Showing papers in "Mankind Quarterly in 2016"

Gender Differences in School Achievement across Cultures: An Analysis of Results from PISA 2000-2012

Abstract: This study analyzes gender differences in scholastic achievement of 15-year-olds in 75 countries that participated in the OECD’s PISA (Programme of International Student Assessment) tests. The cultural and socioeconomic determinants of three outcome measures were investigated: (1) overall achievement (math, reading, science average); (2) gender-typicality of achievement profiles (higher reading combined with lower math scores for females); and (3) the male/female variance ratio as a measure of the extent to which male scores are more variable than female scores. Females achieved higher reading scores than males in all countries, usually by a wide margin. Males achieved higher mathematics scores in 61 out of 75 countries, and gender differences in science were negligible. Overall achievement was higher for males than females in only 6 countries, 5 of them Latin American, and the variance was higher for males than females in all but three countries. With the exception of the variance ratio, which was higher in advanced economies, the outcomes were virtually unrelated to the level of economic and social development, to measures of different aspects of gender equality in countries, and to measures of gender-related attitudes and beliefs sourced from the World Values Survey. This contradicts earlier reports (e.g., Guiso et al., 2008) reporting higher female relative to male performance in more gender egalitarian societies. For some measures, a trend in the opposite direction was found. Key words: PISA, Sex differences, Mathematics, Reading, Variance ratio

Admixture in the Americas: Regional and National Differences

Abstract: We conducted novel analyses regarding the association between continental racial ancestry, cognitive ability and socioeconomic outcomes across 6 datasets: states of Mexico, states of the United States, states of Brazil, departments of Colombia, sovereign nations and all units together. We find that European ancestry is consistently and usually strongly positively correlated with cognitive ability and socioeconomic outcomes (mean r for cognitive ability = .708; for socioeconomic well-being = .643) (Sections 3-8). In most cases, including another ancestry component, in addition to European ancestry, did not increase predictive power (Section 9). At the national level, the association between European ancestry and outcomes was robust to controls for natural-environmental factors (Section 10). This was not always the case at the regional level (Section 18). It was found that genetic distance did not have predictive power independent of European ancestry (Section 10). Automatic modeling using best subset selection and lasso regression agreed in most cases that European ancestry was a non-redundant predictor (Section 11). Results were robust across 4 different ways of weighting the analyses (Section 12). It was found that the effect of European ancestry on socioeconomic outcomes was mostly mediated by cognitive ability (Section 13). We failed to find evidence of international colorism or culturalism (i.e., neither skin reflectance nor self-reported race/ethnicity showed incremental predictive ability once genomic ancestry had been taken into account) (Section 14). The association between European ancestry and cognitive outcomes was robust across a number of alternative measures of cognitive ability (Section 15). It was found that the general socioeconomic factor was not structurally different in the American sample as compared to the worldwide sample, thus justifying the use of that measure. Using Jensen's method of correlated vectors, it was found that the association between European ancestry and socioeconomic outcomes was stronger on more S factor loaded outcomes, r = .75 (Section 16). There was some evidence that tourist expenditure helped explain the relatively high socioeconomic performance of Caribbean states (Section 17).

