care from early infancy was therefore of utmost importance.

Other, less intensive programs, notably the Head Start Program, but also others, have not been as successful. It may be that they provided too little too late compared with the Abecedarian program.[4]

Criticisms

Some researchers have advised caution about the reported positive results of the project. Among other things, they have pointed out analytical discrepancies in published reports, including unexplained changes in sample sizes between different assessments and publications. It has also been noted that the intervention group’s reported 4.6 point advantage in mean IQ at age 15 was not statistically significant. Herman Spitz has noted that a mean IQ difference of similar magnitude to the final difference between the intervention and control groups was apparent already at age six months, indicating that “4 1/2 years of massive intervention ended with virtually no effect.” Spitz has suggested that the IQ difference between the intervention and control groups may have been present from the outset due to faulty randomization.[8]

 

not quite sure what to think. the sample sizes ar still kind small, and if Spitz is right in his criticism, the studies hav not shown much.

 

the reason that im skeptical to begin with is that the modern twin studies show, that shared environment, which is what these studies change to a large degree, has no effect on adult IQ.

 

in any case, if it requires so expensiv spendings to get slightly less dumb kids, its hard to justify as a public policy. at the very least, id like to see the calculation that finds that this has a net positiv benefit for society. it is possible, for instance, becus crime rates ar (supposedly) down, and job retention up which leads to mor taxes being paid, and so on.

 

-

 

Error distractors in multiple-choice answers are of interest as a method of

discovering bias. When a person fails to select the correct answer but instead

chooses one of the alternative erroneous responses (called “ distractors” ) offered

for an item in a multiple-choice test, the person’s incorrect choice is not random,

but is about as reliable as is the choice of the correct answer. In other words,

error responses, like correct responses, are not just a matter of chance, but reflect

certain information processes (or the failure of certain crucial steps in infor­

mation processing) that lead the person to choose not just any distractor, but a

particular one. Some types of errors result from a solution strategy that is more

naive or less sophisticated than other types of errors. For example, consider the

following test item:

 

If you mix a pint of water at 50° temperature with two pints of water at 80°

measured on the same thermometer, what will be the temperature of the mix­

ture? (a) 65°, (b) 70°, (c) 90°, (d) 130°, (e) Can’t say without knowing

whether the temperatures are Centigrade or Fahrenheit.

 

We see that the four distractors differ in the level of sophistication in mental

processing that would lead to their choice. The most naive distractor, for ex­

ample, is D, which is arrived at by simple addition of 50° and 80°. The answer

A at least shows that the subject realized the necessity for averaging the tem­

peratures. The answer 90° is the most sophisticated distractor, as it reveals that

the subject had a glimmer of the necessity for a weighted average (i.e., 50° +

8072 = 90°) but didn’t know how to go about calculating it. (The correct

answer, of course, is B, because the weighted average is [1 pint X 50° + 2

pints X 80°]/3 pints = 70°.) Preference for selecting different distractors changes

across age groups, with younger children being attracted to the less sophisticated

type of distractor, as indicated by comparing the percentage of children in dif­

ferent age groups that select each distractor. The kinds of errors made, therefore,

appear to reflect something about the children’s level of cognitive development.

 

interesting.

 

-

 

What is termed a cline results where groups overlap at their fuzzy boundaries

in some characteristic, with intermediate gradations of the phenotypic charac­

teristic, often making the classification of many individuals ambiguous or even

impossible, unless they are classified by some arbitrary rule that ignores biology.

The fact that there are intermediate gradations or blends between racial groups,

however, does not contradict the genetic and statistical concept of race. The

different colors of a rainbow do not consist of discrete bands but are a perfect

continuum, yet we readily distinguish different regions of this continuum as

blue, green, yellow, and red, and we effectively classify many things according

to these colors. The validity of such distinctions and of the categories based on

them obviously need not require that they form perfectly discrete Platonic cat­

egories.

 

while the rainbow analogy works to som extent, it is not that good. the reason is that with rainbows, all the colors (groups) ar on a continuum in such a way that ther isnt a blend between every two colors (groups). this is not how races work, as ther is always the possibility of a blend between any two groups, even odd groups such as amerindians and aboriginals.

 

-

 

Of the approximately 100,000 human polymorphic genes, about 50,000 are

functional in the brain and about 30,000 are unique to brain functions.[12] The

brain is by far the structurally and functionally most complex organ in the human

body and the greater part of this complexity resides in the neural structures of

the cerebral hemispheres, which, in humans, are much larger relative to total

brain size than in any other species. A general principle of neural organization

states that, within a given species, the size and complexity of a structure reflect

the behavioral importance of that structure. The reason, again, is that structure

and function have evolved conjointly as an integrated adaptive mechanism. But

as there are only some 50,000 genes involved in the brain’s development and

there are at least 200 billion neurons and trillions of synaptic connections in the

brain, it is clear that any single gene must influence some huge number of

neurons— not just any neurons selected at random, but complex systems of

neurons organized to serve special functions related to behavioral capacities.

 

It is extremely improbable that the evolution of racial differences since the

advent of Homo sapiens excluded allelic changes only in those 50,000 genes

that are involved with the brain.

 

the same point was made, altho less technically, in Hjernevask. ther is no good apriori reason to think that natural selection for som reason only worked on non-brain, non-behavioral genes. it simply makes no sense at all to suppose that.

 

-

 

Bear in mind that, from the standpoint of natural selection, a larger brain

size (and its corresponding larger head size) is in many ways decidedly disad­

vantageous. A large brain is metabolically very expensive, requiring a high-

calorie diet. Though the human brain is less than 2 percent of total body weight,

it accounts for some 20 percent of the body’s basal metabolic rate (BMR). In

other primates, the brain accounts for about 10 percent of the BMR, and for

most carnivores, less than 5 percent. A larger head also greatly increases the

difficulty of giving birth and incurs much greater risk of perinatal trauma or

even fetal death, which are much more frequent in humans than in any other

animal species. A larger head also puts a greater strain on the skeletal and

muscular support. Further, it increases the chances of being fatally hit by an

enemy’s club or missile. Despite such disadvantages of larger head size, the

human brain, in fact, evolved markedly in size, with its cortical layer accom­

modating to a relatively lesser increase in head size by becoming highly con­

voluted in the endocranial vault. In the evolution of the brain, the effects of

natural selection had to have reflected the net selective pressures that made an

increase in brain size disadvantageous versus those that were advantageous. The

advantages obviously outweighed the disadvantages to some degree or the in­

crease in hominid brain size would not have occurred.

 

this brain must hav been very useful for somthing. if som of this use has to do with non-social things, like environment, one wud expect to see different levels of ‘brain adaptation’ due to the relative differences in selection pressure in populations that evolved in different environments.

 

-

 

How then can the default hypothesis be tested empirically? It is tested exactly

as is any other scientific hypothesis; no hypothesis is regarded as scientific unless

predictions derived from it are capable of risking refutation by an empirical test.

