Effect of age on variability in the production of text-based global inferences

As we age, our differences in cognitive skills become more visible, an effect especially true for memory and problem solving skills (i.e., fluid intelligence). However, by contrast with fluid intelligence, few studies have examined variability in measures that rely on one's world knowledge (i.e., crystallized intelligence). The current study investigated whether age increased the variability in text based global inference generation--a measure of crystallized intelligence. Global inference generation requires the integration of textual information and world knowledge and can be expressed as a gist or lesson. Variability in generating two global inferences for a single text was examined in young-old (62 to 69 years), middle-old (70 to 76 years) and old-old (77 to 94 years) adults. The older two groups showed greater variability, with the middle elderly group being most variable. These findings suggest that variability may be a characteristic of both fluid and crystallized intelligence in aging.     

The relative effectiveness of teaching methods on pupils' understanding of the classification of living organisms at two levels of intelligence

A classification task, involving the sorting of pictures of plants and animals into major orders and classes, and a standardised test of general intelligence, were administered to randomly selected groups of 12 year old pupils drawn from four comprehensive schools. Sub-samples were selected at random of pupils of above and below average intelligence who had been taught classification either by the “Nuffield” approach or by a “traditional” method. Analysis of variance of the scores obtained showed that although the achievement of the upper intelligence group was superior (1 %level) to that of the lower intelligence group, there was a significant interaction (5 % level) between the method of teaching that had been received and intellectual level. Pupils of above average intelligence generally obtained higher scores when they had been taught by the “Nuffield” method, whereas the achievement of pupils of below average intelligence was generally much greater when they had been taught by a “traditional” method.     

基于深度学习的作物基因组学和遗传改良

随着世界人口的不断增长、食物需求量的不断增加,以及气候的不断变化,如何提高农作物产量已成为人类面临的一个巨大挑战。传统设计育种耗时长、效率低,已经不能满足新时代的育种需求。随着基因型和表型数据成本的不断降低,以及各种组学数据的爆炸式增长,人工智能技术作为能够在大数据中高效率挖掘信息的工具,在生物学领域受到了广泛关注。人工智能指导的设计育种将大大加快育种的效率,给育种带来革命性的变化。介绍了人工智能特别是深度学习在作物基因组学和遗传改良中的应用,并进行了总结与展望,以期为智能设计育种提供新的思路。     

医务人员工作倦怠与特质情绪智力相关关系的研究

目的 通过考察医务人员工作倦怠与特质情绪智力的相关关系,为探索改善医务人员工作倦怠状况的方法提供依据。方法 采用随机抽样的方式对552名医务人员进行工作倦怠和特质情绪智力问卷的调查。结果 (1)工作倦怠与特质情绪智力负性相关关系显著;(2)总体上,特质情绪智力对工作倦怠具有一定的负向预测作用。结论 可以通过对医务人员特质情绪智力的培养改善其工作倦怠感,培训方案的设计要注意整体性和全面性。

     

Learning to Be Smart: An Exploration of the Culture of Intelligence in a Canadian Inuit Community

The understanding of intelligence and cognitive functioning of culturally diverse peoples has long been an interest of social scientists. It has also long been recognized that environmental factors and cultural values affect both perceptual abilities and the display of cognitive functioning. While some scholars have proposed the existence of multiple forms of intelligence, others have argued that the assessment of intelligence requires the application of local definitions of intelligence and intelligent behavior. In the present paper I explore the concept of intelligence in the small Copper Inuit community of Holman. Data collected between 1978 and 1995 are used to examine the manner in which community members define, assess, and develop intelligence. Modernity has created new conditions in which intelligence is nurtured and assessed.
Particular attention is paid to informant efforts to encourage the author to behave intelligently. [Inuit, theories of intelligence, participant-observation]     

A personal retrospective on the second half of the 20th century

During the Second World War scientists and engineers were involved as never before in all technical phases of the war effort. It included intelligence, logistics and large scale automated computation. Much of this required team work which led to the adoption of interdisciplinary perspectives and found expression after the war in new fields of enquiry such as cybernetics, biophysics and artificial intelligence.     

