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Fluid and Crystallized intelligence:
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Fluid Intelligence AKA "IQ"
- Is how easily/quickly one learns/comprehends patterns / complex tasks.
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This is typically measured via
Raven's Progressive Matrices
Scores are relative, meaning they only mean something when compared to others. Scores are transformed into a normal distribution / bell-curve, where the average is a score of 100, with a standard deviation of 15 (meaning 66% of people will score between 85 and 115).
- Babies have an IQ, else they could never learn anything.
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Crystallized Intelligence
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Is essentially knowledge / memorization (information that one has stored in memory,
regardless of how long it took one to aquire it).
This is what school increases.
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- A newborn child has zero crystallized intelligence (except for ancestral blood knowledge such as how newborn sea turtles know to rush towards the water, AKA instinct).
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Heritability of IQ: 57% to 73%.
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Positive correlation between birth order and IQ (i.e. first-borns have higher IQs than last-borns)
- How health impacts IQ
- Koko the Gorilla:
An abnormally intelligent gorilla.
"The Gorilla Foundation" has a great write-up
of how they teach sign-language and other means of communication
to gorillas. Though they've never asked questions to humans.
- Abnormally intelligent parrots that have asked questions to humans include
Alex
and Apollo.
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Latter-day Saints
(AKA Mormons) are selecting for slightly higher IQ partners (slightly eugenic),
political conservatives for slightly lower IQ partners (slightly dysgenic),
and everyone else for moreso-lower-IQ partners (dysgenic).
Similarly found that conservatives, in general, show a weaker selection against intelligence than do liberals.
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National IQ is the best predictor of economic growth
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The Flynn effect
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During the 19XXs,
many parts of the world experienced both fluid & crystallized intelligence score rises.
The cause(s) are uncertain but suspected to possibly include:
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additional schooling
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improved nutrition
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more stimulating enviroments
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reduction in disease
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reduction in lead-based paint
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reduction in leaded fuels
This effect has stopped in many developed countries, and a "Reverse Flynn effect" has been ongoing (see below).
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Reverse Flynn Effect: Since the 199Xs, IQ scores are decreasing in
Norway, Denmark, Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and German-speaking countries.
The cause is uncertain, but may include:
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(some or all of the) Causes of the Flynn effect have been exhausted (e.g. all lead-based paint has been removed)
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Immigration from lower-IQ higher-TFR countries
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Dysgenic forces/trends are increasing
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Culture (somewhat of a catch all)
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Decline in religion
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Qiran Zhao, Xiaobing Wang, Scott Rozelle
"Better cognition, better school performance? Evidence from primary schools in China"
China Economic Review,
Volume 55,
2019
- Full paper: https://fsi-live.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/better_cognition_better_school_performance.pdf
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10000 primary school students from private migrant schools in (Chinese provinces) Beijing and Suzhou,
and from public rural schools in Henan and Anhui,
were IQ-tested using the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices test.
High rates of developmental delay
(about 33% of the students have Ravens scores that are less than one standard deviation lower than an international mean).
Mean Flynn-adjusted IQ Score of "88.95".
Student cognition is by far the most important factor in their academic achievement.
Image credits
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Image Raven's Progressive Matrices by
Wikimedia user Life of Riley
under license
CC BY-SA 3.0
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Photo Koko the Gorilla by Ron Cohn of the Gorilla Foundation
under fair use.
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Photo Apollo the Parrot by Victoria (Tori) Lacey and Dalton Mason
under license CC BY-SA 4.0