Certain predictions can be made from the default hypothesis that are capable of

empirical test. I f the observed result differs significantly from the prediction, the

hypothesis is considered disproved, unless it can be shown that the tested pre­

diction was an incorrect deduction from the hypothesis, or that there are artifacts

in the data or methodological flaws in their analysis that could account for the

observed result. If the observed result does in fact accord with the prediction,

the hypothesis survives, although it cannot be said to be proven. This is because

it is logically impossible to prove the null hypothesis, which states that there is

no difference between the predicted and the observed result. If there is an al­

ternative hypothesis, it can also be tested against the same observed result.

 

For example, if we hypothesize that no tiger is living in the Sherwood Forest

and a hundred people searching the forest fail to find a tiger, we have not proved

the null hypothesis, because the searchers might have failed to look in the right

places. I f someone actually found a tiger in the forest, however, the hypothesis

is absolutely disproved. The alternative hypothesis is that a tiger does live in

the forest; finding a tiger clearly proves the hypothesis. The failure of searchers

to find the tiger decreases the probability of its existence, and the more search­

ing, the lower is the probability, but it can never prove the tiger’s nonexistence.

 

Similarly, the default hypothesis predicts certain outcomes under specified

conditions. If the observed outcome does not differ significantly from the pre­

dicted outcomes, the default hypothesis is upheld but not proved. If the predic­

tion differs significantly from the observed result, the hypothesis must be

rejected. Typically, it is modified to accord better with the existing evidence,

and then its modified predictions are empirically tested with new data. If it

survives numerous tests, it conventionally becomes a “ fact.” In this sense, for

example, it is a “ fact” that the earth revolves around the sun, and it is a “ fact”

that all present-day organisms have evolved from primitive forms.

 

meh, mediocre or bad filosofy of science.

 

-

 

 

 

the problem with this data is that the women were not don having children. the data is from women aged 34. since especially smart women (and so mor whites) hav children later than that age, their fertility estimates ar spuriusly low. see also the data in Intelligence: A Unifying Construct for the Social Sciences (Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen, 2012).

 

-

 

Whites perform significantly better than blacks on the subtests called Com­

prehension, Block Design, Object Assembly, and Mazes. The latter three tests

are loaded on the spatial visualization factor of the WISC-R. Blacks perform

significantly better than whites on Arithmetic and Digit Span. Both of these tests

are loaded on the short-term memory factor of the WISC-R. (As the test of

arithmetic reasoning is given orally, the subject must remember the key elements

of the problem long enough to solve it.) It is noteworthy that Vocabulary is the

one test that shows zero W-B difference when g is removed. Along with Infor­

mation and Similarities, which even show a slight (but nonsignificant) advantage

for blacks, these are the subtests most often claimed to be culturally biased

against blacks. The same profile differences on the WISC-R were found in

another study|8lbl based on 270 whites and 270 blacks who were perfectly

matched on Full Scale IQ.

 

seems inconsistent with typical environment only theories.

 

-

 

 

Fashionable Nonsense, Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science – Alan Sokal, Jean Bricmont ebook download pdf free

 

The book contains the best single chapter on filosofy of science that iv com across. very much recommended, especially for those that dont like filosofers’ accounts of things. alot of the rest of the book is devoted to long quotes full of nonsens, and som explanations of why it is nonsens (if possible), or just som explanatory remarks about the fields invoked (say, relativity).

 

as such, this book is a must read for ppl who ar interested in the study of seudoscience, and those interested in meaningless language use. basically, it is a collection of case studies of that.

 

 

———-

 

 

[footnote] Bertrand Russell (1948, p. 196) tells the following amusing story: “I once received a

letter from an eminent logician, Mrs Christine Ladd Franklin, saying that she was a

solipsist, and was surprised that there were not others”. We learned this reference

from Devitt (1997, p. 64).

 

LOL!

 

-

 

The answer, of course, is that we have no proof; it is simply

a perfectly reasonable hypothesis. The most natural way to ex­

plain the persistence of our sensations (in particular, the un­

pleasant ones) is to suppose that they are caused by agents

outside our consciousness. We can almost always change at will

the sensations that are pure products of our imagination, but we

cannot stop a war, stave off a lion, or start a broken-down car

by pure thought alone. Nevertheless— and it is important to em­

phasize this—this argument does not refute solipsism. If anyone

insists that he is a “harpsichord playing solo” (Diderot), there is

no way to convince him of his error. However, we have never

met a sincere solipsist and we doubt that any exist.52 This illus­

trates an important principle that we shall use several times in

this chapter: the mere fact that an idea is irrefutable does not

imply that there is any reason to believe it is true.

 

i wonder how that epistemological point (that arguments from ignorance ar no good) works with intuitionism in math/logic?

 

-

 

The universality of Humean skepticism is also its weakness.

Of course, it is irrefutable. But since no one is systematically

skeptical (when he or she is sincere) with respect to ordinary

knowledge, one ought to ask why skepticism is rejected in that

domain and why it would nevertheless be valid when applied

elsewhere, for instance, to scientific knowledge. Now, the rea­

son why we reject systematic skepticism in everyday life is

more or less obvious and is similar to the reason we reject solip­

sism. The best way to account for the coherence of our experi­

ence is to suppose that the outside world corresponds, at least

approximately, to the image of it provided by our senses.54

 

54 4This hypothesis receives a deeper explanation with the subsequent development of

science, in particular of the biological theory of evolution. Clearly, the possession of

sensory organs that reflect more or less faithfully the outside world (or, at least,

some important aspects of it) confers an evolutionary advantage. Let us stress that

this argument does not refute radical skepticism, but it does increase the coherence

of the anti-skeptical worldview.

 

the authors ar surprisingly sofisticated filosofically, and i agree very much with their reasoning.

 

-

 

For my part, I have no doubt that, although progressive changes

are to be expected in physics, the present doctrines are likely to be

nearer to the truth than any rival doctrines now before the world.

Science is at no moment quite right, but it is seldom quite wrong,

and has, as a rule, a better chance of being right than the theories

of the unscientific. It is, therefore, rational to accept it

hypothetically.

—Bertrand Russell, My Philosophical Development

(1995 [1959], p. 13)

 

yes, the analogy is that: science is LIKE a limit function that goes towards 1 [approximates closer to truth] over time. at any given x, it is not quite at y=1 yet, but it gets closer. it might not be completely monotonic either (and i dont know if that completely breaks the limit function, probably doesnt).

 

plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-progress/#Tru

 

for a quick grafical illustration, try the function f(x)=1-(-1/x) on the interval [1;∞]. The truth line is f(x)=1 on the interval [0;∞]. in reality, the graf wud be mor unsteady and not completely monotonic corresponding to the varius theories as they com and go in science. it is not only a matter of evidence (which is not an infallible indicator of truth either), but it is primarily a function of that.

 

-

 

Once the general problems of solipsism and radical skepti­

cism have been set aside, we can get down to work. Let us sup­

pose that we are able to obtain some more-or-less reliable

knowledge of the world, at least in everyday life. We can then

ask: To what extent are our senses reliable or not? To answer

this question, we can compare sense impressions among them­

selves and vary certain parameters of our everyday experience.

We can map out in this way, step by step, a practiced rationality.