A critical review of Richard Lynn's reports on reaction time and race

In the early 1990s, psychologist Richard Lynn published papers documenting average reaction times and decision times in samples of nine-year-olds taken from across the world. After summarizing these data, Lynn interpreted his results as evidence of national and racial differences in decision time and general intelligence. Others have also interpreted Lynn's data as evidence of racial differences in decision time and intelligence. However, comparing Lynn's summaries with his original reports shows that Lynn misreported and omitted some of his own data. Once these errors are fixed the rankings of nations in Lynn's datasets are unstable across different decision time measures. This instability, as well as within-race heterogeneity and between-race overlap in decision times, implies that Lynn's reaction time data do not permit generalizations about the decision times and intelligence of people of different races.     

235例颅脑外伤致精神障碍的司法鉴定回顾分析

目的分析司法鉴定中交通事故颅脑外伤所致精神障碍的特点及有关因素。方法对235例交通事故颅脑外伤致精神障碍患者实施成人韦氏智力和脑电地形图司法鉴定检测,并进行分析。结果本组病例中最多见的是智能损害(65.5%),其次是神经症样综合症(18.7%)和人格改变(10.6%),并且IQ<70组伤前文化程度低于IQ≥70组(P<0.05),前者脑外伤程度则明显重于后者(P<0.01)。结论重型颅脑损伤所致精神障碍者常合并多种症状,且以智能损害最多见;轻型颅脑损伤所致精神障碍以神经症样综合症最多见。     

医疗器械特色图书馆开展企业竞争情报服务初探

阐述医疗器械竞争情报的概念与类型;分析了我国医疗器械行业竞争情报工作的现状和医疗器械特色图书馆开展竞争情报服务的优势及存在问题;提出竞争情报服务的模式和内容。     

Socioeconomic status (SES) and children's intelligence (IQ): in a UK-representative sample SES moderates the environmental, not genetic, effect on IQ

Background

The environment can moderate the effect of genes - a phenomenon called gene-environment (GxE) interaction. Several studies have found that socioeconomic status (SES) modifies the heritability of children''s intelligence. Among low-SES families, genetic factors have been reported to explain less of the variance in intelligence; the reverse is found for high-SES families. The evidence however is inconsistent. Other studies have reported an effect in the opposite direction (higher heritability in lower SES), or no moderation of the genetic effect on intelligence.

Methods

Using 8716 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), we attempted to replicate the reported moderating effect of SES on children''s intelligence at ages 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12 and 14: i.e., lower heritability in lower-SES families. We used a twin model that allowed for a main effect of SES on intelligence, as well as a moderating effect of SES on the genetic and environmental components of intelligence.

Results

We found greater variance in intelligence in low-SES families, but minimal evidence of GxE interaction across the eight ages. A power calculation indicated that a sample size of about 5000 twin pairs is required to detect moderation of the genetic component of intelligence as small as 0.25, with about 80% power - a difference of 11% to 53% in heritability, in low- (−2 standard deviations, SD) and high-SES (+2 SD) families. With samples at each age of about this size, the present study found no moderation of the genetic effect on intelligence. However, we found the greater variance in low-SES families is due to moderation of the environmental effect – an environment-environment interaction.

Conclusions

In a UK-representative sample, the genetic effect on intelligence is similar in low- and high-SES families. Children''s shared experiences appear to explain the greater variation in intelligence in lower SES.     

The effects of teenaged motherhood and maternal age on offspring intelligence

Abstract

Causal models of the effects of maternal age on offspring intelligence were generated using three large data sets. The direct and indirect effects of two components of maternal age, teenage motherhood and linear maternal age, were investigated separately for white and black children. The intervening variables investigated as routes of indirect effect were family structure, parental education, parental employment, family income, and family size. The findings indicate that there are no direct effects of teenage maternity on offspring intelligence, and that the observed negative relationship is primarily attributable to parental education. In contrast, the overall effect of maternal age, while very small and positive, is primarily direct, that is, not mediated by any of the social or economic conditions included in the model. The consistency of these findings and the impact on children's intelligence of the other variables included in the model are demonstrated and discussed.     

