Comments on: Infant IQ Tests Predict Scores in School https://www.isegoria.net/2014/04/infant-iq-tests-predict-scores-in-school/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Thu, 28 May 2026 04:47:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Gwern https://www.isegoria.net/2014/04/infant-iq-tests-predict-scores-in-school/comment-page-1/#comment-1199934 Gwern Tue, 15 Apr 2014 02:44:59 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=34700#comment-1199934 Guy, it’s hard to say without reading the original research. There’s a lot that could be going on, including insufficient power. I mean: typically, it’s harder statistically to conclude anything group differences than to conclude something about the whole sample; that is, one would expect it to be easier to confirm that the infant test predict future school scores than to confirm that, say, East Asian babies score higher than white babies (either on the original test or at the followup).

So what could easily be happening here is that the data turns in the usual Asian > white > hispanic > black ranking but there’s not enough babies in the sample to find group differences at p < 0.05, and the researchers are simply ignoring the point-values because they're not forced to admit the differences are there.

This is completely consistent with the claims made in the article, and just one of the potential tricks or stories going on here.

]]> By: Guy https://www.isegoria.net/2014/04/infant-iq-tests-predict-scores-in-school/comment-page-1/#comment-1199641 Guy Mon, 14 Apr 2014 21:36:30 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=34700#comment-1199641

…babies from widely different cultural backgrounds performed equally well on his test.

In the same percentages? If not, “Individual smart baby is smart regardless of race,” isn’t all that controversial is it?

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