When this is done systematically and with sufficient precision,

science can begin.

 

For us, the scientific method is not radically different from

the rational attitude in everyday life or in other domains of hu­

man knowledge. Historians, detectives, and plumbers—indeed,

all human beings—use the same basic methods of induction,

deduction, and assessment of evidence as do physicists or bio­

chemists. Modem science tries to carry out these operations in

a more careful and systematic way, by using controls and sta­

tistical tests, insisting on replication, and so forth. Moreover,

scientific measurements are often much more precise than

everyday observations; they allow us to discover hitherto un­

known phenomena; and they often conflict with “common

sense”. But the conflict is at the level of conclusions, not the

basic approach.55 56

 

55For example: Water appears to us as a continuous fluid, but chemical and physical

experiments teach us that it is made of atoms.

 

56Throughout this chapter, we stress the methodological continuity between scientific

knowledge and everyday knowledge. This is, in our view, the proper way to respond

to various skeptical challenges and to dispel the confusions generated by radical

interpretations of correct philosophical ideas such as the underdetermination of

theories by data. But it would be naive to push this connection too far. Science—

particularly fundamental physics— introduces concepts that are hard to grasp

intuitively or to connect directly to common-sense notions. (For example: forces

acting instantaneously throughout the universe in Newtonian mechanics,

electromagnetic fields “vibrating” in vacuum in Maxwell’s theory, curved space-time

in Einstein’s general relativity.) And it is in discussions about the meaning o f these

theoretical concepts that various brands of realists and anti-realists (e.g.,

intrumentalists, pragmatists) tend to part company. Relativists sometimes tend to fall

back on instrumentalist positions when challenged, but there is a profound difference

between the two attitudes. Instrumentalists may want to claim either that we have no

way of knowing whether “unobservable” theoretical entities really exist, or that their

meaning is defined solely through measurable quantities; but this does not imply that

they regard such entities as “subjective” in the sense that their meaning would be

significantly influenced by extra-scientific factors (such as the personality of the

individual scientist or the social characteristics o f the group to which she belongs).

Indeed, instrumentalists may regard our scientific theories as, quite simply, the most

satisfactory way that the human mind, with its inherent biological limitations, is

capable of understanding the world.

 

right they ar

 

-

 

Having reached this point in the discussion, the radical skep­

tic or relativist will ask what distinguishes science from other

types of discourse about reality—religions or myths, for exam­

ple, or pseudo-sciences such as astrology—and, above all, what

criteria are used to make such a distinction. Our answer is nu-

anced. First of all, there are some general (but basically nega­

tive) epistemological principles, which go back at least to the

seventeenth century: to be skeptical of a priori arguments, rev­

elation, sacred texts, and arguments from authority. Moreover,

the experience accumulated during three centuries of scientific

practice has given us a series of more-or-less general method­

ological principles—for example, to replicate experiments, to

use controls, to test medicines in double-blind protocols—that

can be justified by rational arguments. However, we do not

claim that these principles can be codified in a definitive way,

nor that the list is exhaustive. In other words, there does not

exist (at least at present) a complete codification of scientific ra­

tionality, and we seriously doubt that one could ever exist. After

all, the future is inherently unpredictable; rationality is always

an adaptation to a new situation. Nevertheless—and this is the

main difference between us and the radical skeptics—we think

that well-developed scientific theories are in general supported

by good arguments, but the rationality of those arguments must

be analyzed case-by-case.60

 

60 It is also by proceeding on a case-by-case basis that one can appreciate the

immensity of the gulf separating the sciences from the pseudo-sciences.

 

Sokal and Bricmont might soon becom my new favorit filosofers of science.

 

-

 

Obviously, every induction is an inference from the observed to

the unobserved, and no such inference can be justified using

solely deductive logic. But, as we have seen, if this argument

were to be taken seriously—if rationality were to consist only

of deductive logic— it would imply also that there is no good

reason to believe that the Sun will rise tomorrow, and yet no one

really expects the Sun not to rise.

 

id like to add, like i hav don many times befor, that ther is no reason to think that induction shud be proveable with deduction. why require that? but now coms the interesting part. if one takes induction as the basis instead of deduction, one can inductivly prove deduction. <prove> in the ordinary, non-mathetical/logical sens. the method is enumerativ induction, which i hav discussed befor.

emilkirkegaard.dk/en/?p=3219

 

-

 

But one may go further. It is natural to introduce a hierarchy

in the degree of credence accorded to different theories, de­

pending on the quantity and quality of the evidence supporting

them.95 Every scientist—indeed, every human being—proceeds

in this way and grants a higher subjective probability to the

best-established theories (for instance, the evolution of species

or the existence of atoms) and a lower subjective probability to

more speculative theories (such as detailed theories of quantum

gravity). The same reasoning applies when comparing theories

in natural science with those in history or sociology. For exam­

ple, the evidence of the Earth’s rotation is vastly stronger than

anything Kuhn could put forward in support of his historical

theories. This does not mean, of course, that physicists are more

clever than historians or that they use better methods, but sim­

ply that they deal with less complex problems, involving a

smaller number of variables which, moreover, are easier to mea­

sure and to control. It is impossible to avoid introducing such a

hierarchy in our beliefs, and this hierarchy implies that there is

no conceivable argument based on the Kuhnian view of history

that could give succor to those sociologists or philosophers who

wish to challenge, in a blanket way, the reliability of scientific

results.

 

Sokal and Bricmont even get the epistemological point about the different fields right. color me very positivly surprised.

 

-

 

Bruno Latour and His Rules of Method

The strong programme in the sociology of science has found

an echo in France, particularly around Bruno Latour. His works

contain a great number of propositions formulated so ambigu­

ously that they can hardly be taken literally. And when one re­

moves the ambiguity— as we shall do here in a few

examples— one reaches the conclusion that the assertion is ei­

ther true but banal, or else surprising but manifestly false.

 

sound familiar? its the good old two-faced sentences again, those that Swartz and Bradley called Janus-sentences. they yield two different interpretations, one trivial and true, one nontrivial and false. their apparent plausibility is becus of this fact.

 

quoting from Possible Worlds:

 

Janus-faced sentences

The method of possible-worlds testing is not only an invaluable aid towards resolving ambiguity; it is also an effective weapon against a particular form of-linguistic sophistry.

Thinkers often deceive themselves and others into supposing that they have discovered a profound

truth about the universe when all they have done is utter what we shall call a “Janus-faced

sentence”. Janus, according to Roman mythology, was a god with two faces who was therefore able

to ‘face’ in two directions at once. Thus, by a “Janus-faced sentence” we mean a sentence which, like “In the evolutionary struggle for existence just the fittest species survive”, faces in two directions. It is ambiguous insofar as it may be used to express a noncontingent proposition, e.g., that in the struggle for existence just the surviving species survive, and may also be used to express a contingent proposition, e.g., the generalization that just the physically strongest species survive.

