tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post1753952668576510419..comments2024-03-22T15:55:34.030-04:00Comments on Evo and Proud: East Germans are getting a lot smarter ... Really?Peter Frosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04303172060029254340noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-68407830904615049942015-07-17T18:44:32.577-04:002015-07-17T18:44:32.577-04:00this is ancient, so just for posterity:
the pape...this is ancient, so just for posterity: <br /><br />the paper looks at four chunks of data - conscription IQs for 1992 and 1998 and PISA derived IQs for 2000 and 2006 (plus GDP etc for those times). therefore any hypotheses about east-specific conscription sample biases between '1990 and 2006' are off. if anything they would have to be about biases introduced between 1992 and 1998 (or, as others have pointed out, 1995: http://www.mgfa-potsdam.de/html/einsatzunterstuetzung/downloads/ap122.pdf?PHPSESSID=92bb8). <br /><br />more importantly, i can't see how any of the hypothesised confounding factors would apply to the PISA data, which show the exact same trend as the conscription data (drastic gains in the east) *and* replicate the correlation between gains in IQ and gains in GDP. <br /><br />greetings from a germanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-19281984110973701382012-09-19T15:23:43.852-04:002012-09-19T15:23:43.852-04:00Alan,
Perhaps. The young Ossies I knew in Russia ...Alan,<br /><br />Perhaps. The young Ossies I knew in Russia didn't seem very militaristic.<br /><br />Sean,<br /><br />Smart people are probably more likely to respond to patriotic rhetoric. In my home town, we had "patriot clubs" that encouraged young men to enrol for the First World War. There was a blind willingness among many Canadians, especially English Canadians, to sign up for every imperial conflict, like the Boer War and the Crimean War. When I look at the memorials that have been erected in their memory, I can't help but shake my head. They fought nobly, yes, but what was gained? <br /><br />Sometimes, I wish we had been less idealistic.<br /><br />I'll have to check out that book. Small sub-state actors have much to gain and little to lose by triggering a major world conflict. This was true for Serb nationalists in 1914, and it's true for Coptic Christians today.<br /><br />Chuck,<br /><br />Then, do you agree that the rise in IQ was due to the changing composition of conscripts from the former East Germany? The steep rise from 1992 to 1995 (Figure 6) is not easily reconciled with a real increase.Peter Fros_noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-51482215325714915442012-09-18T14:36:21.001-04:002012-09-18T14:36:21.001-04:00Ron Unz is now explicitly anti biologic in his thi... Ron Unz is now explicitly anti biologic in his thinking. It isn't possible to accept his arguments and still believe that human brainpower is a product of natural selection. <br />Seannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-81877008760057375752012-09-16T22:05:52.838-04:002012-09-16T22:05:52.838-04:00Pete,
Here were the 1990/1991 IEA reading result...Pete,<br /><br />Here were the 1990/1991 IEA reading results; East Germany was on parity with West: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/96258-2.pdf<br /><br /> As I noted in a previous post, concerning the "Irish Flynn effect," when it comes to secular differences AQ has to be compared to AQ and IQ to IQ. This is because the g-factor of IQ is not the same as the g-factor of IQ. <br /><br />As for the study mentioned, check out the original paper cited: "EUF-Testleistungen wehrpflichtiger junger Männer im wiedervereinigten Deutschland"<br /><br />Google it. And check out figure 6. All of the narrowing occurred between 1992 and 1995.Chucknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-28711394373660361772012-09-16T16:11:01.822-04:002012-09-16T16:11:01.822-04:00'His team's study melds records from Scott...'His team's study melds records from Scottish army units with results of national tests performed by all 11-year-olds in 1932. [...] "No other country has ever done such a whole-population test of the mental ability of its population," Deary says."' <br /><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16297" rel="nofollow">Here</a>.<br /> <br />I have read that in the UK during WW1 the regions of low unemployment had very low rates of volunteering for the army. In WW1 Scotland suffered a higher % of pop killed then any country apart from Serbia.<br /> <br />(BTW, new book Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clarke, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge agrees with your idea that important Serbians were trying to start a wider war)Seannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-26197124307987325662012-09-16T03:31:19.869-04:002012-09-16T03:31:19.869-04:00It occurs to me that former East Germany is also t...It occurs to me that former East Germany is also the western remnant of former Prussia, so could it be that there is also a stronger cultural affinity there to military service than there is elsewhere in Germany?AlanLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04820194790550072204noreply@blogger.com