The Genealogy of Differences in the Americas

Abstract: In our target article (Fuerst & Kirkegaard, 2016, this issue), we tested the racial-cognitive ability-socioeconomic (R~CA-S) hypothesis (as proposed by, for example: Lynn, 2008). An R~CA-S model attempts to account for the apparent covariance between biogeographic ancestry (BGA) (or race1), cognitive ability and socioeconomic outcomes. It proposes that most of the association between BGA and socioeconomic outcomes is mediated by cognitive ability and that the association between BGA and cognitive ability is, in turn, dependent on factors (for example: culture, genes and epigenes) which are transmitted along genealogical lines. We examined the relation between estimated racial admixture, cognitive ability and socioeconomic outcomes across the 35 sovereign nations of the Americas as well as first-level administrative divisions (states and departments) of 4 nations (USA, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil). Generally, we found strong ecological correlations (r's .5-.8) between European admixture, cognitive ability and S. Cognitive ability was found to statistically mediate the R~S association. Here we reply to the six commentaries on our paper.1. Ibarra: Discrimination as an explanationIbarra (2016) criticizes our paper on the grounds that it represents a "statistical justification for a thesis suspected of racism" and "a regression in everything [the] social sciences have overcome". As part of her critique, she questions:1. Our use of ancestry as a predictor ("Another objection about the study of Fuerst and Kirkegaard is the variable "European ancestry.")2. Our use of measured cognitive ability as a mediator, both because: a. this variable is not inclusive enough. ("PISA assesses three core competencies [...] but not others difficult to quantify and which, according to experts, are essential to meet the challenges of the 21st century: the psychological, moral, civic and artistic development goals.")b. individual (and therefore group) differences in cognitive ability can not have a genetic basis. (The study "falls into the same error as sociobiology, assuming that the genetic makeup determines the cognitive level [...] one wonders after reading the study of Fuerst and Kirkegaard, what sense does it have pretending to demonstrate statistically that ones belonging to a race, or genetic constitution, is related to cognitive abilities?")3. Our use of geographical-environmental factors as controls. ("But what seems to me most objectionable about the study presented by Fuerst and Kirkegaard is their choice of independent variables [...] their attention focuses on two variables which they consider to have a considerable influence on cognitive skills: the climate, and the struggle of the body against parasites [...] there is nothing within the study to justify their choice of these variables in explaining a complex outcome.")4. Our use of S-factor scores as a dependent rather than independent variable. ("The development of cognitive competencies is closely linked to family and school training [...] The outcome of education is a complex subject affected by many variables".)5. Our lack of historical contextualization, meaning our disinclination to interpret the results from the perspective of what van den Berghe (1987) and Fuerst (2015a) called the "anti-racial worldview". ("But in fact, skin color and purity of race are irrelevant in sociological analysis. What is truly relevant is their permanence at the top of the constitution of power and the mechanisms that have assured them such permanence.")From Ibarra's point of view, we are making a grand petitio principii ("This logic departs from what is before us, and it refers back to an origin where the final outcome is pre-formed and predestined..."). She apparently takes it for granted that, on average, individuals within SIRE groups, SIRE groups within regions, administrative units within countries and countries in the New World which have more European ancestry relative to African and Amerindian will, in her words, "show better cognitive skills and significantly higher income than the rest". …

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

Abstract: Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner New York, Random House 2015, 341 pagesWe all rely on forecasts, and one that has become increasingly reliable in recent decades is the weather. Philip Tetlock, a Canadian-American Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, notes in this book that weather forecasts were once much less reliable. People would remember that the forecasts were wrong and meteorologists were placed under pressure to work out how to produce better forecasts, which they have done, at least in terms of short term weather forecasting. But other areas of forecasting -especially politics -are marked by woefully inaccurate predictions. Very few pundits predicted the fall of the Soviet Union, observes Tetlock, let alone the rise of ISIS.In fact, after a twenty years research program between 1984 and 2004, 'experts' on a subject were found to have been roughly as accurate in their predictions as 'a dart throwing chimpanzee.' Where their predictions came to pass, this was a matter of luck rather than judgement. They fared only very slightly better than non-experts. There are numerous organizations out there that make predictions - intelligence agencies or pundits, for example - but nobody seems to keep score. Tetlock was determined to change this and so work out how to make more accurate predictions and discern the kind of people who make them.Superforecasting focuses on the 'Good Judgement Project' which was subsequently spearheaded by Tetlock in 2011 in order to solve this problem. The 'tournament' that it gave birth to lasted for 4 years. It was funded by the US government's Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, stung by the failure to predict the dire consequences of the Iraq war. The project recruited thousands of volunteers who, in return for only token payment, had to spend much of their spare time thinking about and making predictions about geopolitical events. Records of the accuracy of their predictions, over four years, were kept and they were subject to psychological assessment.Tetlock found that there were significant differences in the accuracy of the volunteers' predictions. A small group of them, which he termed 'superforecasters,' were able to predict the future with 60% more accuracy than the average. Tetlock found that this group were a certain psychological type. They were non-dogmatic, taking the view that nothing is certain; highly open-minded and non-attached to particular ideas; above average in intelligence - though extremely high intelligence did not necessarily assist superforecasting; self-critical and relatively good with numbers. They also showed certain modes of behavior. In particular, they were highly analytical in making a probabilistic forecast and might predict that an event was 62% probable rather than 60%, and they would constantly update their forecasts as the facts changed. …