 

If a token of such a sentence-type is used to express a noncontingently true proposition then, of

course, the truth of that proposition is indisputable; but since, in that case, it is true in all possible

worlds, it does not tell us anything distinctive about the actual world. If, on the other hand, a token

of such a sentence-type is used to express a contingent proposition, then of course that proposition

does tell us something quite distinctive about the actual world; but in that case its truth is far from

indisputable. The sophistry lies in supposing that the indisputable credentials of the one proposition

can be transferred to the other just by virtue of the fact that one sentence-token might be used to

express one of these propositions and a different sentence-token of one and the same sentence-type

might be used to express the other of these propositions. For by virtue of the necessary truth of one

of these propositions, the truth of the other — the contingent one — can be made to seem

indisputable, can be made to seem, that is, as if it “stands to reason” that it should be true.

 

-

 

We could be accused here of focusing our attention on an

ambiguity of formulation and of not trying to understand what

Latour really means. In order to counter this objection, let us go

back to the section “Appealing (to) Nature” (pp. 94-100) where

the Third Rule is introduced and developed. Latour begins by

ridiculing the appeal to Nature as a way of resolving scientific

controversies, such as the one concerning solar neutrinos[121]:

A fierce controversy divides the astrophysicists who calcu­

late the number o f neutrinos coming out o f the sun and Davis,

the experimentalist who obtains a much smaller figure. It is

easy to distinguish them and put the controversy to rest. Just

let us see for ourselves in which camp the sun is really to be

found. Somewhere the natural sun with its true number o f

neutrinos will close the mouths o f dissenters and force them

to accept the facts no matter how well written these papers

were. (Latour 1987, p. 95)

 

 

Why does Latour choose to be ironic? The problem is to know

how many neutrinos are emitted by the Sun, and this question

is indeed difficult. We can hope that it will be resolved some day,

not because “the natural sun will close the mouths of dis­

senters”, but because sufficiently powerful empirical data will

become available. Indeed, in order to fill in the gaps in the cur­

rently available data and to discriminate between the currently

existing theories, several groups of physicists have recently

built detectors of different types, and they are now performing

the (difficult) measurements.122 It is thus reasonable to expect

that the controversy will be settled sometime in the next few

years, thanks to an accumulation of evidence that, taken to­

gether, will indicate clearly the correct solution. However, other

scenarios are in principle possible: the controversy could die

out because people stop being interested in the issue, or be­

cause the problem turns out to be too difficult to solve; and, at

this level, sociological factors undoubtedly play a role (if only

because of the budgetary constraints on research). Obviously,

scientists think, or at least hope, that if the controversy is re­

solved it will be because of observations and not because of

the literary qualities of the scientific papers. Otherwise, they

will simply have ceased to do science.

 

the footnode 121 is:

The nuclear reactions that power the Sun are expected to emit copious quantities

of the subatomic particle called the neutrino. By combining current theories of solar

structure, nuclear physics, and elementary-particle physics, it is possible to obtain

quantitative predictions for the flux and energy distribution of the solar neutrinos.

Since the late 1960s, experimental physicists, beginning with the pioneering work of

Raymond Davis, have been attempting to detect the solar neutrinos and measure their

flux. The solar neutrinos have in fact been detected; but their flux appears to be less

than one-third o f the theoretical prediction. Astrophysicists and elementary-particle

physicists are actively trying to determine whether the discrepancy arises from

experimental error or theoretical error, and if the latter, whether the failure is in the

solar models or in the elementary-particle models. For an introductory overview, see

Bahcall (1990).

 

this problem sounded familiar to me.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_neutrino_problem:

The solar neutrino problem was a major discrepancy between measurements of the numbers of neutrinos flowing through the Earth and theoretical models of the solar interior, lasting from the mid-1960s to about 2002. The discrepancy has since been resolved by new understanding of neutrino physics, requiring a modification of the Standard Model of particle physics – specifically, neutrino oscillation. Essentially, as neutrinos have mass, they can change from the type that had been expected to be produced in the Sun’s interior into two types that would not be caught by the detectors in use at the time.

 

science seems to be working. Sokal and Bricmont predicted that it wud be resolved ”in the next few years”. this was written in 1997, about 5 years befor the data Wikipedia givs for the resolution. i advice one to read the Wiki article, as it is quite good.

 

-

 

In this quote and the previous one, Latour is playing con­

stantly on the confusion between facts and our knowledge of

them.123 The correct answer to any scientific question, solved or

not, depends on the state of Nature (for example, on the num­

ber of neutrinos that the Sun really emits). Now, it happens that,

for the unsolved problems, nobody knows the right answer,

while for the solved ones, we do know it (at least if the accepted

solution is correct, which can always be challenged). But there

is no reason to adopt a “relativist” attitude in one case and a “re­

alist” one in the other. The difference between these attitudes is

a philosophical matter, and is independent of whether the prob­

lem is solved or not. For the relativist, there is simply no unique

correct answer, independent of all social and cultural circum­

stances; this holds for the closed questions as well as for the

open ones. On the other hand, the scientists who seek the cor­

rect solution are not relativist, almost by definition. Of course

they do “use Nature as the external referee”: that is, they seek to

know what is really happening in Nature, and they design ex­

periments for that purpose.

 

the footnote 123 is:

An even more extreme example o f this confusion appears in a recent article by

Latour in La Recherche, a French monthly magazine devoted to the popularization of

science (Latour 1998). Here Latour discusses what he interprets as the discovery in

1976, by French scientists working on the mummy of the pharaoh Ramses II, that his

death (circa 1213 B.C.) was due to tuberculosis. Latour asks: “How could he pass

away due to a bacillus discovered by Robert Koch in 1882?” Latour notes, correctly,

that it would be an anachronism to assert that Rainses II was killed by machine-gun

fire or died from the stress provoked by a stock-market crash. But then, Latour

wonders, why isn’t death from tuberculosis likewise an anachronism? He goes so far

as to assert that “Before Koch, the bacillus has no real existence.” He dismisses the

common-sense notion that Koch discovered a pre-existing bacillus as “having only the

appearance o f common sense”. Of course, in the rest o f the article, Latour gives no

argument to justify these radical claims and provides no genuine alternative to the

common-sense answer. He simply stresses the obvious fact that, in order to discover

the cause of Ramses’ death, a sophisticated analysis in Parisian laboratories was

needed. But unless Latour is putting forward the truly radical claim that nothing we

discover ever existed prior to its “discovery”— in particular, that no murderer is a

murderer, in the sense that he committed a crime before the police “discovered” him

to be a murderer— he needs to explain what is special about bacilli, and this he has

utterly failed to do. The result is that Latour is saying nothing clear, and the article

oscillates between extreme banalities and blatant falsehoods.

 

?!

 

-

 

a quote from one of the crazy ppl:

 

The privileging o f solid over fluid mechanics, and indeed the

inability o f science to deal with turbulent flow at all, she at­

tributes to the association o f fluidity with femininity. Whereas

men have sex organs that protrude and become rigid, women

have openings that leak menstrual blood and vaginal fluids.

