Quote:
Originally Posted by MK27
But if you are a kid that plays alone with lego a lot or something, you will probably do better on an IQ test than some kid who lives in one room with a family of five on a commune where social/inter-personal activity would take up most of your time. Does that mean kid A is truly smarter than kid B? Obviously not. Does it mean kid A's intelligence has been developed, environmentally, better than kid B? I don't believe that either.
Heheh, but in
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Besides this genetic reason, there is also a second reason why New Guineans may have come to be smarter than Westerners. Modern European and American children spend much of their time being passively entertained by television, radio, and movies. In the average American household, the TV set is on for seven hours per day. In contrast, traditional New Guinea children have virtually no such opportunities for passive entertainment and instead spend almost all of their waking hours actively doing something, such as talking or playing with other children or adults. Almost all studies of child development emphasize the role of childhood stimulation and activity in promoting mental development, and stress the irreversible mental stunting associated with reduced childhood stimulation. This effect surely contributes a non-genetic component to the superior average mental function displayed by New Guineans.