Race Vis-À-Vis Latitude: Their Influence on Intelligence, Infectious Diseases, and Income

Abstract: Fuerst and Kirkegaard (this issue) have done a Herculean job in generating data on the relationships existing between European ancestry and complex cognitive ability (CCA) - the construct measured by IQ scores and/or student achievements in math, reading, and/or science (Rindermann, 2007) - simultaneously considering infectious diseases, socioeconomic outcomes, and other variables in several American countries. Their analytic approach is rigorous and includes lasso regression. But their findings contradict the results of a ministudy of 11 large American countries in which both European ancestry and absolute latitude determined national PISA scores; in that study, whereas the cognitive effects of absolute latitude remained significant when European ancestry was controlled, those of ancestry lost significance when absolute latitude was controlled (Leon, 2015b). Hence, rather than commenting their valuable paper, I decided to resolve the empirical issue by generating new evidence at a higher level of analysis. Neither the study by Leon (2015b) of 11 countries nor the Fuerst and Kirkegaard study of USA state data distinguished between exogenous and endogenous variables. I decided to use fully saturated path models entailing two exogenous and three endogenous variables and targeted US states because in this country latitude has been found to correlate with CCA (Kanazawa, 2006; Leon, 2015a; McDaniel, 2006a, 2006b; Pesta & Posnanski, 2014; Ryan, Bartels, & Townsend, 2010) and other relevant variables, such as infectious diseases (Eppig, Fincher, & Thornhill, 2011), income per capita (Ram, 1999), as well as the seroprevalence of infectious diseases (McQuillan et al., 2004) and georesidential pattern of Whites vis-a-vis African Americans and Hispanics (U.S. Census, 2010). Whereas the percentage of Whites is higher in the northern than southern United States, these minorities are more demographically important in the southern U.S.I calculated the percentage of Whites in each of the 48 contiguous U.S. states using data from the U.S. Census (2010), which uses self-identification. Other important categories are African American, Hispanic, Native American, East Asian, and Pacific Islander. The latitude of each capital city was obtained from the World Atlas (2015). Math and reading scores from male and female publicschool students in 4thand 8thgrade are from the most recent report of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, corresponding to 2013 (NAEP, 2015). Data on income per capita came from the U.S. Department of Commerce (2015). Finally, I incorporated measurements of prevalence of infectious diseases per state from a standardized Parasite Stress USA index encompassing cholera, measles, meningitis, pertussis, rubella, tetanus, and tuberculosis in 1993-2007 (Eppig, Fincher & Thornhill, 2011; Fincher & Thornhill, 2012). I did not include more variables to avoid problems of multicollinearity with a small number of observations.Percent White is treated as an exogenous variable in the path analyses because the causes of its distribution in the U.S. territory are historical and unrelated to the other variables in the path models; the earliest English immigrants settled in the U.S. northeast in the 16th century because it was close to England, and then moved south and west; they were followed by immigration from Africa into the rural South because slaves were needed in the cotton plantations, while Hispanics came later, mainly from Mexico and Cuba into the southern U.S. because they came from places south of the U.S.In all figures, I use+ p≤ .10, * p ≤ .05, **p ≤ .01, and ***p ≤ .001. The results shown in Figure 1 reveal that CCA is influenced only by latitude, whereas income is determined positively by CCA and negatively by Percent White. The latter finding can be understood considering that the White population is most prevalent in the U.S. northwest and north-midwest, that is, states with low population density and scarce natural resources (see Fig. …

Sex differences in adult intelligence in Sweden

Abstract: Studies reporting sex differences in intelligence among the Swedish adult population were systematically reviewed. Five studies from 1959 to 2008 fulfilled the inclusion criteria, and were suppleme ...