Cooperation and the evolution of intelligence

The high levels of intelligence seen in humans, other primates, certain cetaceans and birds remain a major puzzle for evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists. It has long been held that social interactions provide the selection pressures necessary for the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities (the 'social intelligence hypothesis'), and in recent years decision-making in the context of cooperative social interactions has been conjectured to be of particular importance. Here we use an artificial neural network model to show that selection for efficient decision-making in cooperative dilemmas can give rise to selection pressures for greater cognitive abilities, and that intelligent strategies can themselves select for greater intelligence, leading to a Machiavellian arms race. Our results provide mechanistic support for the social intelligence hypothesis, highlight the potential importance of cooperative behaviour in the evolution of intelligence and may help us to explain the distribution of cooperation with intelligence across taxa.     

Neuroanatomical Correlates of Intelligence in Healthy Young Adults: The Role of Basal Ganglia Volume

Background

In neuropsychiatric diseases with basal ganglia involvement, higher cognitive functions are often impaired. In this exploratory study, we examined healthy young adults to gain detailed insight into the relationship between basal ganglia volume and cognitive abilities under non-pathological conditions.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We investigated 137 healthy adults that were between the ages of 21 and 35 years with similar educational backgrounds. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed, and volumes of basal ganglia nuclei in both hemispheres were calculated using FreeSurfer software. The cognitive assessment consisted of verbal, numeric and figural aspects of intelligence for either the fluid or the crystallised intelligence factor using the intelligence test Intelligenz-Struktur-Test (I-S-T 2000 R). Our data revealed significant correlations of the caudate nucleus and pallidum volumes with figural and numeric aspects of intelligence, but not with verbal intelligence. Interestingly, figural intelligence associations were dependent on sex and intelligence factor; in females, the pallidum volumes were correlated with crystallised figural intelligence (r = 0.372, p = 0.01), whereas in males, the caudate volumes were correlated with fluid figural intelligence (r = 0.507, p = 0.01). Numeric intelligence was correlated with right-lateralised caudate nucleus volumes for both females and males, but only for crystallised intelligence (r = 0.306, p = 0.04 and r = 0.459, p = 0.04, respectively). The associations were not mediated by prefrontal cortical subfield volumes when controlling with partial correlation analyses.

Conclusions/Significance

The findings of our exploratory analysis indicate that figural and numeric intelligence aspects, but not verbal aspects, are strongly associated with basal ganglia volumes. Unlike numeric intelligence, the type of figural intelligence appears to be related to distinct basal ganglia nuclei in a sex-specific manner. Subcortical brain structures thus may contribute substantially to cognitive performance.     

Intelligence can be detected but is not found attractive in videos and live interactions

Self-reported mate preferences suggest intelligence is valued across cultures, consistent with the idea that human intelligence evolved as a sexually selected trait. The validity of self-reports has been questioned though, so it remains unclear whether objectively assessed intelligence is indeed attractive. In Study 1, 88 target men had their intelligence measured and based on short video clips were rated on intelligence, funniness, physical attractiveness and mate appeal by 179 women. In Study 2 (N = 763), participants took part in 2 to 5 speed-dating sessions in which their intelligence was measured and they rated each other's intelligence, funniness, and mate appeal. Measured intelligence did not predict increased mate appeal in either study, whereas perceived intelligence and funniness did. More intelligent people were perceived as more intelligent, but not as funnier. Results suggest that intelligence is not important for initial attraction, which raises doubts concerning the sexual selection theory of intelligence.     

