Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
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Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#2Interesting. Is it odd that the IQ scores were over 100?
For example, population IQ is supposed to be 100. So a score of 105 for boys with a 5 point drop would give us the expected result of average intelligence, right?
Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#3IQ scores? Really? Should we look at the correlation to phrenology reports and the subjects balance of humours as well?
Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#4The wording in the summary could have been done better. Read casually, it comes across as suggesting causation instead of correlation:
Findings -- In this prospective birth cohort study, fluoride exposure during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in children aged 3 to 4 years.
Meaning -- Fluoride exposure during pregnancy may be associated with adverse effects on child intellectual development, indicating the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy.
Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#5IQ scores? Really? Should we look at the correlation to phrenology reports and the subjects balance of humours as well?
Are you under the impression that IQ scores don’t measure anything?
Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#6IQ scores? Really? Should we look at the correlation to phrenology reports and the subjects balance of humours as well?
There’s no replication crisis in psychometry. It’s the highest quality area of psychological research, at least with respect to reproducibility. While there’s room for debate as to what exactly it is that’s being measured, there is none for whether something meaningful at all is being measured.
IQ measurements have strong predictive power too for various outcomes, such as educational attainment.
A civilization reduction of IQ by nearly 1/3 sigma is absolutely cause for concern.
Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#7IQ scores? Really? Should we look at the correlation to phrenology reports and the subjects balance of humours as well?
Are you under the impression that IQ scores don’t measure anything?
very low IQ scores correlate with ordinary measures of mental performance. Above 100, they're randomly correlated with generic extrinsic measures of performance, and have little test-retest consistency.
You can differ as much in your test-retest score as would be the gap between mental retardation and "normal".
Above 100, they're mostly a measure of proficiency at taking written tests.
In any case, there is no theory of what IQ measures other than by assertion that it measures "intelligence", so there's nothing actually to be said about it.
It's a means of extracting apparent patterns in some test answers; there is no scientific theory of what those patterns mean.
Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#8Interesting. Is it odd that the IQ scores were over 100? For example, population IQ is supposed to be 100. So a score of 105 for boys with a 5 point drop would give us the expected result of average intelligence, right?
This could just a) be Flynn effect in action (although I would think that would take longer) [0], or b) there are other factors in the sample group (Canadians) that shift them slightly higher in baseline IQ (nutrition? educational exposure?).
Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#9IQ scores? Really? Should we look at the correlation to phrenology reports and the subjects balance of humours as well?
There’s no replication crisis in psychometry. It’s the highest quality area of psychological research, at least with respect to reproducibility. While there’s room for debate as to what exactly it is that’s being measured, there is none for whether something meaningful at all is being measured. IQ measurements have strong predictive power too for various outcomes, such as educational attainment. A civilization reduct…
Unfortunately little of what you've said is true.
IQ only has predictive power at very low scores; above 100 it randomly correlates with, eg., wealth and various other extrinsic objective measures.
The only cases where "success" is measured by the profession are circluar, ie., its often claimed Drs/lawyers etc have high IQs, but necessarily so, since they're all filtered based on IQ tests.
Psychometry has nothing to replicate, because there are no psychometric theories. It is simply a field which finds patterns in exams it makes up, based on no testable theories, and asserts that these patterns have "some meaning". There isnt anything here to replicate.
Re: Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores
#10Interesting. Is it odd that the IQ scores were over 100? For example, population IQ is supposed to be 100. So a score of 105 for boys with a 5 point drop would give us the expected result of average intelligence, right?
This could just a) be Flynn effect in action (although I would think that would take longer) [0], or b) there are other factors in the sample group (Canadians) that shift them slightly higher in baseline IQ (nutrition? educational exposure?). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
> these children were recruited from 6 of 10 cities included in the original cohort: Vancouver, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, and Halifax
Probably just the difference between this cohort vs. all Canadians (urban and rural).