Iodized salt made Americans smarter

[garbon]

You know, it's also possible that, for some reason, in 1942 the Army started recruiting from a much broader base than they did prior to that.  I wonder what could have happened in late 1941 to cause bright young men to enlist in the army?

Would that account for why IQ went up in low-iodine areas though? Presumably you'd also get an influx in stupid young men too.

[Maximus]

I was just mentioning that I'd seen it.  I place very little value in IQ personally.  It seems to not have much correlation with success in life so I'm not sure what value it actually has.

That wasn't aimed at you in particular, just at the concept of IQ.

That said I don't find it implausible that for example iodine could improve the response times in the brain leading to better results on tests that place a high value on speed (and this could be very useful in the Air Force).

[Valmy]

Really?  You know lots of really successful people with 75 IQs?

I don't know anyone who claims to have an IQ that low.

Probably because having a really low IQ DOES predict that you will probably not be a huge successful in life.  But anyway IQ tests test IQ not success in life so I wonder why you think if it does not do that it has no value.

[Valmy]

This reminds me of a map I saw once that tried to give each nation an IQ score, I think based on the average estimated IQ of its citizens.  IIRC China and Japan had the highest scores, and there were some nations in sub-Saharan Africa where the average IQ was in the mentally retarded range.

Intelligence is highly subjective. It can be useful to try to measure for a specific task or related set of tasks(ie executive skills), but trying to reduce general intelligence to a scalar is a fool's game.

Well right that is it's entire use: measuring specific tasks and skills.  I think way too much gets made of it but it is really useful for what it tests for.

[Caliga]

You could be right, but it's hard for me to say because I don't know the IQ of most people I work/associate with, and am not sure if they know their IQs either.

[Valmy]

You could be right, but it's hard for me to say because I don't know the IQ of most people I work/associate with, and am not sure if they know their IQs either.

I mean generally they are used to determine if children have learning disabilities or impairments and that sort of thing, adults typically do not get IQ tests.  Parents, of course, regard their kid having a high score to mean they are some sort of prodigy which is a bit ridiculous...unless it is my kids in which case

[merithyn]

Intelligence is highly subjective. It can be useful to try to measure for a specific task or related set of tasks(ie executive skills), but trying to reduce general intelligence to a scalar is a fool's game.

I was just mentioning that I'd seen it.  I place very little value in IQ personally.  It seems to not have much correlation with success in life so I'm not sure what value it actually has.

The IQ test was never meant to test how smart a person was, or how high an IQ could be. It was meant to test how dumb, or retarded, a person was. So basically, yeah, any IQ over 100 is pretty much worthless. It has no real value.

[Valmy]

The IQ test was never meant to test how smart a person was, or how high an IQ could be. It was meant to test how dumb, or retarded, a person was. So basically, yeah, any IQ over 100 is pretty much worthless. It has no real value.

Except to parental pride!

But yes the IQ test is supposed to find impaired people so they can get the assistance they need.

[merithyn]

Except to parental pride!

But yes the IQ test is supposed to find impaired people so they can get the assistance they need.

Meh. My experience hasn't been so great on that front. My kids were all tested for the Gifted program, which is basically an IQ test, and they all qualified with an IQ over 125, I think. Jeremy's was over 150. The kids took that to mean that they were smart and didn't need to study. So what if they got bad grades? They were smart! They could do anything! So what if they failed classes? They were smart!

Yeah... so smart that the eldest two dropped out of community college without finishing a single class between them. Neither has any plan in life except to work menial jobs to pay the rent.

Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.

[Valmy]

Except to parental pride!

But yes the IQ test is supposed to find impaired people so they can get the assistance they need.

Meh. My experience hasn't been so great on that front. My kids were all tested for the Gifted program, which is basically an IQ test, and they all qualified with an IQ over 125, I think. Jeremy's was over 150. The kids took that to mean that they were smart and didn't need to study. So what if they got bad grades? They were smart! They could do anything! So what if they failed classes? They were smart!

Yeah... so smart that the eldest two dropped out of community college without finishing a single class between them. Neither has any plan in life except to work menial jobs to pay the rent.

Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.

You sure if they had gotten low scores it would have really lit a fire under their ass?  Getting bad grades sure didn't.

[Caliga]

In my experience gifted programs are pretty much a waste of time and money.  I was in one, and I have at least some idea about how most of the kids in my program have turned out in life (thanks, Facebook!), and I don't really see that we are any more successful than the 'non-gifted' students as a group.  The kids in the gifted program who goofed off and didn't work hard are losers today just like the kids who were not in that program, and the kids who worked hard who weren't in that program are equally successful as the kids who were.  It seems to me like the proportion of losers to non-losers is pretty much the same whether or not you were in our program, too.

That said, the most successful kids of all in my class and the classes around it were all in the program, unless you count the one kid who is a Hollywood actor now and Kermit Cintron, who is a world champion boxer.

[The Brain]

I have been told that IQ tests is a good indicator when hiring people.

[DGuller]

So basically, yeah, any IQ over 100 is pretty much worthless. It has no real value.

The good old liberal confusion between statistics and binary math is in play again.  If R^2 of predictor variable is not 1, it must be zero. 

[garbon]

In my experience gifted programs are pretty much a waste of time and money.  I was in one, and I have at least some idea about how most of the kids in my program have turned out in life (thanks, Facebook!), and I don't really see that we are any more successful than the 'non-gifted' students as a group.  The kids in the gifted program who goofed off and didn't work hard are losers today just like the kids who were not in that program, and the kids who worked hard who weren't in that program are equally successful as the kids who were.  It seems to me like the proportion of losers to non-losers is pretty much the same whether or not you were in our program, too.

That said, the most successful kids of all in my class and the classes around it were all in the program, unless you count the one kid who is a Hollywood actor now and Kermit Cintron, who is a world champion boxer.

I think the only thing that was useful with regards to gifted programs were that they allowed you to do different things that you wouldn't typically be able to do as a student. So I remember while in 3rd grade getting to go see a Shakespeare play or trying out other interests such a programming in basic in middle school. Kept things a little more interesting.

[Caliga]

Yeah, we did stuff like that too.  It was fun, but I'm not sure how much it 'helped' us, really.

FUN FACT:  My school district had two elementary school gifted teachers, who shuffled around between our seven elementary schools.  I found out later in life that they were also a lesbian couple.