Page 13 of 17

A few New Analyses

September 20, 2013 / Chuck / 2 Comments

Hu (2013, September, 5; 2013, July, 5; 2013, August, 18) has raised some interesting points. I will comment on a few of them here and present several new analyses.

Cultural Loading, Heritability, and the BW gap

As Meng Hu noted, Kan et al. (2011) showed that subtest cultural-loadings, as they estimated them, correlated both with the magnitude of the B/W subtest gaps and with subtest heritability estimates. The authors interpreted these associations as support for a GxE hypothesis of individual differences and offered a model similar to that proposed by Flynn and Dickens (2001). Moreover, Kan et al. (2011) saw the associations between cultural-load and heritability and between cultural-load and the magnitude of the BW gap as problematic for what they termed a biological g model. Below, I will show that g-loadings fully mediate the association between cultural loadings and the two other variables noted and therefore that what is in need of explanation is only the association between cultural-loadings and g-loadings. I will then proceed to offer an account for this.

First, I looked to see if g-loadings mediated the association between the BW gap and cultural loadings. They did. Then I looked to see if cultural-loadings mediated the association between the BW gap and g-loadings. They did not fully. The results are shown below. As reliability estimates were not presented for all subtests, I ran the analysis with and without reliability corrections. Continue reading

Investigation of the relationship between mental retardation with heritability and environmentality of the Wechsler subtests

September 5, 2013 / Meng Hu / 0 Comments

The present analysis is an extension of Spitz’s earlier (1988) study on the relationship between mental retardation (MR) lower score and subtest heritability (h2) and g-loadings. These relationships were found to be positive. But Spitz himself haven’t tested the possibility that MR (lower) score could be related with shared (c2) or nonshared (e2) environment. I use the WAIS and WISC data given in my earlier post, and have found that MR is not related with c2 and e2 values. These findings nevertheless must be interpreted very carefully because the small number of subtests (e.g., 10 or 11) is a very critical limitation.

Test-retest effects : No g gains in two independent samples

August 28, 2013 / Meng Hu / 0 Comments

I analyze two studies who provide the necessary data for studying the test-retest effects, namely, Watkins (2007), Schellenberg (2004, 2006). Both used the Wechsler’s subtests, and the correlations between the IQ changes among those subtests with g-loadings are negative, in line with earlier studies on this topic.

A Meta-Analysis of Jensen Effect on Heritability and Environmentality of Cognitive Tests Using the Method of Correlated Vectors

August 18, 2013 / Meng Hu / 0 Comments

A correlation between the g factor and indices of heritability (h2) gives support for the genetic g hypothesis but, on the other hand, the interpretation may appear questionable if g correlates with shared (c2) and/or non shared (e2) environment to the same extent. The results from the present meta-analysis tend to support the hereditarian hypothesis.

Hollow Flynn Effect in Two Developing Countries and A Further Test of the Debatable Black-White Genetic Differences

July 5, 2013 / Meng Hu / 7 Comments

Studies of the nature of the Flynn Effect are usually done in developed countries (e.g., Rushton, 1999; Wicherts, 2004; Nijenhuis, 2007; for an ‘Overview of the Flynn Effect’, see Williams, 2013). There are two recent data on two developing countries (Khaleefa, 2009; Liu, 2012). The reported numbers on subtests gains can be studied using either MCV or PC analysis. Next, we will see that shared (c²) and non-shared (e²) environments, as measured by Falconer’s formula, are unrelated to heritability (h²) of the WAIS and WISC subtests. Culture load, heritability, g-loadings, and black-white differences tend to form a common cluster (on PC1) that is different from the pattern of loadings shown by shared and non-shared environment.

Re-analysis of Jensen’s study of Capron and Duyme adoption data

June 7, 2013 / Meng Hu / 6 Comments

The french adoption study, by Capron & Duyme (1989, Table 2; 1996, Table 3), attempted to show that IQ can be improved by adoption. Their numbers displayed an IQ gain of 15 or even 20 points (WISC-R). Jensen (1997) analyzed Capron and Duyme adoption data (1996) with N=38, a study often cited by environmentalists as evidence against the hereditarian hypothesis. Jensen showed that the IQ difference owing to the adoption of children from low-SES parents by high-SES families is not g-loaded while at the same time the IQ difference owing to low-SES versus high-SES biological families loaded in fact on the g factor or PC1. Plus, the SES-difference of adopted families correlated at only 0.099 with SES-difference of biological families.

