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| Why can't we talk about IQ? | |||||
| 2013-08-13 | |||||
But Cox's assertion is all too common. There is a large discrepancy between what educated laypeople believe about cognitive science and what experts actually know. Journalists are steeped in the lay wisdom, so they are repeatedly surprised when someone forthrightly discusses the real science of mental ability. If that science happens to deal with group differences in average IQ, the journalists' surprise turns into shock and disdain. Experts who speak publicly about IQ differences end up portrayed as weird contrarians at best, and peddlers of racist pseudoscience at worst.
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| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #19 #18 Not everybody gets to be an astronaut when they grow up. Apparently anyone can be president. Heh. Reminds me of a favorite cartoon from many years ago (if it wasn't a Far Side, it should've been): A gorilla teacher tells her classroom full of gorilla kids, "And the really great thing about this jungle of ours is that any one of you can grow up to be King!" And there in the midst of the class sits skinny little Tarzan in his leopardskin. No offense intended to anyone. I don't have a racist bone in my |
| Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 2013-08-13 20:15 |
| #18 Not everybody gets to be an astronaut when they grow up. Apparently anyone can be president. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2013-08-13 18:48 |
| #17 I certainly can't explain or identify the scientific reasons for the phenomenon of Kenyan running prowess. It has been a topic of intense study by exercise physiologists. Genetics (influenced by environmental and evolutionary pressures) has a lot to do with it. Kenyans are smaller, and have disproportionately more slow-twitch muscle fibers - optimal for endurance running. West Africans are bigger, and have disproportionately more fast-twitch muscle fibers - optimal for sprinting. Similarly, blacks are prone to sickle-cell anemia due to a single-gene mutation which confers resistance to malaria (prevalent in Africa); and whites are prone to cystic fibrosis due to a genetic mutation which confers resistance to cholera (prevalent in Europe). Those who are heterozygous for the gene (one mutated, one normal) are healthy and also resistant to infection. Those who are homozygous (both genes have the mutation) are afflicted with chronic illness. Good examples of why it's best to have children with someone who is not from the same gene pool. (Explains a lot about the Muslim world too.) In sum: environment influences genetics, which determines the make-up and function of our bodies. Including our brains. |
| Posted by: RandomJD 2013-08-13 17:22 |
| #16 Two things: First, I think it's doodoo not dodo and second; I saw an IQ test on line that was reputed to be culturally neutral.. First question started out, ""Jefferson has two pounds of hash and four friends..... |
| Posted by: Total War 2013-08-13 15:58 |
| #15 Thanks for your perspective P2k. As for "separating wheat from chaff", AR 600-9 might be a good place to start. A few of these people would have to make multiple trips if told to haul arse. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-08-13 13:57 |
| #14 Re: #12 - Camp Hale (Pando, CO) was the training base for the Tenth Mountain Division in The Big War and it's right at 9,200' high. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2013-08-13 12:09 |
| #13 re:MOS testing Is a carry over from the draft army era. It was a tool for pro pay and promotion. I recall having to do enlisted evals for E2-E4 during that time too. Someone finally figured out that since most of those promotions were local, the people they worked for knew better in determining promotion based upon performance. It was a time [still locked in too many Donk minds] of less than the best and brightest filling the ranks. Your typical senior NCO had a high school degree. So the MOS testing acted as a motivator for a few extra dollars a month when a few extra (pre-inflation) dollars actually meant something. Today your E6-7 pretty much has to have an associates degree and 7-9 a bachelors to be competitive for promotion. The eval reports for those 5 and above should be the discriminator in whether the individual knows his/her MOS skills. If the rater isn't lying then it should work. If the rater is lying, he/she should be among those being given the 'pink slip' for lack of integrity. Given the era of force reductions, that should be enough to separate the wheat from the chaff. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-08-13 10:37 |
| #12 Who said it? "Live like your enemy trains." The strategy in CO is to live (sleep, eat) in places like Leadville (14000), Idaho Springs(9000) or Steamboat Springs (9000) then go down to Denver (6000) or Colorado Springs to train. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2013-08-13 09:46 |
| #11 If you want to see dodo hit the fan, make every senior take it to see the 'curve' that the school is sending out its doors. How about making all the teachers and administrators take it every year? It would be a real RIOT! |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2013-08-13 09:42 |