Artificial Deformation of Skulls from Bronze Age and Iron Age Armenia

Abstract: Cultural practices resulting in lasting modifications of the body can be a productive focus of investigation. Artificial cranial modification involves the alteration of cranial vault shape by cultural means, and is performed during infancy or early childhood while the cranial bones remain malleable. Our results indicate that tumpline deformation and cradle deformation should be added to the suite of cranial deformations that were detected in Armenia. It has been determined that the occipital modification is most likely unintentional. Post-coronal depression also appears to be unintentional. Cradle deformation is heavily influenced by infant sleep position, and constant supine positioning is a frequent cause of deformation during infancy. In the Armenian burials 32 skulls showing signs of cradle deformation are identified. Post-coronal depression, positioned on both parietals and slightly posterior to the coronal suture, was detected on 44 of the skulls. The deformation was a correlate of economic activities of the population and was an inadvertent consequence of carrying loads with a band across the parietal bones. In 12 cases a combination of the two types of deformation (tumpline and cradle), is observed. The only modification that has been classified as intentional is one case of parieto-temporal modification. Key words: Armenia, Bronze Age, Iron Age, post-coronal depression, cradle deformation, parieto-temporal modification

Inequality in the United States: Ethnicity, Racial Admixture and Environmental Causes

Abstract: Previously, we looked at the association between overall state-level biogeographic ancestry (BGA) and overall state-level outcomes. It was found that European BGA relative to African and Amerindian BGA was associated with better outcomes. In this paper, the analysis is extended by looking at the state-level ancestry-outcome associations individually for black and Hispanic self-identified race-ethnicity (SIRE) groups. General socioeconomic factor (S) scores were calculated for US states by SIRE groups based on three indicators. The S factor loadings were generally stable across subgroup analyses and the factor scores were stable across factor analytic extraction methods (for the latter, almost all r's ≈ 1). For Whites, Blacks and Hispanics, there were strong correlations between cognitive ability scores and S factor scores across states (r = .55 to .78; N = 28-50). This pattern also held when all data were analyzed together (r = .86, N = 115). Furthermore, the size of the Hispanic-White and Black-White S and cognitive ability gaps strongly correlated across states (r = .62 to .69; N = 36-37). Lastly, parasite prevalence did not plausibly explain SIRE gaps in cognitive ability because gaps were smaller in more parasite-rich states (combined analysis r = -.17, N = 91). We found that climatic and geospatial variables did not correlate strongly with cognitive ability and S scores when scores were decomposed by SIRE group, but did so at the total state level, even after statistically controlling for SIRE composition Key words: Inequality, General socioeconomic factor, S factor, USA, States, Cognitive ability, Intelligence, NAEP, Race, SIRE, Biogeographic ancestry, Ecology

Does IQ Cause Race Differences in Well-being?

Abstract: Fuerst and Kirkegaard (this issue; hereafter, “F&K”) present comprehensive, balanced analyses of aggregate-level data (i.e., state, nation) for the people of the Americas. They report moderate to strong correlations between racial admixture, intelligence, and a global measure of socioeconomic well-being. One possible explanation for these correlations is that IQ mediates race/well-being relationships. In fact, F&K show that racial ancestry has essentially no effect on socioeconomic outcomes, after partialing IQ out of the outcomes. I received their manuscript on 9/15/2015, and I present the following evaluation of their findings, together with supporting analyses for just the USA.

Sex Differences for 10 to 17 Year Olds on the Standard Progressive Matrices in Cyprus

Abstract: Sex differences on the Standard Progressive Matrices are reported for 10 to 17 year olds in Cyprus. There were no significant differences among 10 to 16 year olds but among 17 year olds males obtained a mean IQ 4.4 points higher than females. Key words: Cyprus, Standard Progressive Matrices, sex differences, intelligence

Sex Differences in Intelligence on the American WAIS-IV

Abstract: Data are reported for the scores of men and women in the standardization of the American WAIS-IV. Men obtained a significantly higher Full Scale IQ than women by 2.25 IQ points and on the General Ability Index by 4.05 IQ points. Men obtained significantly higher scores on the index IQs of Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory, and women obtained a significantly higher score on the Processing Speed index IQ. Men showed greater variability than women on the Full Scale IQ, the General Ability Index and on twelve of the fifteen subtests. Key Words: WAIS-IV, Sex differences, Intelligence, Variability

Sex Differences on the WAIS-IV in Chile

Abstract: Data are reported for the scores of men and women in the standardization sample of the WAIS-IV in Chile. Men obtained a significantly higher Full Scale IQ than women by 3 IQ points. Men obtained significantly higher scores on the subtests of Block Design, Digit Span, Matrix Reasoning, Picture Arrangement, Information, Object Assembly, Cancellation and Picture Completion, and on the index IQs of Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization and Working Memory. Key Words: Chile, WAIS-IV, Sex differences, Intelligence.