Although men, too, flow on occasion— when semen is emit­

ted, for example— this aspect o f their sexuality is not empha­

sized. It is the rigidity o f the male organ that counts, not its

complicity in fluid flow. These idealizations are reinscribed in

mathematics, which conceives o f fluids as laminated planes

and other modified solid forms. In the same way that women

are erased within masculinist theories and language, existing

only as not-men, so fluids have been erased from science, ex­

isting only as not-solids. From this perspective it is no wonder

that science has not been able to arrive at a successful model

for turbulence. The problem o f turbulent f low cannot be

solved because the conceptions o f fluids (and o f women)

have been formulated so as necessarily to leave unarticulated

remainders. (Hayles 1992, p. 17)

 

u cant make this shit up

 

-

 

Over the past three decades, remarkable progress has been

made in the mathematical theory of chaos, but the idea that

some physical systems may exhibit a sensitivity to initial con­

ditions is not new. Here is what James Clerk Maxwell said in

1877, after stating the principle of determinism ( “the same

causes will always produce the same effects”):

 

but thats not what determinism is. their quote seems to be from Hume’s Treatise.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality#After_the_Middle_Ages

 

it is mentioned in his discussion of causality, which is related to but not the same as, determinism.

 

Wikipedia givs a fine definition of <determinism>: ”Determinism is a philosophy stating that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given those conditions, nothing else could happen.”

 

also SEP: ”Causal determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature.”

 

-

 

[T]he first difference between science and philosophy is their

respective attitudes toward chaos. Chaos is defined not so

much by its disorder as by the infinite speed with which every

form taking shape in it vanishes. It is a void that is not a noth­

ingness but a virtual, containing all possible particles and

drawing out all possible forms, which spring up only to dis­

appear immediately, without consistency or reference, with­

out consequence. Chaos is an infinite speed o f birth and dis­

appearance. (Deleuze and Guattari 1994, pp. 117-118, italics

in the original)

 

???

 

-

 

For what it’s worth, electrons, unlike photons, have a non-zero

mass and thus cannot move at the speed of light, precisely

because of the theory of relativity of which Virilio seems so

fond.

 

i think the authors did not mean what they wrote here. surely, relativity theory is not the reason why electrons cannot move at the speed of light. relativity theory is an explanation of how nature works, in this case, how objects with mass and velocity/speed works.

 

-

 

We met in Paris a student who, after having brilliantly fin­

ished his undergraduate studies in physics, began reading phi­

losophy and in particular Deleuze. He was trying to tackle

Difference and Repetition. Having read the mathematical ex­

cerpts examined here (pp. 161-164), he admitted he couldn’t

see what Deleuze was driving at. Nevertheless, Deleuze’s repu­

tation for profundity was so strong that he hesitated to draw the

natural conclusion: that if someone like himself, who had stud­

ied calculus for several years, was unable to understand these

texts, allegedly about calculus, it was probably because they

didn’t make much sense. It seems to us that this example should

have encouraged the student to analyze more critically the rest

of Deleuze’s writings.

 

i think the epistemological conditions of this kind of inference ar very interesting. under which conditions shud one conclude that a text is meaningless?

 

-

 

7. Ambiguity as subterfuge. We have seen in this book nu­

merous ambiguous texts that can be interpreted in two differ­

ent ways: as an assertion that is true but relatively banal, or as

one that is radical but manifestly false. And we cannot help

thinking that, in many cases, these ambiguities are deliberate.

Indeed, they offer a great advantage in intellectual battles: the

radical interpretation can serve to attract relatively inexperi­

enced listeners or readers; and if the absurdity of this version is

exposed, the author can always defend himself by claiming to

have been misunderstood, and retreat to the innocuous inter­

pretation.

 

mor on Janus-sentences.

 

-

 

 

I recently acquired these (yes, bought them). Enjoy!

Fashionable Nonsense, Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science – Alan Sokal, Jean Bricmont

beyond the hoax – alan sokal

How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement? pdf

 

I was curious to read this article becus of all the bad things ive heard about it. however, it turned out to be not what i expected at all. its a very sensible well-researched well-written article. not at all any racist bigotry. it cud still serve as a reasonable introduction to the science of intelligence.

 

-

 

Occupational Correlates of Intelligence

Intelligence, as we are using the term, has relevance considerably beyond the

scholastic setting. This is so partly because there is an intimate relationship be-

tween a society’s occupational structure and its educational system. Whether we

like it or not, the educational system is one of society’s most powerful mechanisms

for sorting out children to assume different roles in the occupational hierarchy.

The evidence for a hierarchy of occupational prestige and desirability is unam-

biguous. Let us consider three sets of numbers.2

First, the Barr scale of occupations, devised in the early 1920s, provides one set of data. Lists of 120 representative occupations, each definitely and concretely described, were given to 30 psy-

chological judges who were asked to rate the occupations on a scale from o to 100

according to the grade of intelligence each occupation was believed to require for

ordinary success. Second, in 1964, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC),

by taking a large public opinion poll, obtained ratings of the prestige of a great

number of occupations; these prestige ratings represent the average standing of

each occupation relative to all the others in the eyes of the general public.

Third, a rating of socioeconomic status (SES) is provided by the 1960 Census of

Population: Classified Index of Occupations and Industries, which assigns to each

of the hundreds of listed occupations a score ranging from 0 to 96 as a composite

index of the average income and educational level prevailing in the occupation.

The interesting point is the set of correlations among these three independent-

ly derived occupational ratings.

The Barr scale and the NORC ratings are correlated .91.

The Barr scale and the SES index are correlated .81.

The NORC ratings and the SES index are correlated .90.

In other words, psychologists’ concept of the “intelligence demands” of an occu-

pation (Barr scale) is very much like the general public’s concept of the prestige

or “social standing” of an occupation (NORC ratings), and both are closely re-

lated to an independent measure of the educational and economic status of the

persons pursuing an occupation (SES index). As O. D. Duncan (1968, pp. 90-91)

concludes, “. . . ‘intelligence’ is a socially defined quality and this social definition

is not essentially different from that of achievement or status in the occupational

sphere. . . . When psychologists came to propose operational counterparts to the

notion of intelligence, or to devise measures thereof, they wittingly or unwittingly

looked for indicators of capability to function in the system of key roles in the

society.” Duncan goes on to note, “Our argument tends to imply that a correla-

tion between IQ and occupational achievement was more or less built into IQ

tests, by virtue of the psychologists’ implicit acceptance of the social standards

of the general populace. Had the first IQ tests been devised in a hunting culture,

‘general intelligence’ might well have turned out to involve visual acuity and

running speed, rather than vocabulary and symbol manipulation. As it was, the

concept of intelligence arose in a society where high status accrued to occupations

involving the latter in large measure, so that what we now mean by intelligence

is something like the probability of acceptable performance (given the opportu-

nity) in occupations varying in social status.”

