[lbo-talk] It's the IQ, stupid

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Tue Aug 31 09:12:53 PDT 2004


On Tue, 31 Aug 2004, Carrol Cox wrote:


> I believe that "academic smarts" also tends to correlate with the number
> of TV sets or the number of bathrooms in the familiy home. All the
> correlations in the world can't, it seems to me, establish the existence
> of _g_, and separated from that claim, IQ scores become just one of a
> complex of (I suspect) thousands of correlations. They obviously not
> only correlate but do indicate "test-taking ability," but are not an
> indication of the _reasons_ for test-taking ability, only for the bare
> empirical fact.
>
> Carrol

Yes. I'm just pointing out the correlation. The idea that IQ represents "g" (general mental ability) is becoming less popular in psychology, as more research demonstrates that many types of intelligent behavior are not related to IQ test performance. (It's even showing up in intro textbooks!)

Miles



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