Cognitive Sex Differences in Brazil

Abstract: Considerable data are available about sex differences in intelligence, both at the general (more latent) and the specific (more explicit) levels, in children, adolescents, and adults. However, only a small proportion comes from developing countries, where socio-political conditions and patterns of sexual inequality differ markedly from those observed in developed countries. Comparing sex differences data in intelligence between cultures with contrasting socio-political backgrounds permits examining whether biological factors are behind such sex differences. In an effort towards addressing this, we reviewed and compiled intelligence data from Brazil, and found evidence for a male advantage in adulthood in most dimensions of intelligence. We then analyzed new adult data on three unidimensional IQ tests for the measurement of general intelligence (the g factor), and found evidence of a male advantage in two, but a female advantage in the third. However, scores on two tests appeared to be highly confounded with education level, and once this variable was controlled, the female advantage in one test and the male advantage in another were not noticeable.. In general, our results were mostly in line with the male advantage hypothesis, although this did not appear to be uniformly consistent or of high magnitude in Brazil. Societal implications are discussed. Key words: Intelligence, Sex differences, APM, Progressive Matrices, Brazil.

Dysgenic Fertility in the Russian Federation

Abstract: Data are reported for intelligence and fertility in the Russian Federation. There was a statistically significant negative correlation for 29 provinces showing dysgenic fertility for intelligence in contemporary Russia. The negative relationship between test score and number of children was observed at the individual level as well. This relationship is not linear: only third and higher order births are associated with lower intelligence. Dysgenic fertility for intelligence was greater for men than for women, mainly because Raven scores of childless women were slightly lower than those of women with one or two children.

Life History and Race Differences in Puberty Length : A Test of Differential-K Theory.

Abstract: Life history speed has been argued to differ across the three main races, with Sub-Saharan Africans adopting the fastest (most r) strategy, Northeast Asians adopting the slowest (most K) strategy and Caucasians being intermediate, but closer to Northeast Asians (Rushton, 1995). Differential-K theory would predict that puberty begins earlier in the more r-strategy groups. Here, we extend this hypothesis to the length of puberty rather than its onset. Examining previously published data, we find that puberty is shortest amongst Caucasians and longest amongst Sub-Saharan Africans, and argue that this pattern is consistent with Differential-K theory. Key Words: Puberty, Race, Group Differences, Differential K Theory

Commentary on Fuerst and Kirkegaard: Some Groups Have All the Luck, Some Groups Have All the Pain, Some Groups Get All the Breaks

Abstract: Soy extranjero en mi tierra, y no vengo a darles guerra, soy hombre trabajador. Y si no miente la historia, aqui se sento en la gloria la poderosa nacion entre guerreros valientes, indios de dos continentes, mezclados con espanol ("Somos Mas Americanos" by Los Tigres Del Norte).Fuerst and Kirkegaard have written a comprehensive paper that examines the Racial-Cognitive Ability-Socioeconomic (R-CA-S) hypothesis, a synthesis of hypotheses that broadly conceptualize racial differences in cognitive abilities as resulting from environmental, genetic/epigenetic, and evolutionary progression (e.g., Lynn 2008). This paper follows other research that examines whether cognitive abilities mediate the association between race and socioeconomic status. Collecting regional and intra-regional data is often elusive. Fuerst and Kirkegaard have not only been diligent and creative, but have also been appropriately transparent by presenting their raw data for others to replicate or reinterpret the analyses. Further, although tackling such a topic is often met with immediate knee-jerk resistance, science is built on testing a wide range of hypotheses even when they are not popular. To their credit, the authors have handled a controversial topic tactfully and respectfully.Broadly, we agree with the overall results of the findings. We concede that the reported associations among European ancestry, cognitive abilities, and socioeconomic status in the Americas are robust. European-descended groups in the United States, for instance, have both higher incomes and greater social capital with which to increase both their individual and aggregate wealth (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2014) and also perform better on measures of cognitive abilities (e.g., National Center for Education Statistics, 2015). We do, however, take some exception to the interpretations proffered for their findings and the atheoretical approach the authors took toward analyzing the data. Our present commentary focuses on the conceptual problems in their paper that we believe need to be addressed to expand research on the R-CA-S hypothesis, as well as their corresponding parallels in the seemingly suboptimal statistical methodologies used. While we applaud the authors for being more transparent than most, there is a notable absence of clarity when describing some of the methods used in this paper, so our characterization of these methods as "suboptimal" might be due to their inadequate description in this paper rather than the procedures that were actually applied.Paraphrase of Main ThesisFuerst and Kirkegaard essentially argue that being genetically of European heritage provides an advantage in general cognitive abilities, and that those higher cognitive abilities lead in turn to the achievement of a higher mean level of socioeconomic achievement. We will summarize in turn our concerns regarding each of the points in this proposed causal progression.Estimation of Genetic HeritageAmong the methodological concern that we had was one regarding admixture in the Americas analyses. Fuerst and Kirkegaard obtained admixture frequencies from genetic studies that estimated the proportion of admixture present within the states of each respective country. For data points that they were unable to find, they took steps to impute estimates based on surrounding areas. For these analyses, some of the admixture estimates were estimated by dividing parental groups:In regards to hybrid identities such as Mestizo and Mulatto, percentages were split by parental group e.g., one half European and one half Amerindian. For tribrid identities such as Montubio, percentages were split three ways. Assumptions had to be made for a number of nations. (p.281).Dividing admixed populations in half (or in thirds) based on their parental groups may produce an over or underestimation of levels of racial descent. That is, the estimations derived from imputed data may be unrepresentative of the underlying distributions. …

