Robert Sternberg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sternberg
Sternberg broke the IQ model by breaking it down analytically. He's had an interesting life since I read his book on Practical IQ and Metaphor. He got a lot of guff but the current right and left brain work of people like Lakoff and McGilchrist and the cognitive branch gives Sternberg support although he may be a bridge rather than a path. REH From: futurework-boun...@lists.uwaterloo.ca [mailto:futurework-boun...@lists.uwaterloo.ca] On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 10:31 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] Study: poverty lowers brain power Interesting stuff, but one thing that seems to be missing in the discussion is something that might be called "hope". When I was a kid back in the 1930's, my family was among the poorest of the poor. My parents had migrated to Canada from Poland in 1928, on the belief that there were more opportunities in Canada than in Central Europe. Well, there really weren't, but there was always hope. My father seemed to forever be climbing a hill to see what was on the other side. What he saw suggested that things were better over there, so we moved, again and again and again. In our family, and in most of the immigrant families we knew, hope sprang eternal. Things were bound to improve if we just kept looking. I would suggest that things aren't like that for the present day poor. They're stuck, and they accept it. They're not concerned about what the future may hold, they're concerned about staying alive in the here and now. Many of them live in huge slums from which there's no way out. Parents feel that way and their kids do to. Why bother doing well at school and boosting your IQ when there isn't really very much you can do with it anyhow? Back in the late 1990's, I spent a month in a vast slum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Going on to higher education was impossible from most young people, so they did what they had to do to stay alive and, in their terms, get ahead. Being part of a gang that dealt drugs was one way of getting ahead. You had to be careful though because rival gangs would cut into each other's territory and young people were often killed. Those who were able to survive, however, often did well financially and were recognized as community leaders. It does make one wonder about IQ tests. The ones our kids take in good schools in good clean neighborhoods depend on what they have learned academically. They emphasize the ability to solve problems that they would encounter in our relatively well to do and safe world. The kids who do well on those test have every reason to hope they can go on to higher education and eventually get a good job. Should you give the same kind of IQ test to kids in the slums of Sao Paulo where issues have more to do with staying alive and being a successful gang member? I don't think so. Ed _____ From: Keith Hudson <keithhudso...@googlemail.com> To: "RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION" <futurework@lists.uwaterloo.ca>; D & N <darna...@shaw.ca> Sent: Friday, August 30, 2013 4:06:12 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Study: poverty lowers brain power Good article by Sheryl Ubelacker about Jiaying Zhao's research, plus the further (excellent) comments by Jiaying's former mentor, Eldar Shafir. What was particularly interesting to me is that an invisible thread of the newly discovered field of epigenetics ran right through the experimental situation. If the subjects had been told that they faced real job repairs, and not fictional ones, then I'm sure that the subsequent decrement in cognitive function would have been greater than a 13-point drop in IQ. Perhaps this is something that Prof Shafir can explore when choosing research topics for his second degree candidates. Keith P.S. I agree with Mike S's comments about future IQ requirements, etc. At 19:42 30/08/2013, you wrote: http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Poverty+lowers+brain+power+making+hard er+figure+ways+escape/8849250/story.html Recently, Mike S. posted a personal piece on intelligence and future job security. He holds the view that those without at least 120 I.Q. will have difficulties finding good work. More recently, I read Canadian stats suggesting the joblessness rate for university grads is only 1.7% lower than for high school grads. The reality of poverty affecting intelligence has come up before, but this was in the morning paper. The study finds that intelligence levels very much appear to be circumstance-related, and not fixed. Though a better system of assessment would more carefully validate creative abilities, old assessment tools are in need of revision. Natalia Poverty lowers brain power, making it harder to figure out ways to escape: study By Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press August 29, 2013 TORONTO - Dealing with poverty takes up so much mental energy that the poor have less brain power for making decisions and taking steps to overcome their financial difficulties, a study suggests. The research, published Thursday in the journal Science, concludes that a person's cognitive abilities can be diminished by such nagging concerns as hanging on to a place to live and having enough money to feed their families. As a result, there is less "mental bandwidth" left over for education, training, time-management and other steps that could help break the cycle of poverty, the researchers contend. "Previous accounts of poverty have blamed the poor for their personal failings, or an environment that is not conducive to success," said Jiaying Zhao of the University of British Columbia, who led the study, conducted while she was a graduate student at Princeton University. "We're arguing that being poor can impair cognitive functioning, which hinders individuals' ability to make good decisions and can cause further poverty," she said. The study had two parts. In the first, about 400 people at a New Jersey mall were randomly selected to take part in a number of standard cognitive and logic tests. The participants' annual family income ranged from $20,000 to $160,000, with a median of $70,000. Subjects took the computer-based tests after being presented with a hypothetical financial problem that they would later have to solve: how they would come up with the money to pay for having their car fixed when the cost was either $150 or $1,500. With the lower amount on their minds, those with low incomes fared as well on the tests as better-off participants. But when the amount was 10 times higher, low-income subjects performed far more poorly on the tests, said Zhao. On average, a person preoccupied with money problems showed a reduction in cognitive function equivalent to a 13-point drop in IQ or the loss of a night's sleep. "It's a big jump," she said of the dip in IQ. "It pushes you from average (intelligence) to borderline (mental disability)." In the second study, the researchers went into the field to test their theory in a real-life situation - with about 460 sugarcane farmers in 54 Indian villages who earn all their yearly