{"id":1858,"date":"2007-10-18T20:59:03","date_gmt":"2007-10-18T20:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2007\/10\/18\/james-watson-and-the-myth-of-g\/"},"modified":"2007-10-18T20:59:03","modified_gmt":"2007-10-18T20:59:03","slug":"james-watson-and-the-myth-of-g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2007\/10\/18\/james-watson-and-the-myth-of-g\/","title":{"rendered":"James Watson and the Myth of g"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure whether it was prompted by James Watson’s little outburst (for which he has apologized “unreservedly”<\/a>) or just serendipity, but Cosma Shalizi offers an exhaustive demolition of the idea of a single general intelligence factor<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Anyone who wanders into the bleak and monotonous desert of IQ and the
\nnature-vs-nurture dispute eventually gets trapped in the especially arid
\nquestion of what, if anything, g<\/em>, the supposed general factor of
\nintelligence, tells us about these matters. By calling g<\/em> a
\n“statistical myth” before<\/a>, I
\nmade clear my conclusion, but none of my reasoning. This topic being what it
\nis, I hardly expect this will change<\/em> anyone’s mind, but I feel
\na duty to explain myself.<\/p>\n

To summarize what follows below (“shorter sloth”, as it were), the case
\nfor g<\/em> rests on a statistical technique, factor analysis, which works
\nsolely on correlations between tests. Factor analysis is handy for summarizing
\ndata, but can’t tell us where the correlations came from; it always<\/em>
\nsays that there is a general factor whenever there only positive correlations.
\nThe appearance of g<\/em> is a trivial reflection of that correlation
\nstructure. A clear example, known since 1916, shows that factor analysis can
\ngive the appearance of a general factor when there are actually many thousands
\nof completely independent<\/em> and equally strong<\/em> causes at work.
\nHeritability doesn’t distinguish these alternatives either. Exploratory factor
\nanalysis being no good at discovering causal structure, it provides no support
\nfor the reality of g<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s long, and comprehensive, and involves math, so it’s not for the faint of heart. It is, however, an excellent explanation of how statistical analysis can lead smart people astray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure whether it was prompted by James Watson’s little outburst (for which he has apologized “unreservedly”) or just serendipity, but Cosma Shalizi offers an exhaustive demolition of the idea of a single general intelligence factor: Anyone who wanders into the bleak and monotonous desert of IQ and the nature-vs-nurture dispute eventually gets trapped… Continue reading James Watson and the Myth of g<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychology","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}