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Nature or Nurture… What Causes Intelligence?

Nature or Nurture… What Causes Intelligence?. By: Madelaine Banks, Mat Sherman, Dan Ciortea. York Mills Collegiate Institute HSP3M1 Tuesday June 2 nd , 2009. Introduction. The nature nurture debate has been going on for years

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Nature or Nurture… What Causes Intelligence?

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  1. Nature or Nurture… What Causes Intelligence? By: Madelaine Banks, Mat Sherman, Dan Ciortea York Mills Collegiate InstituteHSP3M1Tuesday June 2nd, 2009

  2. Introduction • The nature nurture debate has been going on for years • Many researchers and scientists argue about what affects intelligence more • After this presentation maybe you will have some knowledge and a better opinion about this topic Madelaine Banks

  3. PART ONE:NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

  4. Study Finds First-Borns Smarter • This article is about a study conducted In 1973 at the Institute of Personality and Social Research in Berkeley, California among 400,000 people. showing that after the first-born, intelligence among children decreases • On average study found that first-borns have a higher IQ by 2 points. • People argue that this is true because first-born children are given more parental attention, fostering intelligence and they also tutor their younger siblings. Crenson, M. (2005, February 28). Scholars Claim Brain Explains Gender Divide. Associated Press Times Union, Albany. Retrieved March 31st, 2009, from http://www.elibrary.com Madelaine Banks

  5. Textbook Justification • This would be a good addition to the textbook because it discusses the environmental side of intelligence. • It shows interesting and factual information about birth order, which is an important topic. • This article also gives points as to why a first-born child may be smarter than his younger siblings • This article is reliable because it was published in the Chicago Tribune by a regular author. Mitchum, R. (2007, June 22). Study Finds First Born Smartest, Research Supports Nurture over Nature. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 2, 2009, from http://www.elibrary.com Madelaine Banks

  6. Scholars Claim Brain Explains Gender Divide • Harvard President Lawrence Summers suggests differences in intelligence between genders • Differences caused by different hormones/levels between genders • Males have greater range of IQ while women tend to stay average • Written by M. Crenson in February 2005 Crenson, M. (2005, February 28). Scholars Claim Brain Explains Gender Divide. Associated Press Times Union, Albany. Retrieved March 31st, 2009, from http://www.elibrary.com Mathew Sherman

  7. Textbook Justification • Gender divide when it comes to human brain functions • Evidence that nature plays a role in defining intelligence • Help students better understand a natural factor given to specific sets of humans • Valuable and interesting for students to learn Crenson, M. (2005, February 28). Scholars Claim Brain Explains Gender Divide. Associated Press Times Union, Albany. Retrieved March 31st, 2009, from http://www.elibrary.com Mathew Sherman

  8. PART TWO:ACADEMIC JOURNALS

  9. The “Susie” Experiment • Method: This experiment was about a girl, Susie, who’s mother had an IQ of 40 which is considered retardation. She was given the best method’s of fostering intelligence her entire life instead of going to regular school. • Hypothesis: The experimenter thought that these methods would increase her intelligence so she could be smarter than her mother. • Conclusion: It was concluded that the methods did help Susie and she ended up with an IQ that was 80 points higher than her mothers. Madelaine Banks

  10. Textbook Justification • This article would be a good addition to the textbook because it discusses the nurture side of intelligence. • This relates to the subject of nature not being restrictive in intelligence. • This article also comes from the reliable resource Science containing peer-reviewed journals such as this. • Even though the experiment was not conducted by the writer, she reports on the article with a lot of knowledge and accuracy. Wickelgren, Ingrid. (1999, March). Nurture Helps Mold Able Minds (Environmental influences on intelligence levels). Science. 283.5409  p1832(1). Retrieved April. 20, 2009, from Gale AcademicOne Database. <http://www.gale.cengage.com> Madelaine Banks

  11. Common Beliefs on the Heredity of Human Characteristics Objective: • Look into the beliefs of two groups on subjects of genetics • Social parents of an adoptive child and people with an absent genetic parent subjected to compare to average people Method: • Personal interviews in which subjects answered how severely they felt heredity impacted 16 human characteristics on a scale up to five Conclusions: • Average persons score near the middle; people from the two subject groups scored higher on average Meerum Terwogt, Mark; Hoeksma, Jan; Koops, Willem (1993, Nov.). Common beliefs about the heredity of human characteristics. British Journal of Psychology. Retrieved Apr. 20th, 2009, from Knowledge Ontario Databases. Mathew Sherman

  12. Textbook Justification • Compares two different groups’ results to average people’s results • Results show that the groups’ average scores were higher, probably due to their APS related differing from the norm • Great example of different people’s perspectives on how much nature determines intelligence Meerum Terwogt, Mark; Hoeksma, Jan; Koops, Willem (1993, Nov.). Common beliefs about the heredity of human characteristics. British Journal of Psychology. Retrieved Apr. 20th, 2009, from Knowledge Ontario Databases. Mathew Sherman

  13. PART THREE:SURVEY RESEARCH

  14. Hypothesis • It was hypothesized that we will discover that people think nurture and environmental factors are greater in determining intelligence than nature and genetic factors.

  15. Survey • We conducted a survey to discover people in our school’s beliefs about how genetic and environmental factors will affect a person’s intelligence • We gave out thirty surveys consisting of 10 questions each. • Each survey was comprised of yes/no, multiple choice, and open-ended questions. • We recorded our results of the most important questions using graphs. Mat Sherman

  16. Graphs Question 4: Which of these factors affect intelligence the most? These results showed that most people thought education and socialization were the greatest intelligence determining factors. This shows that nurture is being supported. Madelaine Banks

  17. Graphs • Question 6: Who’s intelligence will be greater; a person from an abusive home with intelligent parents, or a person from a loving home with parents of average intelligence? These results show that most people think that the environment determined intelligence more than the parent’s intelligence. These results favour nurture. Mat Sherman

  18. Conclusion • It was concluded that most people thought that nurture was a greater intelligence determining factor than nature • We categorized our answers into nature and nurture and came up with a summary graph of all of our answers. Results showed that 61% of all answers favoured nurture while the other 39% favoured nature. Madelaine Banks

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