The latest on intelligence comes from Dr. Gardner. You can see a brief description on http://www.partnerstx.org/PC_seven.html He classifies intelligence as having seven components: linguistic or verbal, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, body-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/981019/special_report.how_to_m5b.html
Gardner based his list on findings from neurology, developmental and cognitive psychology, and anthropology. He argued that these intelligences can be shown to be localized in the brain; that they are exhibited in extreme form by idiots savants, prodigies and geniuses; that they have a clear developmental history; and that they are used in the performance of roles that cultures value around the world. In the book's final section, Gardner explored the educational implications of the theory, suggesting ways the intelligences can be exploited and fostered.
Those who hold that intelligence is a single, general ability and those who say it consists of many factors have engaged in a long-standing, bitter debate (although even those who believe in general intelligence say there are many subordinate cognitive abilities).
Any educator or educational administrator worth its salt will tell you that the single best predictors in academic performance are if a child has a nutritious breakfast, and his/her socioeconomic level. The IQ tests are used for prediction of academic performance, and vary from child to child and change over time. As you may note, breakfast is also tied to socioeconomic level. Blacks were limited to low-paying jobs or slavery for a long time. They still have the lowest paying jobs.
Cultural and gender biases in the design also enter into the picture.
It has been established that females have higher ability in verbal intelligence and males in spatial ability. To have the test leaning towards either verbal or spatial abilities would surely change the outcome.
I would be surprised if the same difference in IQ points applies to England or in countries who have effectively abolished slavery in the last 200 years.
I read somewhere that JWs are slightly above the norm in IQ points, but they attribute this to the amount of reading they do. Yet, how smart can you be if you join and stay in a destructive sect, like we did? I also read that they have seven to twelve times more cases of schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia, and neurosis than the general population, but they don't know if people with those mental illnesses had them before they joined the cult, or the cult caused them to develop the illnesses.
A simple search on the web gave me this results, but were not in the original research I did before writing the paragraph I am reading.
http://www.carm.org/jw/mental.htm
You can read a better exposition of it at http://www.caic.org.au/jws/medical/mental.htm
Edited to change place of editing reasons.
Edited to add quotes
Edited by - faraon on 5 August 2002 7:3:39
Edited by - faraon on 5 August 2002 7:5:51