 

interesting

 

-

 

Evidence from Studies of Selective Breeding

The many studies of selective breeding in various species of mammals provide

conclusive evidence that many behavioral characteristics, just as most physical

characteristics, can be manipulated by genetic selection (see Fuller & Thompson,

1962; Scott and Fuller, 1965). Rats, for example, have been bred for maze learn-

ing ability in many different laboratories. It makes little difference whether one

refers to this ability as rat “intelligence,” “learning ability” or some other term—

we know that it is possible to breed selectively for whatever the factors are that

make for speed of maze learning. To be sure, individual variation in this com-

plex ability may be due to any combination of a number of characteristics in-

volving sensory acuity, drive level, emotional stability, strength of innate turning

preferences, brain chemistry, brain size, structure of neural connections, speed

of synaptic transmission, or whatever. The point is that the molar behavior of

learning to get through a maze efficiently without making errors (i.e., going

up blind alleys) can be markedly influenced in later generations by selective

breeding of the parent generations of rats who are either fast or slow (“maze

bright” or “maze dull,” to use the prevailing terminology in this research) in

learning to get through the maze. Figure 4 shows the results of one such

genetic selection experiment. They are quite typical; within only six generations

of selection the offspring of the “dull” strain make 100 percent more errors in

learning the maze than do the offspring of the “bright” strain (Thompson,

1954). In most experiments of this type, of course, the behaviors that respond

so dramatically to selection are relatively simple as compared with human in-

telligence, and the experimental selection pressure is severe, so the implications

of such findings for the study of human variation should not be overdrawn.

Yet geneticists seem to express little doubt that many behavioral traits in

humans would respond similarly to genetic selection. Three eminent geneticists

(James F. Crow, James V. Neel, and Curt Stern) of the National Academy of

Sciences recently prepared a “position statement,” which was generally hedged

by extreme caution and understatement, that asserted: “Animal experiments

have shown that almost any trait can be changed by selection. . . . A selection

program to increase human intelligence (or whatever is measured by various

kinds of ‘intelligence’ tests) would almost certainly be successful in some measure.

The same is probably true for other behavioral traits. The rate of increase would

be somewhat unpredictable, but there is little doubt that there would be prog-

ress” (National Academy of Sciences, 1967, p. 893).

pretty inteteresting!

 

-

 

For some human characteristics the degree of assortative mating is effectively

zero. This is true of fingerprint ridges, for example. Men and women are ob-

viously not attracted to one another on the basis of their fingerprints. Height,

however, has an assortative mating coefficient (i.e., the correlation between

mates) of about .30. The IQ, interestingly enough, shows a higher degree of as-

sortative mating in our society than any other measurable human characteristic.

I have surveyed the literature on this point, based on studies in Europe and

North America, and find that the correlation between spouses’ intelligence test

scores averages close to +.6o. Thus, spouses are more alike in intelligence than

brothers and sisters, who are correlated about .50.

As Eckland (1967) has pointed out, this high correlation between marriage

partners does not come about solely because men and women are such excellent

judges of one another’s intelligence, but because mate selection is greatly aided

by the highly visible selective processes of the educational system and the occu-

pational hierarchy. Here is a striking instance of how educational and social

factors can have far-reaching genetic consequences in the population. One

would predict, for example, that in preliterate or preindustrial societies as-

sortative mating with respect to intelligence would be markedly less than it is

in modern industrial societies. The educational screening mechanisms and socio-

economic stratification by which intelligence becomes more readily visible would

not exist, and other traits of more visible importance to the society would take

precedence over intelligence as a basis for assortative mating. Even in our own

society, there may well be differential degrees of assortative mating in different

segments of the population, probably related to their opportunities for educa-

tional and occupational selection. When any large and socially insulated group

is not subject to the social and educational circumstances that lead to a high

degree of assortative mating for intelligence, there should be important genetic

consequences. One possible consequence is some reduction of the group’s ability,

not as individuals but as a group, to compete intellectually. Thus probably one

of the most cogent arguments for society’s promoting full equality of educational,

occupational, and economic opportunity lies in the possible genetic consequences

of these social institutions.

 

pretty high numbers?! perhaps the effect is less strong now a days?

 

-

 

Effects of Inbreeding on Intelligence

One of the most impressive lines of evidence for the involvement of genetic fac-

tors in intelligence comes from study of the effects of inbreeding, that is, the

mating of relatives. In the case of polygenic characteristics the direction of the

effect of inbreeding is predictable from purely genetic considerations. All in-

dividuals carry in their chromosomes a number of mutant or defective genes.

These genes are almost always recessive, so they have no effect on the phenotype

unless by rare chance they match up with another mutant gene at the same locus

on a homologous chromosome; in other words, the recessive mutant gene at a

given locus must be inherited from both the father and mother in order to affect

the phenotype. Since such mutants are usually defective, they do not enhance

the phenotypic expression of the characteristic but usually degrade it. And for

polygenic characteristics we would expect such mutants to lower the metric value

of the characteristics by graded amounts, depending upon the number of paired

mutant recessives. If the parents are genetically related, there is a greatly in-

creased probability that the mutant recessives at given loci will be paired in the

offspring. The situation is illustrated in Figure 8, which depicts in a simplified

way a pair of homologous chromosomes inherited by an individual from a moth-

er (M) and father (F) who are related (Pair A) and a pair of chromosomes

inherited from unrelated parents (Pair B). The blackened spaces represent reces-

sive genes. Although both pairs contain equal numbers of recessives, more of

them are at the same loci in Pair A than in Pair B. Only the paired genes degrade

the characteristics’ phenotypic value.

 

A most valuable study of this genetic phenomenon with respect to intelli-

gence was carried out in Japan after World War II by Schuil and Neel (1965).

The study illustrates how strictly sociological factors, such as mate selection, can

have extremely important genetic consequences. In Japan approximately five

percent of all marriages are between cousins. Schuil and Neel studied the

offspring of marriages of first cousins, first cousins once removed, and

second cousins. The parents were statistically matched with a control group of

unrelated parents for age and socioeconomic factors. Children from the cousin

marriages and the control children from unrelated parents (total N = 2,111)

were given the Japanese version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

(WISC). The degree of consanguinity represented by the cousin marriages in

this study had the effect of depressing WISC IQs by an average of 7.4 percent,

making the mean of the inbred group nearly 8 IQ points lower than the mean of

the control group. Assuming normal distributions of IQ, the effect is shown in

Figure 9, and illustrates the point that the most drastic consequences of group

mean differences are to be seen in the tails of the distributions. In the same study

a similar depressing effect was found for other polygenic characteristics such as

several anthropometric and dental variables.

 

The mating of relatives closer than cousins can produce a markedly greater

reduction in offspring’s IQs. Lindzey (1967) has reported that almost half of a

group of children born to so-called nuclear incest matings (brother-sister or

father-daughter) could not be placed for adoption because of mental retarda-

tion and other severe defects which had a relatively low incidence among the

offspring of unrelated parents who were matched with the incestuous parents in

intelligence, socioeconomic status, age, weight, and stature. In any geographi-

cally confined population where social or legal regulations on mating are lax,

where individuals’ paternity is often dubious, and where the proportion of half–

siblings within the same age groups is high, we would expect more inadvertent

inbreeding, with its unfavorable genetic consequences, than in a population in

which these conditions exist to a lesser degree.

 

surprising that the effects are so large.

 

consider the effect this has on the world IQ average given data such as: www.consang.net/index.php/Global_prevalence

via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage#Middle_East_2

 

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Abdominal Decompression.