Similarity in the g factor structure between- and within-families across racial groups in the NLSY97 and NLSY79

May 30, 2013 / Meng Hu / 5 Comments

In Bias in Mental Testing (1980, pp. 546-548), Arthur Jensen showed that a congruence coefficient test from a factor analysis of the within- (WF) and between-family (BF) correlations among blacks and whites could yield an identical g factor structure. A similarity in factorial structure for these four groups having been evidenced, he writes :

These correlations are statistically homogeneous; that is, they do not differ significantly from one another. Thus it appears that the g loadings of these seven tests show a very similar pattern regardless of whether they were extracted from the within-family correlations (which completely exclude cultural and socioeconomic effects in the factor analyzed variance) or from the between-families correlations, for either whites or blacks. … This outcome would seem unlikely if the largest source of variance in these tests, reflected by their g loadings, were strongly influenced by whatever cultural differences that might exist between families and between whites and blacks.

Jensen (1980, Table 4) has been replicated by Nagoshi and Johnson (1987, pp. 310-314). I will replicate those earlier tests using NLSY97 and NLSY79. As Jensen (1998, pp. 99-100) noted, the congruence coefficient (CC) can be interpreted as being an index of factor similarity.

The Onset and Development of B-W Ability Differences: Early Infancy to Age 3 (Part 1)

May 26, 2013 / Jason Malloy / 6 Comments

At what age does the cognitive ability gap between blacks and whites first appear? At what age does the black-white ability gap stop growing?

Knowing the answers to these questions is vital to understanding the etiology of the black-white ability gap, especially if this gap has an environmental cause. However, the only scholarly work that attempts to investigate these issues is John Loehlin’s Race Differences in Intelligence (1975), which is nearly 40 years old. So I will update and expand upon that review here on Human Varieties by summarizing all available measurements of African American cognitive ability from early infancy to age 3; I will also discuss the relevance of this data to current debates in the social sciences.

IQ advantage of multiracials : A Jensen Effect

May 13, 2013 / Meng Hu / 0 Comments

In the NLSY97, a Jensen Effect of biracial blacks has been found, using self-reported white ancestry. In the NLSY79, some questionnaires (R00096.00, R00097.00) asked about the respondents’ first and second racial/ethnic origin. When the respondent reported being non-black or white in one of the questionnaires and black in the other, he was categorized as being a multiracial.

HVGIQ: Bermuda

May 3, 2013 / Jason Malloy / 12 Comments

Bermuda is a tiny British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean, some 600 miles from the East Coast of the United States (population: 64,700). Even though Bermuda is 1000 miles from the Caribbean Sea, there are a number of sociological similarities between Bermuda and the Caribbean island nations; it is an associate member of the Caribbean Community. Its economy, much like the Cayman Islands and The Bahamas, is largely based on finance and tourism, and it likewise enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world.

According to the 2000 census, Bermuda is 54.8% black and 34.1% white. IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002) did not include intelligence data for Bermuda, but IQ and Global Inequality (2006) reported an IQ of 90, as the average of two studies. In this post I discuss some overlooked data which suggest that Bermudian blacks have an IQ that is very close to 100, and that there is no IQ gap between black and white Bermudians. There is also some overlooked test data which suggest otherwise, and we are left with some uncertainty over the meaning of the conflicting research. Continue reading

Human Varieties

Page 13 of 17

A few New Analyses

Investigation of the relationship between mental retardation with heritability and environmentality of the Wechsler subtests

Test-retest effects : No g gains in two independent samples

A Meta-Analysis of Jensen Effect on Heritability and Environmentality of Cognitive Tests Using the Method of Correlated Vectors

Hollow Flynn Effect in Two Developing Countries and A Further Test of the Debatable Black-White Genetic Differences

Re-analysis of Jensen’s study of Capron and Duyme adoption data

Similarity in the g factor structure between- and within-families across racial groups in the NLSY97 and NLSY79

The Onset and Development of B-W Ability Differences: Early Infancy to Age 3 (Part 1)

IQ advantage of multiracials : A Jensen Effect

HVGIQ: Bermuda

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