Group Differences on the Naglieri Non-Verbal Ability Test and the Naglieri Non-Verbal Ability Test - Second Edition

Abstract: The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) and the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test-Second Edition (NNAT-2) are figural reasoning tests used by many school districts in an effort to diversify their gifted programs. The author of the NNAT and NNAT-2 claims that using these tests will result in similar percentages of racial and ethnic minority students and White students obtaining scores in the gifted range. The Baker County School District, a small rural school district in Baker County, Florida has used the NNAT and NNAT-2 for the 2006-07 through 2015-16 school years to screen all second grade students. Those students obtaining the requisite cut-score were then referred for an individual intellectual evaluation by the district school psychologist to determine eligibility for the Gifted Program. For each school year for the ten year period, statistically significant mean score differences between Black and White students and between all students receiving a free or reduced price lunch (used as a proxy for low socioeconomic status) and all students who did not were manifested. For the 2007-08 school year there was no statistically significant difference in mean IQ between the Black and White samples matched for free or reduced lunch status. For the other nine school years groups matched for free or reduced lunch status exhibited a statistically significant difference in mean IQ. Data for the entire ten year period were combined to obtain more definitive results. The results of this study do not support the claim of the test’s author. Key Words: NNAT; Blacks; Whites; Minorities; Adverse impact; Under-representation; Naglieri; Gifted children

Statistics vs Scientific Explanation

Abstract: The questionable genetic determination of cognition: races and cognitive skillsThe first variable to be analyzed, that the study of Fuerst and Kirkegaard considers, is "racial ancestry". What does this mean? How important is in the behavior of an individual what past generations, in the natural history of the species, have provided as genetic material? How exactly does this material lead to the expression of certain behaviors?The study discussed here falls into the same error as sociobiology, assuming that the genetic makeup determines the cognitive level. The enormous wealth of psychological and educational studies, initiated by Jean Piaget, have shown that the determinants of behavior of any individual do not reside in the genes of the individual but in his learning process. The actions of a subject are the result of his life experiences. The theoretical attempts to re-naturalize the mental capacity have failed. To evaluate accurately the determination of cognitive skills by the genetic material - what the study pretends to demonstrate - it is first necessary to recall the roles of genes and learning in the natural evolutionary history of the species. Thus, it should be clear what genes can and cannot do. Let's take a look at this in more detail.Theoretical excursusThere is no doubt that the key to understanding the cultural forms of life, including cognition, morals, love, is to be found primarily in the natural history of the species. The developmental processes that characterize any biological species are linked to its natural evolutionary history. Therefore, science tries to reconstruct the development of these forms in the long process of transition from animal to man. What were the conditions that made it possible for the biological species to develop the capacity to know? How could the formation of the human being as such get going?The key process to understanding the evolutionary development of the species is ontogenesis. Over millions of years the development of our species was characterized by two parallel processes: the dissolution of forms of instinctive behavior that are inflexible and genetically determined; and an enormous capacity for learning in the early stages of ontogenesis. In the relationship with his caretaker, the member of the species in his early stages of development was able to garner experiences that allowed him to gain proficiency of his actions and organize reality in a comprehensible world. This gradually led to a radical modification of the genetic equipment where instinctive structures lost their strength as the determinants of action. In the phases of transition from animal to man, the extension of the primary relationship in ontogenetic development played a central role. It seems that the lengthening of the close relationship between mother and child in the first years of life, and the wealth of learning that takes place at that time, made the instinctive mechanisms inoperative in a process that lasted thousands of years. In determining human actions, the genetic basis plays a very limited role; it is only present in fields closely related to survival, such as food, sexuality and defense.1 The result of this evolutionary process is the extreme inability of the member of the anthropological species to survive on his own at the time of his birth.The evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens would have been impossible, while instincts were dissolving, if functional mechanisms had not been developed for the construction of forms of behavior linked to learning. Fundamental for this was the brain's development. Although we do not know much about how the evolutionary development of the brain and the formation of differentiated neural areasmade the process of acculturation of man possible, and with it the formation of normative and cognitive structures, there is no doubt that without the constructive ability of the brain none of these structures would have formed. …