| #10 Besoeker. the Springs is where you go for serious endurance training because you have less oxygen there and the body adjusts accordingly, giving you an advantage against guys who haven't. If you've had generations doing that, the stronger survive, passing on the distance-running capacities. So the Kenyans have both evolution as a group and high-altitude training for the individual, without having to go anyplace. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2013-08-13 09:19 |
| #9 Any comments on the demise of MOS testing P2K ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-08-13 08:39 |
| #8 Thing about East Africa is that it has altitude. Gee, wonder why the U.S. Olympic training complex is in Colorado Springs, CO? /rhet question As for IQ - back as early in the 70s the military came to the determination that the 'professional' educators where handing out certificates of attendance rather than validation of ability. When you are dealing with a true 'life or death' test, you need a better determination of ability. That's when the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery superseded high school graduation certificates as the means of validation of ability. It validates the piece of paper the high school hands out. You don't need DoE to come up with a CYAWP test to protect their own, DoD already has one to give you a fair measure of ability. If you want to see dodo hit the fan, make every senior take it to see the 'curve' that the school is sending out its doors. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-08-13 08:35 |
| #7 Yes, 'evolution' does take place, I believe both physical and mental. Evolution is just another way of saying specimens with one type of characteristic outbreed other specimens with characteristics less suited to the environment in question. Brawn outbred brains in sub-Saharan Africa. Brains outbred brawn in Europe. If I had to guess, I'd say the early development of civilization in Europe, relative to sub-Saharan Africa, led to the gradual marginalization of violent but dumb specimens (via execution for murder, theft, robbery and so on), whereas anarchy in sub-Saharan Africa meant the smart guys were wiped out. And that initial setback in Africa was probably just the result of a bad roll of the dice, just as Mesopotamians came up with a written language thousands of years before the Celts in the British Isles adopted the Roman alphabet as their own. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2013-08-13 08:30 |
| #6 I ran from the car park to the 'Golden Bee' in the Springs once or twice Richard. Don't think it did a damn thing for me... long term. Yes, 'evolution' does take place, I believe both physical and mental. To deny the one and accept the other ? “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.” ¯ Leon C. Megginson |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-08-13 07:30 |
| #5 besoeker. Did the Bobby Crim Festival of Races--in Flint, MI--back in the day. It's been going on a long time and the signature run is a sanctioned 10-mile. There are others, 5k walks for kids and so forth, all in support of Special Olympics. The Kenyan team is always there and they may as well have a two-mile head start. Thing about East Africa is that it has altitude. Most Africans coming to the Americas were from the West Coast of Africa or the Congo basin. Once you pass the falls line, into the interior, the altitude is substantially higher. So the East Africans, trotting after cattle instead of doing bush farming, were doing so at a higher altitude than their lowland cousins. Note that some endurance athletes train in Colorado Springs to get the same benefit, but they haven't been evolved for generations at that altitude. Still, it helps. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2013-08-13 07:10 |
| #4 the accepted belief of of a professional leftist is that homosexuality is 100% inherited but IQ is 0% inherited |
| Posted by: lord garth 2013-08-13 06:29 |
| #3 Where positive performance outcomes are prevalent, such as in Kenyan marathon running, the results are celebrated, scrutinized, but seldom challenged. Diet, work ethic, altitude, BMI, cattle herding, tribal heritages, attitude and motivation are all fair game for discussion. When negative performance results are identified either in sports or knowledge testing, they tend to be ignored or blamed on a lack of access to inner-city olympic swimming pools or failed educational systems. I certainly can't explain or identify the scientific reasons for the phenomenon of Kenyan running prowess. I can however, identify hypocrisy. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-08-13 06:25 |
| #2 Yeah, and "The Bell Curve" was a work of fiction. |
| Posted by: Count Galeazzo Borgia1382 2013-08-13 04:02 |
| #1 SAT and IQ along with all the other paper tests only measure how well you can take a test. Without being able to measure and test creativity along with knowledge, these are just weak attempts at best. And if you don't agree with me then you're a big poo-poo head. |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2013-08-13 03:06 |