A response to te Nijenhuis et al. (2019)

J Biosoc Sci. 2019 Nov;51(6):913-916. doi: 10.1017/S0021932019000270. Epub 2019 May 22.

Abstract

Te Nijenhuis et al. (2019) cite studies that show that training on cognitive tasks produces the largest standardized gains on the easiest items and the smallest standardized gains on the most difficult items. They note that this creates an anti-Jensen effect, and use this as a trump that is supposed to show that my basketball examples are irrelevant. I use a new basketball example that is compatible with those studies. It assumes that at some point improvement on the easy skills 'stalls' - and all that is left is some improvement on the hard skills. Therefore, further environmental enhancement means the higher level skill gap is increased, which gives a classic Jensen effect, which shows that the presence of such does not entail genetic causality. The difference is that we really can produce virtually optimum basketball skills while for cognition, we are still well short. I also address the problem of why IQ gains over time do not show an anti-g pattern. After all, they are environmentally caused, and 'should' do so if an anti-g pattern and environmental causes go together.

Keywords: Jensen effects; Neutral as to genes and environment; Real causes of IQ differences.

Publication types

  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Cognition*
  • Humans
  • Republic of Korea
  • Young Adult