竞争情报在我国医疗器械行业的应用

阐述竞争情报与医疗器械行业竞争情报的概念与特点;分析竞争情报在我国医疗器械行业中的作用及医疗器械竞争情报的类型;探讨如何对医疗器械行业竞争情报的收集。     

Beneficence, determinism and justice: an engagement with the argument for the genetic selection of intelligence

In 2001, Julian Savulescu wrote an article entitled 'Procreative Beneficence: Why We Should Select the Best Children', in which he argued for the genetic selection of intelligence in children. That article contributes to a debate on whether genetic research on intelligence should be undertaken at all and, if so, should intelligence selection be available to potential parents. As such, the question of intelligence selection relates to wider issues concerning the genetic determinism of behavioural traits, i.e. alcoholism. This article is designed as an engagement in the intelligence selection debate using an analysis of Savulescu's arguments to raise a series of problematic issues in relation to the ethics of parental selection of intelligence. These problematic issues relate to wider assumptions that are made in order to put forward intelligence selection as a viable ethical option. Such assumptions are more generic in character, but still relate to Savulescu's article, concerning issues of genetic determinism, private allocation and inequality, and, finally, individual versus aggregate justice. The conclusion focuses on what the implications are for the question of agency, especially if intelligence selection is allowed.     

The evolution of brain size and intelligence in man

The brain size of hominids has increased approximately threefold during the evolution of the hominids fromAustralopithecus toHomo sapiens. It is proposed that the principal reason for this increase is that larger brains conferred greater intelligence, and greater intelligence conferred a selection advantage. A number of anthropologists have difficulty accepting this thesis because they believe that brain size is not associated with intelligence in man. Evidence is reviewed, and new evidence from two studies is presented, to show that brain size as measured by head size is positively correlated with intelligence as measured by intelligence tests. On two recent samples statistically significant correlations of .21 and .30 were obtained between estimates of brain size and IQ. It is considered that brain size is positively associated with intelligence in man and that this is the major reason for the increase in brain size of the hominids during the last 3.2 million years.     

综述: 智力的涌现

星海茫茫,地球因智慧生命的存在而与众不同,我们在追寻生命起源的同时,也追问着智力的源头,什么是智力的本质,智力从何涌现?生命大爆炸不仅带来激增的物种数量,也带来专司信息感知、编码和处理的神经系统.在复杂多变的外部环境中,昆虫已发展演化了近4亿年.在这里,我们借由现代认知神经科学在果蝇中的研究发现,探讨智力的基本层面,提出果蝇的大脑是智力涌现中的一个标杆,是我们揭开智力本质、进入智力王国的第一站.     

Intelligence and culture: how culture shapes what intelligence means, and the implications for a science of well-being

This paper discusses the relationship between culture and intelligence. The main message of the paper is that intelligence cannot fully or even meaningfully be understood outside its cultural context. Behaviour that is considered intelligent in one culture may be considered unintelligent in another culture, and vice versa. Moreover, people in different cultures have different implicit (folk) theories of intelligence, so may not even mean the same thing by the word. The relationships between different aspects of intelligence can vary across cultures, with correlations that are positive in one setting proving to be negative in another. The paper opens with a general discussion of issues regarding the relationship between the two concepts. It then describes the theory of successful intelligence, which motivates our work on the interface between culture and intelligence. Finally, the article draws some conclusions.     

Effects of the Execution of a Maze Task on Regulatory Mechanisms of the Autonomic Nervous System in Subjects with Different Levels of Nonverbal Intelligence

The effects of spatial task performance on heart rate characteristics were studied taking into account nonverbal intelligence and autonomic balance. Males and females with low nonverbal intelligence according to the Raven test were mostly sympathicotonics, while subjects with high intelligence were mostly vagotonics. A specific emotional response was observed in females with low and high nonverbal IQs immediately after the task completion and increased the stress index (SI). This clearly suggested that the task was stressful for them. Males with low and high nonverbal IQs were characterized by a reduction of the SI, indicating that this task activity was adequate for male subjects.__________Translated from Fiziologiya Cheloveka, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2005, pp. 50–54.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Grigoryan, Stepanyan, Agababyan, Arakelyan, Arutyunyan.