tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38764987.post983862215722730238..comments2023-07-15T04:20:16.543-05:00Comments on Almost Diamonds: Decimals Are a Girl's Best FriendStephanie Zvanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15182490110208080002noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38764987.post-15484222189368220702010-02-14T13:19:02.087-06:002010-02-14T13:19:02.087-06:00Becca,
Someone could consistently argue that thei...Becca,<br /><br />Someone could consistently argue that their is a variation effect but that we don't see this in Africa and with people of African descent because of the other, essentially environmental problems. Or they could argue that the the variation that occurs there is just not the relevant one. Both of these are pretty clearly ad hoc hypotheses but both are testable. But yes, the problem of African ancestry does pose at minimum a pretty serious problem for any simple claim that the differences are due to changes in the level of variation. <br /><br />Incidentally, while on this topic, there's also a recent study by Sian Beilock's group at U Chicago looking at how children pick up cultural norms about gender and math that is worth looking at.<br /><br />The original study can be found at http://hpl.uchicago.edu/Publications/PNAS_2010.pdf<br /><br />and I discussed it at: <br />http://religionsetspolitics.blogspot.com/2010/02/math-anxiety-math-education-and-gender.html<br /><br />It appears that children may pick up on cultural beliefs about how their gender should do mathematically in some very subtle ways.Joshuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00637936588223855248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38764987.post-15755783994444266372010-01-10T00:12:49.143-06:002010-01-10T00:12:49.143-06:00The weird thing about the extreme tails argument i...The weird thing about the extreme tails argument is that people think it might have anything to do with genes. Whereas everyone who knows anything about genetics in different populations knows that people with African ancestry have higher genetic variation; ergo, logically they should also have the most genetically-predispositioned to both dullards and geniuses. Yet, strangely enough, I never hear white men arguing that their greatest mathematicians ought to be inferior to the greatest mathematicians Africa should produce.Beccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15356974556397009124noreply@blogger.com