# In the Know  ## Metadata - Author: [[Russell T. Warne]] - Full Title: In the Know - Category: #books ## Highlights - Intelligence is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings – “catching on,” “making sense” of things, or “figuring out” what to do. (Gottfredson, 1997a, p. 13) ([Location 454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=454)) - Most famous in this avenue of research was The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, published in 1994 by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray. In this book, the authors argued that many disparities in social outcomes were better explained by differences in IQ than by socioeconomic differences. This conclusion – despite the firestorm of controversy the book stirred up at the time – is in line with the consensus position of intelligence experts today. ([Location 1148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=1148)) - The idea that intelligence is just a set of arbitrarily chosen tasks that are thrown together on an intelligence test is simply not true. ([Location 1331](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=1331)) - In fact, it is impossible to pull a g factor out of a set of data unless the variables all intercorrelate with one another. Thus, the existence of g is dependent on the positive manifold. If there is no positive manifold, there is no g, and intelligence is not a unitary entity. ([Location 1423](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=1423)) - Despite searching for over 100 years, no one has ever found a cognitive variable that was uncorrelated with other cognitive variables or a test that consistently produces multiple factors. This is extremely strong evidence that intelligence is one entity. ([Location 1430](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=1430)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Note: Spiritual awareness - Once enough data had been amassed, though, some neuroscientists who study intelligence could create theories about how g arises from the brain. The leading theory today is called the Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT). ([Location 1621](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=1621)) - Rather, they touch upon four incorrect claims that are often made about intelligence tests: Intelligence is difficult to measure (Chapter 7). The questions on intelligence tests are trivial and therefore cannot measure something as important as intelligence (Chapter 8). Because intelligence tests are imperfect, research based on IQ scores cannot be trusted (Chapter 9). Intelligence tests are biased against racially diverse populations (Chapter 10). ([Location 2470](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=2470)) - common rule of thumb is that reliability should be at least .70 for scores that will only be used for research purposes. Reliability of .85 or .90 might be necessary for diagnostic purposes. And when scores are to be used for a decision that is extremely important and/or irrevocable – like whether someone is mentally competent to be stand trial – then reliability should be at least .97. ([Location 2634](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=2634)) - indigenous communities who have had more contact with Europeans should score higher than people in communities in the same nation who have had less contact. However, this is not the case (Porteus, 1965). ([Location 3155](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=3155)) - Discussing the same evidence, Mackintosh (2011, p. 29) stated that the correlations are so weak that the idea that intelligence tests measure socioeconomic status “is a singularly foolish assertion.” I agree. ([Location 3466](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=3466)) - Correlations in IQ scores among relatives show evidence of a genetic influence on intelligence. For identical twins (who share 100% of their genes), the correlation between their IQ scores is r = .86; the fact that this value is not r = 1.00 indicates that genes are not the only factor determining IQ scores. ([Location 3525](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=3525)) - But there are simple interventions that correct this highly heritable trait: eyeglasses and contact lenses. Thus, it is possible to change the environment to improve people’s functioning, even if a trait is highly heritable. ([Location 3685](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=3685)) - children develop, untreated PKU causes intellectual disability and other neurological problems. However, by eating a special diet of foods with little or no phenylalanine, people with PKU develop completely normally. This is more proof that high heritability does not mean that people are condemned to live the life dictated by their genes. ([Location 3692](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=3692)) - IQ score increases of 3 points per decade is a lot. This would indicate that a person with an average IQ of 100 from 1970 who had traveled through time to 2020 would only score 85 compared to a twenty-first-century population. A person of average intelligence from 1920 if transported through time to today would score 70, which is about the average IQ for people with Down’s Syndrome and the approximate cutoff for being diagnosed with an intellectual disability.2 Projecting this trend further back in time produces results that simply don’t match reality if these IQ score increases were the result of a real rise in intelligence. ([Location 4020](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=4020)) - Strong evidence indicates that keeping people in school longer results in higher IQ (Ceci, 1991; Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018). Education has been a wildly successful social intervention to raise IQ, and it is likely to be the cause for some of the IQ gains seen in the Flynn effect (see Chapter 14). Another social intervention is adoption, which raises IQ by approximately 4–5 points (Jensen, 1998; Kendler et al., 2015). ([Location 4228](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=4228)) - Unfortunately, one recent study showed that 59% of the general public and 55% of teachers believe that classical music increases children’s reasoning ability (Macdonald, Germine, Anderson, Christodoulou, & McGrath, 2017). ([Location 4459](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=4459)) - It is known that requiring someone to stay in school longer raises IQ (Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018), and this is most likely because schooling teaches students how to think, solve problems, and use information (Ceci, 1991). Thus, a targeted intervention designed to teach these very skills could raise intelligence without requiring extensive time in school. 1 ([Location 4539](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=4539)) - The evidence is clear that brain-training interventions do not result in either far transfer or general training (Protzko, 2017b; Redick, 2019; ([Location 4562](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=4562)) - state has ever created a school system that was successful in educating every student to a high level. Yet policy makers believe that this is possible anyway. ([Location 5310](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=5310)) - Educators who understand intelligence recognize that the best option is to perform the ability grouping at the classroom level (i.e., create a class full of advanced learners, a class or two of typical learners, and a class of struggling learners). ([Location 5430](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=5430)) - Psychological traits like motivation, creativity, resiliency, curiosity, industriousness, and ambition can all be important for doing well in school. Non-psychological variables like socioeconomic status, parental involvement in education, a culture that encourages academic competition, and good physical health could also have an impact on a student’s success (Warne, 2016a). Nobody denies this. ([Location 5505](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=5505)) - There are two types of mindset: (a) fixed mindset and (b) growth mindset. Individuals with a fixed mindset about their intelligence believe that their intelligence is static and unchangeable. People with a growth mindset, though, believe that their intelligence can increase if they are motivated, persistent, and studious (Dweck, 2009). ([Location 5651](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=5651)) - But it should be understood that these subtle impacts are not the “profound effects” that Dweck and her colleagues have advertised to the educational establishment. Generally, class time spent on teaching students a growth mindset would probably be better spent on teaching them language arts, mathematics, science, and other academic topics. ([Location 5730](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=5730)) - The most popular theory of creativity posits that it has four components (as described by Almeida, Prieto, Ferrando, Oliveira, & Ferrándiz, 2008): 1. The production of a large number of ideas (called fluency), 2. The ability to produce ideas in different categories (which is labeled flexibility), 3. Originality, which is producing new ideas, and 4. Introducing details and refinements of ideas (called elaboration). ([Location 10877](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08GG93B69&location=10877))