World general knowledge facts

 Reframing the clouded scientific spectacles of the Flynn effect: A view through two lenses - ScienceDirect  https://ift.tt/N98Tkhi Flynn argued that the Flynn effect was due to an increasing use of "scientific spectacles" among the general population (Flynn, 2010), yet the Flynn effect itself has been viewed through clouded scientific spectacles. Most research has focused on Flynn's main finding: IQ scores have increased over time. Flynn (1987) presumed the effect was a cohort (generational) effect, yet a variety of within- and between-person processes could give rise to the observed secular changes. Many theories have been put forth as to the fundamental cause of the Flynn effect. Frequently ignored is what a specific cause implies the Flynn effect would look like at different levels of analysis and in the context of different research designs. In this paper we present two 'lenses' with which to view a potential causal model of the Flynn effect, in the hopes...

From the brilliance of Dr. Joel Schneider.  Although statistically complicated, these procedures (and other similar beauties by Dr. Schneider) could easily be implemented in test "smart" scoring software.  Detecting Unusual Score Patterns in the Context of Relevant Predictors | SpringerLink  https://ift.tt/cktLnmC Neuropsychological assessment requires integrating new information with what is already known about an examinee. In constructing a case conceptualization, it can be helpful to quantify how unusual a pattern of scores is in the context of other quantitative data. This tutorial explains how two powerful statistical and psychometric concepts, conditional distributions and the Mahalanobis distance, are especially useful when used together to identify unusual score patterns after controlling for other scores. Graphical illustrations, R code, and instructions for a free and user-friendly web app are provided. ****************************************** K...

 Opinions on intelligence: An Arab perspective - ScienceDirect  https://ift.tt/7FdrnI6 The issue of cultural differences in how the concept of intelligence is understood has long been debated. But do such differences really exist and, if so, to what extent do they exist and between which cultures are they the most pronounced? To better understand this, we translated a survey from Warne and Burton (2020) on beliefs about intelligence into Arabic, distributed it among psychology and non-psychology students and lecturers at universities within the Arab world, and compared our results with those from the US given by Warne and Burton, and with the current state of research. The survey consisted of 83 items about theories regarding the meaning and testing of intelligence. From our sample of up to 327 Arabic-speaking participants, we found that replies are overall similar to those from the US (r = .59; Nitems = 63), while both samples showed hardly any congruence with the current...

Stability of mental abilities and physical growth from 6 months to 65 years: Findings from the Zurich Longitudinal Studies Eichelberger, Dominique A.; Sticca, Fabio; Kübler, Dinah R.; Kakebeeke, Tanja H.; Caflisch, Jon A.; Jenni, Oskar G.; Wehrle, Flavia M. Intelligence: Vol. 97, p. 101730, 2023. 10.1016/j.intell.2023.101730 Mental abilities and physical growth are important determinants of health across the lifespan. Here, the stability of these traits was assessed from 6 months to 65 years of age to investigate periods of stability and malleability. Mental abilities, height, and weight were assessed at 11 time-points in participants of the Zurich Longitudinal Studies. Individuals with more than three missing data points per trait across the 11 assessment time-points (i.e., more than approx. 25% missing data) were excluded from further analyses (final N = 281). Bivariate cross-time correlations showed that the stability of mental abilities was low in infancy and gradually increa...