{"id":3859,"date":"2013-06-14T04:56:05","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T03:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/?p=3859"},"modified":"2013-06-14T04:56:05","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T03:56:05","slug":"simple-reaction-times-decline-since-galton-and-consistenly-favor-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/2013\/06\/simple-reaction-times-decline-since-galton-and-consistenly-favor-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple reaction times: decline since Galton, and consistenly favor men"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some time back I read this post http:\/\/charltonteaching.blogspot.dk\/2012\/02\/convincing-objective-and-direct.html pointing out that simple reaction times have increased since the late 1800&#8217;s when Galton first measured them. Since simple reaction times are known to be <em>g<\/em>-loaded, it would seem to indicate that <em>g<\/em> has fallen since then. This obviously fits with dysgenic ideas of Richard Lynn and others.<\/p>\n<p>So I came across:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div id=\"gs_cit0\">Woodley, Michael A., Jan te Nijenhuis, and Raegan Murphy. &#8220;Were the Victorians cleverer than us? The decline in general intelligence estimated from a meta-analysis of the slowing of simple reaction time.&#8221; <em>Intelligence<\/em> (2013).<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/were-the-victorians-smarter-than-us.pdf\">were-the-victorians-smarter-than-us<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>which discusses the idea. However, I also noted that men always averaged a lower RT than women. Possibly due to a higher male <em>g<\/em>. The study did not mention the SD&#8217;s, so I looked up the cited meta-analysis from 2010:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div id=\"gs_cit0\">IRWIN, W. SILVERMAN. &#8220;Simple reaction time: It is not what it used to be.&#8221; <em>American Journal of Psychology<\/em> 123.1 (2010): 39-50.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/simple-reaction-time-not-what-it-use-to-be.pdf\">simple-reaction-time-not-what-it-use-to-be<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And then I sent this email to the authors:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Hey,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I read <em>Were the Victorians cleverer than us? The decline in general intelligence estimated from a meta-analysis of the slowing of simple reaction time<\/em> with interest, for I too had read Bruce Charlton&#8217;s blogpost about the idea. From glancing the table of studies it occurred to me to check to see if one could see a sex difference. As far as I know, no one has used reaction time tests to examine sex differences in <em>g<\/em>. From looking at the tables in the paper, one can see that they are all in favor of men (men have lower reaction times). However, the SD&#8217;s of the studies are not mentioned thus not permitting a test of significance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I therefore looked up Silverman (2010)&#8217;s paper <em>Simple reaction time: It is not what it used to be<\/em>, which fortunately <em>did<\/em> mention the SD&#8217;s of the studies, and even supplied 95%CI&#8217;s. From glancing over them, one can see that in the 7 studies that include both men and women, in 6 of them do the 95%CI&#8217;s not overlap. This seems therefore highly unlikely to be a chance finding, but would seem to have to result from either 1) inadequate representation (of bright women, or dull men), or 2) because men really do average lower reaction times.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Which brings me to the next question: is the relationship between <em>g<\/em> and reaction times the same for men and women? It might be that reaction time is a biased estimator for <em>g <\/em>with respect to men and women, in that a men with a reaction time of n and a women with reaction time m both correspond to the same <em>g<\/em> even while n&lt;m. Does anyone know? Unfortunately we cannot ask Jensen anymore.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If it isn\u2019t a biased indicator, it would seem to be new evidence that men average a higher <em>g<\/em> than women.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Thoughts?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Cheers,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Emil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some time back I read this post http:\/\/charltonteaching.blogspot.dk\/2012\/02\/convincing-objective-and-direct.html pointing out that simple reaction times have increased since the late 1800&#8217;s when Galton first measured them. Since simple reaction times are known to be g-loaded, it would seem to indicate that g has fallen since then. This obviously fits with dysgenic ideas of Richard Lynn and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1839],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychometics","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3862,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859\/revisions\/3862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}