A Strong Flynn Effect in South Korea during the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Abstract: Results from the standardization of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-4 (WAIS-IV) in South Korea show that when using British norms, average IQs are higher in Korea than in Britain among younger age groups, decline with age, and are lower than those in Britain among older age groups. These age differences are attributed to a strong Flynn effect in South Korea with IQs increasing at a rate of approximately 8.4 IQ points a decade from early 1940s to late 1980s birth cohorts. The increases were smallest for the Verbal Comprehension IQ and largest for the Processing Speed IQ. Key Words: WAIS-IV; Intelligence, Flynn effect, South Korea, UK

Great effort, interesting results, but not everything is what it seems. Caution is required.

Abstract: In order to analyze the possible mediation of cognitive abilities in the relationship between SES and race, Fuerst and Kirkegaard (2016) consulted numerous databases. The result was an 81-page paper presenting careful analyses expressed in 58 tables and 26 figures; no doubt, a great effort was made. In addition, in order to achieve transparency and truthfulness in their analysis, the authors have challenged readers to analyze data on their own. Fuerst and Kirkegaard probably were inspirated by other studies with similar "macroeconomic" theory as the study of Ashraf and Galor (2013), where the following can be read: "...the level of genetic diversity in each country today (as determined by the genetic diversities and genetic distances among its ancestral populations) has a nonmonotonic effect on income per capita in the modern world" (p.43). In case of the Fuerst and Kirkegaard study, the overall picture that comes from their results is: whatever geographic environmental predictor is considered in regression models, whether poorly controllable by human action (e.g. cold climate, temperature, latitude, altitude, hours of sunlight) or more easily controlled (e.g. parasite load, STD, HIV), the strongest predictor of cognitive abilities and socioeconomic outcomes is racial ancestry, specifically European ancestry.My criticism is not directed at the pertinence of correlations and regression models for this kind of study. It is known that to identify genuine cause-effect relationships in social and behavioral science has proven difficult. Nevertheless, if the argument is tested in independent studies, where distinct sources of bias are expected and where the results go in the same direction, it is reasonable to consider the possibility there may be a causal relationship. Fuerst and Kirkegaard tested their hypothesis named "R-CA-S" (racial-cognitive ability-socioeconomic hypothesis) in samples of Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, USA (countries with societies fairly admixed in terms of genetic ancestry), conducting analyses separately and then at the Pan-American national level. Their results support what Lynn (2006), Rushton and Jensen (2005), Templer (2008) and others have asserted for a long time: there are differences in cognitive abilities between races with socioeconomic repercussions for human groups, especially for African and Native American people, which are the groups that have lower cognitive performance. As a corollary we infer that it would be difficult to remove poverty and overcome socio-cultural backwardness of human groups with African and Amerindian ancestry since there is solid evidence of the strong stability of cognitive abilities (Whalley & Deary, 2001), and there are doubts regarding generational cognitive gains (te Nijenhuis & van der Flier, 2013). Thus, are we ready to accept as correct this polemic and important socio-behavioral conclusion? Um momento! Let us consider some observations:1) School achievement shows some form of commonality with intelligence but both are not the same construct. It is known that a hypothesis being tested repeatedly using the same general method in several independent studies but with the same type of bias, the hypothesis is not being really tested since each repetition will merely replicate the bias of the original design (Sekhon & Hidalgo, 2011). In this case, the bias in the original design that is perpetuated by repetition, namely that intelligence and school performance are treated as the same thing, is frequently conducted in researches which use aggregated scores. Since the study of Rindermann (2007), who estimated a g-Factor of International Cognitive Ability explaining 95% of the variance of the 20 student assessment scales and the national IQ list elaborated by Lynn and Vanhanen (2002), several researchers (including Lynn himself) have proposed new lists of national IQs incorporating school measurements for analyzing diverse social-behavioral phenomena at the national level (Lynn & Vanhanen, 2012). …