There is now evidence that certain manipulations

of the intrauterine environment can affect the infant’s behavioral development

for many months after birth. A technique known as abdominal decompression

was invented by a professor of obstetrics (Heyns, 1963), originally for the pur-

pose of making women experience less discomfort in the latter months of their

pregnancy and also to facilitate labor and delivery. For about an hour a day

during the last three or four months of pregnancy, the woman is placed in a de-

vice that creates a partial vacuum around her abdomen, which greatly reduces

the intrauterine pressure. The device is used during labor up to the moment of

delivery. Heyns has applied this device to more than 400 women. Their infants,

as compared with control groups who have not received this treatment, show more

rapid development in their first two years and manifest an overall superiority in

tests of perceptual-motor development. They sit up earlier, walk earlier, talk

earlier, and appear generally more precocious than their own siblings or other

children whose mothers were not so treated. At two years of age the children in

Heyns’ experiment had DQs (developmental quotients) some 30 points higher

than the control children (in the general population the mean DQ is 100, with

a standard deviation of 15). Heyns explains the effects of maternal abdominal

decompression on the child’s early development in terms of the reduction of intra-

uterine pressure, which results in a more optimal blood supply to the fetus and

also lessens the chances of brain damage during labor. (The intrauterine pres-

sure on the infant’s head is reduced from about 22 pounds to 8 pounds.) Re-

sults on children’s later IQs have not been published, but correspondence with

Professor Heyns and verbal reports from visitors to his laboratory inform me that

there is no evidence that the IQ of these children is appreciably higher beyond

age 6 than that of control groups. If this observation is confirmed by the proper

methods, it should not be too surprising in view of the negligible correlations

normally found between DQs and later IQs. But since abdominal decompression

results in infant precocity, one may wonder to what extent differences in intra-

uterine pressure are responsible for normal individual and group differences in

infant precocity. Negro infants, for example, are more precocious in develop-

ment (as measured on the Bayley Scales) in their first year or two than Caucasian

infants (Bayley, 1965a). Infant precocity would seem to be associated with more

optimal intrauterine and perinatal conditions. This conjecture is consistent with

the finding that infants whose prenatal and perinatal histories would make them

suspect of some degree of brain damage show lower DQs on the Bayley Scales

than normal infants (Honzik, 1962). Writers who place great emphasis on the

hypothesis of inadequate prenatal care and complications of pregnancy to account

for the lower average IQ of Negroes (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1967) are also obliged

to explain why these unfavorable factors do not also depress the DQ below

average in Negro infants, as do such factors as brain damage and prenatal and

infant malnutrition (Cravioto, 1966). Since all such environmental factors

should lower the heritability of intelligence in any segment of the population

in which they are hypothesized to play an especially significant role, one way to

test the hypothesis would be to compare the heritability of intelligence in that

segment of the population for which extra environmental factors are hypothe-

sized with the heritability in other groups for whom environmental factors are

supposedly less accountable for IQ variance.

 

never heard of this before

 

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Prematurity.

The literature on the relationship of premature birth to the child’s

IQ is confusing and conflicting. Guilford (1967), in his recent book on The

Nature of Intelligence, for example, concluded, as did Stoddard (1943), that

prematurity has no effect on intelligence. Stott (1966), on the other hand, pre-

sents impressive evidence of very significant IQ decrements associated with pre-

maturity. Probably the most thorough review of the subject I have found, by

Kushlick (1966), helps to resolve these conflicting opinions. There is little ques-

tion that prematurity has the strongest known relation to brain dysfunction of

any reproductive factor, and many of the complications of pregnancy are strongly

associated with the production of premature children. The crucial factor in pre-

maturity, however, is not prematurity per se, but low birth-weight. Birth-weight

apparently acts as a threshold variable with respect to intellectual impairment.

All studies of birth-weight agree in showing that the incidence of babies weighing

less than 5-1/2 lbs. increases from higher to lower social classes. But only about

1 percent of the total variance of birth-weight is accounted for by socioeconomic

variables. Race (Negro versus white) has an effect on birth-weight independently

of socioeconomic variables. Negro babies mature at a lower birth-weight than

white babies (Naylor & Myrianthopoulos, 1967). If prematurity is defined as a

condition in which birth-weight is under 5-1/2 lbs., the observed relationship

between prematurity and depression of the IQ is due to the common factor of low

social class. Kushlick (1966, p. 143) concludes that it is only among children

having birth-weights under 3 lbs. that the mean IQ is lowered, independently

of social class, and more in boys than in girls. The incidence of extreme subnor-

mality is higher for children with birth-weights under 3 or 4 lbs. But when one

does not count these extreme cases (IQs below 50), the effects of prematurity or

low birth-weight—even as low as 3 lbs.—have a very weak relationship to chil-

dren’s IQs by the time they are of school age. The association between very low

birth-weight and extreme mental subnormality raises the question of whether

the low birth-weight causes the abnormality or whether the abnormality arises

independently and causes the low birth-weight.

 

Prematurity and low birth-weight have a markedly higher incidence among

Negroes than among whites. That birth-weight differences per se are not a pre-

dominant factor in Negro-white IQ differences, however, is suggested by the find-

ings of a study which compared Negro and white premature children matched for

birth-weight. The Negro children in all weight groups performed significantly

less well on mental tests at 3 and 5 years of age than the white children of com-

parable birth-weight (Hardy, 1965, p. 51).

 

isnt it rather that blacks hav shorter gestation times relative to whites? not that they get more premature births. well, premature compared to white standards, but thats not a good way of looking at it. one might as well say that whites have many postmature births compared to blacks.

 

 

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Birth Order.

Order of birth contributes a significant proportion of the variance in

mental ability. On the average, first-born children are superior in almost every

way, mentally and physically. This is the consistent finding of many studies (Altus,

1966) but as yet the phenomenon remains unexplained. (Rimland [1964, pp.

140-143] has put forth some interesting hypotheses to explain the superiority of

the first-born.) Since the first-born effect is found throughout all social classes

in many countries and has shown up in studies over the past 80 years (it was first

noted by Galton), it is probably a biological rather than a social-psychological

phenomenon. It is almost certainly not a genetic effect. (It would tend to make

for slightly lower estimates of heritability based on sibling comparisons.) It is

one of the sources of environmental variance in ability without any significant

postnatal environmental correlates. No way is known for giving later-born chil-

dren the same advantage. The disadvantage of being later-born, however, is very

slight and shows up conspicuously only in the extreme upper tail of the distribu-

tion of achievements. For example, there is a disproportionate number of first-

born individuals whose biographies appear in Who’s Who and in the Encyclope-

dia Britannica.

 

thats interesting. it immediately comes to mind that birth order has a storng effect on male homosexuality as well. so, this wud mean that male homosexuality and lower g shud be somewhat related.

 

see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_birth_order_and_male_sexual_orientation

 

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Nutrition.

Since the human brain attains 70 percent of its maximum adult weight

in the first year after birth, it should not be surprising that prenatal and infant

nutrition can have significant effects on brain development. Brain growth is

largely a process of protein synthesis. During the prenatal period and the first

postnatal year the brain normally absorbs large amounts of protein nutrients

and grows at the average rate of 1 to 2 milligrams per minute (Stoch & Smythe,

1963; Cravioto, 1966).

