Comments on: 2011 Reader Survey: GNXXP vs. GNXYP edition

By: Mercy

Mercy — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:21:28 +0000

@Mary are you American because I know silver spooners like David Cameron like to say they are middle class to the press, but I’ve always assumed they’d give a different answer if you cornered them at one of their hundred pound a plate dinners. And I think employer glosses to upper class pretty well.

By: EcoPhysioMichelle

EcoPhysioMichelle — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:38:00 +0000

“I could have done THAT with a German Shepherd.”

By: ackbark

ackbark — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:12:31 +0000

#38 “Perhaps, but who cares about brains or looks if the lights are out?”

That’s like rationalizing sex with a hamster.

I think Razib should put a caveat on the question about sex partners to the effect that ‘the people you see in porn are not your sex partners’.

By: Justin Loe

Justin Loe — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:49:13 +0000

@Liesel: I’m not in that financial category, but I’ve found that successful academics and others can be just as reluctant to speak out, even given tenure or secure incomes. Security can lead to complacency and an unwillingness to challenge poor behavior of other professors or co-workers. I don’t necessarily see the class connection in many cases, though I’m not suggesting that everyone post as themselves. My preference is simply different.

Place two people in the same circumstances: one will object to poor treatment and one will not.

@Coemgen: that conversion doesn’t work either. I’ve known a few people who did well at the top end of the verbal and didn’t have those IQs. Standardized WAIS or SB-V is the best solution.

By: Liesel

Liesel — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:05:43 +0000

Oh Justin Loe, were you an “upper class” respondant?

Some have mouths to feed so the employer “not worth working for” does not compute. I cleanned toilets in the past. I don’t know how low I’d go but I would take a petty boss over a lot of other working conditions.

While I understand your desire for openness and defending one’s position publically, I also understand people closely guarding their privacy. Even if the boss would have to be unpleasant to refuse a job based on such things.

By: skatr

skatr — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:08:24 +0000

Justin, being old myself I find your previous entry heartening. However nothing you posted contradicts my previous statements.

By: Coemgen

Coemgen — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:14:17 +0000

Regarding the large number of 140+ I.Q.’s: In addition to “rounding up”, perhaps many responders are using the GRE Verbal+Quantitative to I.Q. conversion. I googled GRE to I.Q. conversions and found that my GRE Verbal+Quantitative to I.Q. conversions yielded I.Q. scores that tend to be nearly 1 SD higher than expected.

I found a website that maps GRE Verbal only scores to I.Q. and, for me, it is nearly “spot on”.

The website http://carrefoursagesse.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/converting-gre-verbal-scores-to-iqs/ has a list of GRE Verbal only scores mapped to “IQ’s”. I’ve taken the GRE twice. My verbal scores were within 5 points of each other. The Carrefours conversions for my GRE Verbal scores are within a fraction of a point of my pre October 1980 U.S. Army GT score.

By: Justin Loe

Justin Loe — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:51:25 +0000

@skatr:
“Rubia et al. (2000) reported increased prefrontal activation with age (9 adolescents aged 12-19 years compared to 8 adults aged 22-40 years).”
Likewise, expert performance was maintained in these examples:
” A sufficient amount of weekly deliberate practice has been shown to allow expert pianists in their 50s and 60s to maintain their piano performances at a comparable level to that of young experts,”: ref:
example: Horowitz, 1986, Moscow, age 83: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7ncjhSqtk
http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2004/10001/Deliberate_Practice_and_the_Acquisition_and.22.aspx/

There’s a list of examples of outstanding performance in mathematics past the age of 50 here: http://mathoverflow.net/questions/25630/major-mathematical-advances-past-age-fifty

By: skatr

skatr — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:19:39 +0000

“quality not quantity? a matter of philosophy”

Perhaps, but who cares about brains or looks if the lights are out?

Seriously though, if one doesn’t marry until they are in their thirties (as one normally shouldn’t) then surely the number of sexual partners a guy would have by then would number at least one or two dozen at the very least. The numbers in your survey make me even happier than I already am that I didn’t go to graduate school. LOL!!!

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:59:21 +0000

#36, quality not quantity? a matter of philosophy

By: skatr

skatr — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:52:32 +0000

“I suspect even more IQ padding here for both males and females than male sexual partner padding, aside from the ones who replied with 150 and 200 partners”

I don’t think 150 to 200 partners is at all unusual for someone who has reached middle age. Despite being informed of studies to the contrary, I remain astounded that the average number of partners for the men is only 4, absolutely astounded. It’s actually a bit pathetic really.

As for IQ, sheer brainpower peaks at around 19 years of age. Many great achievements in math have occurred well before the mathematicians turned 30. Nominal IQs remain high because raw scores are normed to age.

By: Justin Loe

Justin Loe — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:38:21 +0000

“Out of curiosity what’s the relationship typically between adult IQ and youthful IQ?”
@clark One of the better longitudinal studies of IQ is the study based on a sample of 11,000 children who were tested in 1932, and then retested in about 2000 (ref: http://www.psych.umn.edu/courses/spring06/mcguem/psy8935/readings/deary2003.pdf).
A reference in a BBC Horizons program suggested that the retest found a number of cases in which IQs increased by perhaps 15 points in comparison to the 1932 scores.

It is unclear whether (1) those increases simply represent statistical fluctuations in the scores, or (2) whether some people actually did improve their performance. Obviously a finding of this type needs to be replicated. I have no idea whether it has been replicated or not.

By: EcoPhysioMichelle

EcoPhysioMichelle — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 02:49:26 +0000

Baby, there’s padding everywhere. Don’t kid yourself.

By: Miley Cyrax

Miley Cyrax — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 02:14:50 +0000

@clark, 32
“Out of curiosity what’s the relationship typically between adult IQ and youthful IQ?”

I don’t have a number off the top of my head, but lifetime IQ should be quite stable.

“BTW – regarding your explanation of IQ on the previous post. Seems to me that would explain “non-answers” but not necessarily the large number of really high numbers. Beyond just that a lot of very smart people read you. I wonder if, given the males, there’s IQ padding as well as sexual partner padding?”

I suspect even more IQ padding here for both males and females than male sexual partner padding, aside from the ones who replied with 150 and 200 partners, for I imagine more people among the readership here are wannabe intellectual stalwarts than wannabe Casanovas.

By: clark

clark — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:52:18 +0000

Out of curiosity what’s the relationship typically between adult IQ and youthful IQ? Honestly I’ve not taken an IQ test since 11th grade so I just put what I got then. (No – not trying to weasel into a higher IQ. I already have been around enough geniuses at Los Alamos to know I’m not one)

BTW – regarding your explanation of IQ on the previous post. Seems to me that would explain “non-answers” but not necessarily the large number of really high numbers. Beyond just that a lot of very smart people read you. I wonder if, given the males, there’s IQ padding as well as sexual partner padding?