Sex Differences on the WAIS-IV in the South Korean Standardization Sample

Abstract: Data are reported for the scores of men and women on the standardization of the WAIS-IV in South Korea. Men obtained a significantly higher Full Scale IQ than women by 4.65 IQ points and on the Block Design, Information and Arithmetic subtests, while women obtained higher scores than men on the Symbol Search and Coding subtests. Men showed greater variability than women on the Full Scale IQ. Key Words: South Korea, WAIS-IV, Sex differences, Intelligence, Male variability

Was the Cro-Magnon the Most Intelligent Modern Human?

Abstract: When comparing the current IQ maps of Europe and the Near/Middle East with the maps showing the proportion of DNA inherited from Neolithic farmers, we notice that IQ is increasingly lower as Neolithic genetic inheritance is greater. This suggests that the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic might have led to a decline of intelligence, as Robert Klark Graham (1970) claimed, and that human intelligence had reached its peak with the Cro-Magnons. Comparing the same IQ maps with the geographic advance of the Neolithic and of complex post-Neolithic civilizations, we notice that the average IQ today is lower in regions that had an earlier entrance into the Neolithic and into complex civilization, suggesting that genotypic intelligence declined during or after the Neolithic, as maintained by Elmer Pendell (1977), and as demonstrated for modern Western civilization by Richard Lynn (1996) and confirmed recently by molecular evidence (Beauchamp, 2016; Conley et al., 2016). Studies of ancient DNA can test this theory of intelligence decline in the near future. Key Words: Genotypic intelligence; Natural selection; IQ maps; Neolithic revolution; Civilizations; Polygenic scores; Allele frequency; DUF1220

Sex Differences in the Intelligence of Students at Alexandria University, Egypt

Abstract: Results are reported for intelligence assessed with the Standard Progressive Matrices Plus of a sample of 423 students at Alexandria University in Egypt. The men obtained a British IQ of 104 and the women a British IQ of 92, suggesting that the intelligence of university students in Egypt increased in recent years. The men students had greater variability than the women students. Key words: Intelligence; Standard Progressive Matrices Plus; Egypt; Sex differences

Sex Differences in Intelligence of University Students in Thailand

Abstract: A study of sex differences in the intelligence of university students in Thailand tested with the Advanced Progressive Matrices found that men obtained a slightly higher score than women by .08d equivalent to 1.2 IQ points. The sample obtained a British IQ of 103. Key Words: Thailand, Advanced Progressive Matrices, Sex differences, Intelligence

Sex Differences in the Intelligence of University Engineering Students in Sudan

Abstract: The intelligence of 1936 engineering students in three universities in Sudan was tested with the Advanced Progressive Matrices. The sample obtained an average British IQ of 93. Males obtained marginally higher average scores than females, equivalent to approximately 1.2 IQ points. Key Words: Sudan, Advanced Progressive Matrices, Sex differences, Intelligence

Sex Differences in High School Students on Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices in Yemen

Abstract: The Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM), combined sets 1 and 2, was administered to a sample of 503 male and 524 female high school students aged 16 to 18 years in Yemen. The male students obtained a higher IQ score than the female students by 0.9 IQ points, not statistically significant. The mean score of the sample was 21.6 and is equivalent to a British IQ of 93. Key Words: Yemen, Advanced Progressive Matrices, Sex Differences, Intelligence