Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher • Hacker News Board

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#71

Post by wapapaloobop » Sat, May 07, 2016, 1:59 PM UTC

goda90 wrote: post #43

wapapaloobop wrote: post #36

Wow. And after the study they went to the cafeteria and ate food from intentionally smaller plates which tricked their brains into believing they were full -- for about a week. Psychology is so full of lies. Both the content of the 'studies' and the studies themselves (all testing and no theory). Also the motivations for the studies seem to be quite often political. (Presumably this helps for obtaining public money.)…

Surely you can't mean without teaching. It'd be pretty hard to learn to read without someone teaching you. Perhaps you mean an experiment where a child is raised by a blind caregiver who never talks about reading. Given full access to children's books and other media but no one to tell them about reading, will they pick it up?

Children learn to read because it enhances whatever they are most interested in. At present this will usually be video games.

Quite apart from the moral aspect, which is usually ignored, this negates the standard argument that "reading is extremely useful for all sorts of activities, therefore it must be taught".

Of course, adults may help and answer questions when needed.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#72

Post by arvinjoar » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:03 PM UTC

ttyl0125 wrote: post #28

A single study with n=80, in a social psych journal, with a trendy soundbite conclusion? Of course it's not a false positive! The fact that the authors cite a paper by Jens Foerster is icing on the cake.

n=80 is actually not bad, if that's what you're implying. There are a lot of studies that are n=30 since that's the rule of thumb most follow.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#73

Post by taneq » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:09 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #69

littletimmy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean whatever their sex? Gender is such a strange term.

Sex is the biology; Gender is the identity. Discrimations are based on gender, not sex. Women are told to wear pink dresses because of how our society see women (female gender), not because they have a vagina (female sex).

> Women are told to wear pink dresses because of how our society see women (female gender), not because they have a vagina (female sex).

Really? I'm pretty sure a large part of any discrimination against women is due to their physical sex, not the way they identify.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#74

Post by kaitai » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:12 PM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #41

Some statistical problems I can see here: 1. Sample size n=80. You would need a pretty incredible result for a sample size this small to be significant. 2. All students from the same region of France. Will this result carry over to other countries? Other cultures? 3. The treatment groups were chosen from pre-existing classes. Classes whose composition may not be random. It's a cool result, and it should definitely be…

That's the super-interesting thing about stereotype-threat-related studies -- they're all extraordinarily culture-dependent, because they're all about subtle cultural attitudes. Repeating this in other places would be interesting.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#75

Post by jokoon » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:17 PM UTC

atom-morgan wrote: post #67

jokoon wrote: post #21

I'm a man and I really dislike competitive aspects of society. I mean if I'm playing a game and it's for fun, I'm okay with it, as long as everyone play to play, not play to win. If I'm literally competing to earn a living, or if it ends up in praising winners and blaming losers, it won't be enjoyable, and I'd rather not play at all. Having humility also means that when you win, you also congratulate losers for playi…

> Overall, I sense that men avoid competition much more than women do. Seriously? The inherent drive in men to compete/take risks is why people advocate for "leveling the playing field" when it comes to pay, promotions, etc.

Actually I meant that when you have men relating to each other in a social context.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#76

Post by jokoon » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:17 PM UTC

iopq wrote: post #49

jokoon wrote: post #21

I'm a man and I really dislike competitive aspects of society. I mean if I'm playing a game and it's for fun, I'm okay with it, as long as everyone play to play, not play to win. If I'm literally competing to earn a living, or if it ends up in praising winners and blaming losers, it won't be enjoyable, and I'd rather not play at all. Having humility also means that when you win, you also congratulate losers for playi…

> Overall, I sense that men avoid competition much more than women do. See: any competitive activity. Which gender generally dominates a competition?

Actually I meant that when you have men relating to each other in a social context.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#77

Post by jokoon » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:18 PM UTC

rfrey wrote: post #23

jokoon wrote: post #21

I'm a man and I really dislike competitive aspects of society. I mean if I'm playing a game and it's for fun, I'm okay with it, as long as everyone play to play, not play to win. If I'm literally competing to earn a living, or if it ends up in praising winners and blaming losers, it won't be enjoyable, and I'd rather not play at all. Having humility also means that when you win, you also congratulate losers for playi…

"Overall, I sense that men avoid competition much more than women do." That's interesting, and seems a bit contrarian. If you felt like elaborating, I'd feel like listening.

Actually I meant that when you have men relating to each other in a social context.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#78

Post by littletimmy » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:18 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #69

littletimmy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean whatever their sex? Gender is such a strange term.

Sex is the biology; Gender is the identity. Discrimations are based on gender, not sex. Women are told to wear pink dresses because of how our society see women (female gender), not because they have a vagina (female sex).

Why does one need a gender identity?

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#79

Post by fennecfoxen » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #69

littletimmy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean whatever their sex? Gender is such a strange term.

Sex is the biology; Gender is the identity. Discrimations are based on gender, not sex. Women are told to wear pink dresses because of how our society see women (female gender), not because they have a vagina (female sex).

Regardless, these factors are in a 1-to-1 relationship for around 99% of schoolchildren in the third grade "aged 9 years old on average" including, presumably, every single child studied in this study. Discussion of the specific differences, or of the other cases, might have substantial merit... but seem less than productive on this particular occasion as the topic is at best only tangentially related.

Re: Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher

#80

Post by lr4444lr » Sat, May 07, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #69

littletimmy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean whatever their sex? Gender is such a strange term.

Sex is the biology; Gender is the identity. Discrimations are based on gender, not sex. Women are told to wear pink dresses because of how our society see women (female gender), not because they have a vagina (female sex).

> Sex is the biology; Gender is the identity

That's only a very recent distinction, and still a contentious one. According to Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gender) and the OED (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/gend...), it's far from clear.