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Old November 11th 07, 02:43 AM posted to misc.kids
Ericka Kammerer
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Posts: 2,293
Default IQ and what it means in adulthood

Sarah Vaughan wrote:
Banty wrote:

I've always thought that being smart to the degree of ignoring social
conventions had more to do with that. Like the math whiz who works as
a school
custodian, submitting papers to mathematical journals (may be
apocryphal story
though ...).


Heh - I thought that was the plot of 'Good Will Hunting'? ;-)

Anyway, it would probably help if I gave the context here - the debate
was about the studies showing a correlation between breastfeeding and
increased IQ, and - if that association is real and not due to a
confounder - what it means in practice. I must say I was never terribly
impressed by the kind of numbers I was hearing - in the studies being
discussed, the average difference was seven IQ points, which just didn't
really sound like that much in practice to me. But the question came
up, and it got me wondering whether I was right about that or not.


The studies on IQ and "success" are very mixed, and
depend a lot of what you mean by "success." I think the
important part about the breastfeeding studies is not so
much whether it will make a difference between becoming a
lawyer vs. some other job seen as "less successful," but
that it indicates an effect on brain development that
may have other implications. Taken together, my impression
of the literature on the benefits of breastfeeding is that
it seems to say that while the differences aren't huge, they
argue for the potential for a rather significant effect at
the margins--the kids who are at risk of assorted issues
and might otherwise have noticeable deficits if not for
the little bump from breastfeeding.

Best wishes,
Ericka