Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
1–10 of 30 posts
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#2Shows how stupid modern society and technology has made us.
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#3Flawed tests.
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#4Flawed tests.
[deleted]
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#5Idiocracy anyone?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#6To be clear, I'm not convinced this is actually true. It sure sounds like someone is pushing an anti-standardized-test agenda (not that I disagree with that).
But if it is true, note that they're testing highly-gifted kids, who might very well be getting fewer teaching resources now that they would have in the early 70's. American public education at any rate seems to be a bit of a squeaky-wheel-gets-the-oil environment, where if you're not failing tests you don't need any special treatment.
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#7well part of it, is we don't need to rely on our brain as much any more. When my parents were in school you had to do complicated math in your head. Nowadays you get a calculator.
Same for spelling, in 1975 you needed to be a walking dictionary. Nowadays we have spell checker.
As far as kids are concerned, a lot more of their time is now "wasted" on TV and video games.
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#8Does this take into account immigration to England? If not, it's as worthless as studies saying American students aren't on a par with students abroad. The question is, which American students we're talking about: the black ones or the white ones? The distribution of IQ among white students is on a par with that of other white kids in other places. The distribution of IQ among black students is less favorable. (This does not mean they are inferior; biology is about trade-offs, and if you don't live in a city, it does not make sense to trade muscle for brains; there's a mountain of evidence that proves there are differences between these two groups, just as there would be between any two groups that spent over 100 generations in very different places).
Averaging the two groups is not very meaningful. After all, it only takes a few smart dudes to get to an IPO or win a Nobel prize, although a critical mass of smart people often proves essential.
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#9"The tests - designed to assess grasp of abstract scientific concepts such as volume, density, quantity and weight - found far fewer youngsters hit top scores than in 1976."
Maybe kids just get outside less?
Re: Cognitive abilities of 11-years-olds are up to three years behind where they were in 1975.
#10well part of it, is we don't need to rely on our brain as much any more. When my parents were in school you had to do complicated math in your head. Nowadays you get a calculator. Same for spelling, in 1975 you needed to be a walking dictionary. Nowadays we have spell checker. As far as kids are concerned, a lot more of their time is now "wasted" on TV and video games.
You still need to be able to do the maths in your head, otherwise how can you interpret what the calculator is telling you? Maybe your whole calculation is an order of magnitude out, for example. A calculator saves time, not understanding. The same is true of a spellchecker. Doesn't matter if every word is correct if no meaning is communicated.
And even if it were true for the general population it wouldn't be true of the HN crowd... We are the toolmakers.