 

Severe undernutrition before two or three years of age, especially a lack of

proteins and the vitamins and minerals essential for their anabolism, results in

lowered intelligence. Stoch and Smythe (1963) found, for example, that extreme-

ly malnourished South African colored children were some 20 points lower in IQ

than children of similar parents who had not suffered from malnutrition. The

difference between the undernourished group and the control group in DQ and

IQ over the age range from 1 year to 8 years was practically constant. If under-

nutrition takes a toll, it takes it early, as shown by the lower DQs at 1 year and

the absence of any increase in the decrement at later ages. Undernutrition occur-

ring for the first time in older children seems to have no permanent effect. Se-

verely malnourished war prisoners, for example, function intellectually at their

expected level when they are returned to normal living conditions. The study

by Stoch and Smythe, like several others (Cravioto, 1966; Scrimshaw, 1968), also

revealed that the undernourished children had smaller stature and head circum-

ference than the control children. Although there is no correlation between in-

telligence and head circumference in normally nourished children, there is a

positive correlation between these factors in groups whose numbers suffer varying

degrees of undernutrition early in life. Undernutrition also increases the corre-

lation between intelligence and physical stature. These correlations provide us

with an index which could aid the study of IQ deficits due to undernutrition in

selected populations.

 

this seems to hav been proven wrong. there is a correlation, but its small, about 0.20. see:

Rushton, J. P., & Ankney, C. D. (2009). Whole-brain size and general mental ability: A review. International Journal of Neuroscience, 119, 691-731.

 

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Race Differences

The important distinction between the individual and the population must al-

ways be kept clearly in mind in any discussion of racial differences in mental

abilities or any other behavioral characteristics. Whenever we select a person for

some special educational purpose, whether for special instruction in a grade–

school class for children with learning problems, or for a “gifted” class with an

advanced curriculum, or for college attendance, or for admission to graduate

training or a professional school, we are selecting an individual, and we are se-

lecting him and dealing with him as an individual for reasons of his individual-

ity. Similarly, when we employ someone, or promote someone in his occupation,

or give some special award or honor to someone for his accomplishments, we are

doing this to an individual. The variables of social class, race, and national origin

are correlated so imperfectly with any of the valid criteria on which the above de-

cisions should depend, or, for that matter, with any behavioral characteristic,

that these background factors are irrelevant as a basis for dealing with individuals

—as students, as employees, as neighbors. Furthermore, since, as far as we know,

the full range of human talents is represented in all the major races of man and

in all socioeconomic levels, it is unjust to allow the mere fact of an individual’s

racial or social background to affect the treatment accorded to him. All persons

rightfully must be regarded on the basis of their individual qualities and merits,

and all social, educational, and economic institutions must have built into them

the mechanisms for insuring and maximizing the treatment of persons according

to their individual behavior.

 

Jensen was an evil bigot, right, right? …

 

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Another aspect of the distribution of IQs in the Negro population is their

lesser variance in comparison to the white distribution. This shows up in most

of the studies reviewed by Shuey. The best single estimate is probably the estimate

based on a large normative study of Stanford-Binet IQs of Negro school chil-

dren in five Southeastern states, by Kennedy, Van De Riet, and White (1963).

They found the SD of Negro children’s IQs to be 12.4, as compared with 16.4 in

the white normative sample. The Negro distribution thus has only about 60 per-

cent as much variance (i.e., SD²) as the white distribution.

 

There is an increasing realization among students of the psychology of the dis-

advantaged that the discrepancy in their average performance cannot be com-

pletely or directly attributed to discrimination or inequalities in education. It

seems not unreasonable, in view of the fact that intelligence variation has a large

genetic component, to hypothesize that genetic factors may play a part in this

picture. But such an hypothesis is anathema to many social scientists. The idea

that the lower average intelligence and scholastic performance of Negroes

could involve, not only environmental, but also genetic, factors has indeed been

strongly denounced (e.g., Pettigrew, 1964). But it has been neither contradicted

nor discredited by evidence.

 

The fact that a reasonable hypothesis has not been rigorously proved does not

mean that it should be summarily dismissed. It only means that we need more

appropriate research for putting it to the test. I believe such definitive research

is entirely possible but has not yet been done. So all we are left with are various

lines of evidence, no one of which is definitive alone, but which, viewed all to-

gether, make it a not unreasonable hypothesis that genetic factors are strongly

implicated in the average Negro-white intelligence difference. The preponderance

of the evidence is, in my opinion, less consistent with a strictly environmental

hypothesis than with a genetic hypothesis, which, of course, does not exclude the

influence of environment or its interaction with genetic factors.

 

1) the smaller SD might be due to bad sampling. if the sample is not representative, that might explain it. if that is the case, one shud observe some more non-normality in the data, probably with a loss of people in the low end, say -1-2 SD, so around 55-70.

 

2) i think the proponderance of the evidence today is really strong. so strong that a purely environmental theory cannot be rationally held.

 

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It has been argued by Harry and Margaret Harlow that “human beings in our

world today have no more, or little more, than the absolute minimal intellec-

tual endowment necessary for achieving the civilization we know today” (Harlow

& Harlow, 1962, p. 34). They depict where we would probably be if man’s average

genetic endowment for intelligence had never risen above the level corresponding

to IQ 75: “. . . the geniuses would barely exceed our normal or average level;

comparatively few would be equivalent in ability to our average high school

graduates. There would be no individuals with the normal intellectual capacities

essential for making major discoveries, and there could be no civilization as we

know it.”

 

It may well be true that the kind of ability we now call intelligence was needed

in a certain percentage of the human population for our civilization to have

arisen. But while a small minority—perhaps only one or two percent—of highly

gifted individuals were needed to advance civilization, the vast majority were

able to assimilate the consequences of these advances. It may take a Leibnitz or

a Newton to invent the calculus, but almost any college student can learn it and

use it.

 

Since intelligence (meaning g) is not the whole of human abilities, there may

be some fallacy and some danger in making it the sine qua non of fitness to play

a productive role in modern society. We should not assume certain ability re-

quirements for a job without establishing these requirements as a fact. How often

do employment tests, Civil Service examinations, the requirement of a high school

89 diploma, and the like, constitute hurdles that are irrelevant to actual perfor-

mance on the job for which they are intended as a screening device? Before going

overboard in deploring the fact that disadvantaged minority groups fail to clear

many of the hurdles that are set up for certain jobs, we should determine whether

the educational and mental test barriers that stand at the entrance to many of

these employment opportunities are actually relevant. They may be relevant only

in the correlational sense that the test predicts success on the job, in which case

we should also know whether the test measures the ability actually required on

the job or measures only characteristics that happen to be correlated with some

third factor which is really essential for job performance. Changing people in

terms of the really essential requirements of a given job may be much more fea-

sible than trying to increase their abstract intelligence or level of performance

in academic subjects so that they can pass irrelevant tests.

 

good point.

 

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