income at the time of the annual harvest. "That creates interesting dynamics because in the months before the harvest, they're really poor, they're running out," Zhao said. "Whereas, in the months right after the harvest, they're rich. "So you can literally look within the same individual at how he or she performs when poor versus when rich." The researchers found that farmers showed diminished cognitive performance before getting paid for their harvest, compared to after the sugarcane crop was gathered in, when they had greater wealth. They said these changes in cognitive abilities could not be explained by differences in nutrition, physical exertion or stress. "So the very context of not having enough resources impedes your cognitive function," Zhao said. That reduces a person's mental ability to address elements that could help them break out of poverty, for instance, a higher level of education, a better-paying job and enrolment in social programs to help attain those goals. "You are simply unable to notice those things when you are preoccupied by poverty concerns." The fallout from neglecting other areas of life can exacerbate already trying financial woes, said co-author Eldar Shafir, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton. Late fees tacked onto unpaid rent and other bills or a job lost because of poor time management can make an already-tight money situation worse, Shafir said in a statement. And as people become more impoverished, they tend to make decisions that perpetuate their financial hardship, such as excessive borrowing, he added. The researchers suggest that services for the poor shouldn't "cognitively tax" them. Positive measures could include simpler aid forms, more guidance for receiving assistance, and more flexibly structured training and educational programs. "When (people living in poverty) make mistakes, the outcomes of errors are more dear," Shafir said. "So, if you are poor, you're more error prone and errors cost you more dearly. It's hard to find a way out." Dennis Raphael, a professor of health policy and management at Toronto's York University , said the findings are consistent with previous research on the effects of a lack of "attentional resources" among the poor. "The stuff is concrete, it's biological and it has consequences," Raphael, who was not involved in the study, said Thursday. "The good news is it draws the attention of people and it points out that these things are real and that they're not a result of lifestyle choices. "So it has the potential for placing these individuals and group difficulties into a broader perspective." The downside of the paper is contained in the authors' recommendations that "services for the poor should accommodate the dominance that poverty has on a person's time and thinking ... so that a person who has stumbled can more easily try again," he said. "It draws attention away from the broader public policy and societal issues that many argue are setting the stage for these kinds of problems," including low wages, poor job security and an inadequate social safety net. From: http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/class/Psy301/Salinas/09Intelligence. htm Gardner's Frames of Mind Howard Gardner (1983) proposed a theory of independent multiple intelligences, originally seven of them: 1. Linguistic: abilities to use vocabulary, do verbal analysis, understand metaphors, and comprehend and produce verbal material 2. Musical: understanding and expressing oneself through music and rhythmic movements or dance, or composing, playing, or conducting music 3. Logical-Mathematical: involves numbers and computing skills, recognizing patterns and relationships, timelines, ability to solve different kinds of problems through logic 4. Visual-Spatial: involves visual perception of the environment, ability to create and manipulate mental images, and the orientation of the body in space 5. Bodily-Kinesthetic: physical coordination and dexterity, using fine and gross motor skills, and expressing oneself or learning through physical activities 6. Interpersonal: understanding how to communicate with and understand other people and how to work collaboratively 7. Intrapersonal: understanding one's inner world of emotions and thoughts, and growing in the ability to control them and work with them consciously C. Sternberg's Triarchic Theory Robert Sternberg (1985) proposed in his Triarchic theory that there are three forms of intelligence: analytical, creative and practical. In Sternberg's views current intelligence testing does not test all three forms of intelligence. He holds that current psychometric tests only appreciably tap analytical intelligence which allows an individual to quickly break down problems and be able to see solutions. This form of intelligence also consisted of numerous subcomponents which enabled this analytical ability, but the key is that they all serve the process of analyzing problems. While people high in this form of intelligence can break down problems they do so from the basis of their acquired knowledge. They may not necessarily be good at creating new ideas or knowledge Creative intelligence involves synthetic thinking, the ability to put together knowledge and understanding in new and intuitive ways. Often, individuals with the highest conventionally measured IQs are not good at this form of thinking. And people with high levels of creative intelligence, such as artists, are often unidentified by conventional IQ tests because there are not currently any tests that can sufficiently measure the attributes involved in creating new ideas and solving new problems. In practical intelligence is basically related to street smarts or common sense. It involves the ability to apply creative and analytical intelligence to everyday situations. Those high in practical intelligence are superb in their ability to succeed in any setting. Even if they are limited in their creative and analytical intelligence, they are able to use these skills to their best advantage. In the end, Sternberg reminds us that an individual is not necessarily restricted to having excellence in only one of these three intelligences. Many people may have integrated all three very well and even have high levels of all three intelligences. Gardner came to his point of view because he had come to consider standard tests or other assessments used to measure IQ to be inconclusive. He argued the IQ number did not predict or reflect school outcomes or success in life. Gardner holds each individual has varying levels of these different intelligences, and this accounts fro each person's unique cognitive profile. In a sense, comparing his point of view to Spearman's, Gardener would say there is no G, only S's and those S's are more than just a skill or ability, but an independent form of intelligence unto themselves. _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list Futurework@lists.uwaterloo.ca https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list Futurework@lists.uwaterloo.ca https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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