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The cognitive costs of air pollution

patrickcollison.com

11–20 of 300 posts

Re: The cognitive costs of air pollution

#11
post #3

If the effect were present, and as large as implied, you’d expect low IQ test results in ultra-polluted Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. And yet... http://www.city-data.com/forum/world/2348902-china-iq-map-pr...

Pardon my ignorance, but how is this IQ data obtained? It is reported by the government? Are IQ tests standardized?

[deleted]

Re: The cognitive costs of air pollution

#12
post #3

If the effect were present, and as large as implied, you’d expect low IQ test results in ultra-polluted Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. And yet... http://www.city-data.com/forum/world/2348902-china-iq-map-pr...

No that is not what it is claimed. Pollution reduces your IQ, not that it makes your IQ lower than someone else's.

The people living in those cities form a so-called "self-selecting" sample. They are probably, on average better educated, and they recognize the value of education much better. They already would score higher than the others, that's why they moved to the city.

It might just as well be that the same people would score far higher in a non-polluted city.

Re: The cognitive costs of air pollution

#14
post #2

This is blogspam. Here's the original post: https://patrickcollison.com/pollution

That would be a much better link than the one provided. Wasting energy on the "IQ" issue is not productive to the problem presented: that air pollution does, indeed, cause (hopefully only temporary) cognitive decline. It can be measured on a small scale, for example, see the Allen et al. [1] article showing cognitive decline in an office environment (conventional building vs Green+ building).

1. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27662232/4892924...

Re: The cognitive costs of air pollution

#15
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon my ignorance, but how is this IQ data obtained? It is reported by the government? Are IQ tests standardized?

>IQ tests standardized? IQ tests can't be standardized across cultures. Even something like Raven's Progressive Matrices has a cultural component. https://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/intelligence Also China has some issues with the way they report scholastic achievement that make their results appear higher than they should. China is very selective about which students take standardized tests that are used for global c…

All IQ tests are (ought to be) standardized for the target population.

The median IQ should be 100, with a standard deviation of 15.

If the median IQ is not 100 over the population, the test is flawed.

Re: The cognitive costs of air pollution

#17
This really bothers me. I live in a VERY polluted place, and unfortunately moving away won't be an option for me for at least half a decade. What can I do to minimise the health effects of such an atmosphere? I'm planning on getting an indoor air filter for my home.

Re: The cognitive costs of air pollution

#18
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>IQ tests standardized? IQ tests can't be standardized across cultures. Even something like Raven's Progressive Matrices has a cultural component. https://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/intelligence Also China has some issues with the way they report scholastic achievement that make their results appear higher than they should. China is very selective about which students take standardized tests that are used for global c…

Seems hilarious to assume they can be standardized within a culture too, whatever a culture may be.

but that's what IQ test are, standardized tests.

not sure where hilarity comes into play ... it has well defined statistical properties

perhaps you mean that the results of IQ tests can be, and often are grossly misinterpreted, that is not related to standardization

Re: The cognitive costs of air pollution

#19
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon my ignorance, but how is this IQ data obtained? It is reported by the government? Are IQ tests standardized?

>IQ tests standardized? IQ tests can't be standardized across cultures. Even something like Raven's Progressive Matrices has a cultural component. https://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/intelligence Also China has some issues with the way they report scholastic achievement that make their results appear higher than they should. China is very selective about which students take standardized tests that are used for global c…

Just because a test might have some component you can vaguely articulate as having some cultural influence does not make the test itself invalid for comparison across cultures. Claims that basic pattern recognition is somehow not a valid means of assessment across cultures are dubious at best.
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