Introduction
The following section contains a list of keywords, important terms, and personalities central to the controversy of IQ, its measurement, and its use. The list is not intended for a top down reading but is to serve as an appendix for the rest of the website.
Appendix:
g: General intelligence factor(g), a factor proposed by Charles Spearman as a measure of general cognitive ability. though sometimes used interchangeably with IQ the two measures are not necessarily correlated (Colom et.al: 2001).
g factor: A factor that correlates positively with g, meaning more of a factor assures a higher g making you better at a given (cognitive) task.
Flynn effect: Tendency for IQ to rise over generations as found in James R Flynn’s paper “IQ tests and what IQ test measure” (Flynn 1987:187)
Jensen effect: Jensen effect is when there are a connection between g and a variable, in our case a connection between IQ and g. Or as explained by J. Philippe Rushton (1998):
g factor: A factor that correlates positively with g, meaning more of a factor assures a higher g making you better at a given (cognitive) task.
Flynn effect: Tendency for IQ to rise over generations as found in James R Flynn’s paper “IQ tests and what IQ test measure” (Flynn 1987:187)
Jensen effect: Jensen effect is when there are a connection between g and a variable, in our case a connection between IQ and g. Or as explained by J. Philippe Rushton (1998):
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”But perhaps Jensen's greatest legacy to science will be his pioneering method of correlated vectors which subsumes, under a much broader principle, his famous (1969a) hypothesis about the heritability of the Black-White IQ gap and, as Osborne (1980) dubbed it the spearman-Jensen hypothesis that Black -White IQ difference are greatest on the g-factor. Jensen's method of correlated vectors demonstrates that g (specifically a test's g loading) is the best predictor of that test's correlation with a given variable.” (Rushton 1998)
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Charles Edward Spearman (1863-1945):
Was a British professor of psychology at university of London, famed for useing factor analysis to argue for a two factor model of intelligence.
He found that In general, all “branches of intellectual activity” seems to have a cluster of general factors in common, capable of explaining ability, he named this factor g, He is historically a central actor of the controversy, primarily for his g factor hypothesis.
James D. Watson:
Most famous for his nobel prize and co-discovery of DNA in 1953, Watson is found in this network study in relation to comments of his, about genetically determined behavior and a willingness to do genetic engineering as a general and common procedure. In an interview with new scientist, he argued that genetics does account for some of the lowest intelligence and that he wanted to “get rid of that to help the lower 10 %”. He also made some controversial comments about race and intelligence.
Genetics:
Genetics typically references to biologically heritable traits. The studies of this topic is typically about DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) which is the way a body “stores” the “information” when it is not used to create the cells of the body.
In our Hyphe network the main authority with relation to genetics and our most referenced node is National Institute of Health (NIH). NIH own information site on genetics and Intelligence has several mentions of IQ and describes intelligence to be determined 50/50 between genetics and environment.
Environment:
While never elaborated upon or specifically defined by the network actors, the term is used to describe the surroundings and the influence one's upbringing has on one's later life.
It is furthermore often specified that the socio-economic environment has a particularly remarkable influence on IQ, either directly or indirectly through upbringing.
IQ + IQ testing:
IQ is short for intelligence quotient, and is designed to be a measure of intelligence. To find ones quotient one fills out a form or one of several other type of standardized test, to the best of one's ability. Depending on how well the person does, the person is assigned a number denoting how well the test was done. The median or the average for the population is designed to be 100. Where the average distance one is from the median is 15, meaning most people lie in between 100 +/- 15. This distance is also the standard error or SD for short.
Debate arose in the 1980 about how well any of the tests actually described intelligence as can be read below in the quote by the major academic actor James Flynn on IQ:
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“Now, to describe the actual situation: The Ravens test matches the evidential ideal; the Wechsler, CTMM (a stand-in for the Stanford-Binet), and Otis tests, as well as various verbal and math subtests, all fall short primarily because of a lack of data from mature subjects; the Shapes data are from a limited time period, the Jenkins data are tentative,and there are no data for the Cattell, that is, none from this generation.Therefore, the conclusion as applied to all IQ tests is tentative. However, until the matter is settled, psychologists should stop saying that IQ tests measure intelligence. They should say that IQ tests measure abstract problem-solving ability (APSA), a term that accurately conveys our ignorance” (Flynn 1987:188)
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As noted in the quotation, Flynn doesn’t think IQ measures intelligence.
In this study there is a broad agreement on what IQ is and the IQ test as a technology, but there is little agreement on what makes a higher or lower IQ, so to speak “why is the IQ that and what does it mean”.
Another uncertainty is “what IQ then can be used for?” a question with an answer largely dependent on the question above. As such the two biggest disagreeing factions, are those who consider environmental factors to be the most important in explaining IQ, and those who consider IQ dependency to be a genetic matter. The latter faction being the largest in our networks.
Other political questions is also tied closely to IQ such as: Some argue that since IQ depends on genes immigration will lower the national IQ of the receiving county if, immigration from such a county is allowed. The enviroment group however thinks it access to education for example, and therefore it should not be limitedo on this basis.
Twin studies:
As the name suggests, “twin studies” generally refer to any study of twins and especially identical twins. This type of study is often done since twins share the same genes, were normal siblings only share about 50%. The idea being that if the genetics are the same, any observed difference must be due to environmental factors.
A big authority in our network (as measured by many incoming references) American Psychological Association(APA on maps) has this description on their website:
In this study there is a broad agreement on what IQ is and the IQ test as a technology, but there is little agreement on what makes a higher or lower IQ, so to speak “why is the IQ that and what does it mean”.
Another uncertainty is “what IQ then can be used for?” a question with an answer largely dependent on the question above. As such the two biggest disagreeing factions, are those who consider environmental factors to be the most important in explaining IQ, and those who consider IQ dependency to be a genetic matter. The latter faction being the largest in our networks.
Other political questions is also tied closely to IQ such as: Some argue that since IQ depends on genes immigration will lower the national IQ of the receiving county if, immigration from such a county is allowed. The enviroment group however thinks it access to education for example, and therefore it should not be limitedo on this basis.
Twin studies:
As the name suggests, “twin studies” generally refer to any study of twins and especially identical twins. This type of study is often done since twins share the same genes, were normal siblings only share about 50%. The idea being that if the genetics are the same, any observed difference must be due to environmental factors.
A big authority in our network (as measured by many incoming references) American Psychological Association(APA on maps) has this description on their website:
Soft and Hard science:
The terming of soft and hard science is a rather nonchalant categorisation originally relating to a hierarchy of the sciences proposed by Auguste Comte. With hard science at the top represented by physics as the hardest science, and social science at the bottom as the softest (Smith et.al 2000:73). Here typically it is a distinction between sciences using numbers such as statistics and sciences using more qualitative measurements such as interviews.
Black box:
Black box according to Latour is a word cybernetics use when a piece of machinery is too complex to draw. They then draw a little box where an input and output comes out, but the process going on is not known. The information is so to speak hidden. Making a piece of information unknown is central to how the term black box is used on this site to describe happenings, processes or methods (Latour 1987:3).