Like you know, smarts n stuff.
Music “Normalize” By the Bipolar Project
[tags]Psychology, Dave Brodbeck, Intelligence, IQ Tests[/tags]
That title should be self explanatory…
That title should be self explanatory…
Like you know, smarts n stuff.
Music “Normalize” By the Bipolar Project
[tags]Psychology, Dave Brodbeck, Intelligence, IQ Tests[/tags]
RE: The math/music link — Once upon a time (late ’50s, early ’60s) the nascent computer industry, rather than recruiting employees from computer science departments (since there were no computer science departments) recruited employess from math departments (no surprise) and, surprise, even more from music departments. I know this because that is how my father ended up writing operating systems for supercomputers, with an MA in statistics.
Measuring intelligence (with special attention to brain size)–Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man is excellent–and an excellent read, too. (Pinky & the Brain, also excellent.)
(I have to say, I’m really enjoying listening to this!)
The spatial/math/music/science thing is also interesting when you look at who is successful in med school. It turns out one of the highest success rates is people with degrees in music.
Gould gets confused now and then, well, got confused, now and then. He often misunderstood what psychologists were saying. I am a bigger fan of Steve Pinker, his How the Mind Works, and THe Blank Slate, are great books.
Glad you like these. The intelligence one is a great topic.
When I heard about the early computer recruiting thing, I figured that the connection had something to do with being extra good at recognizing patterns, and that would make sense for medicine, at least with diagnosis–being able to pick out which symptoms matter and what they mean.
I read How the Mind Works and before that The Language Instinct (I’ll have to look up The Blank Slate). I found them quite interesting, if a little hard to follow as a layman. If I recall correctly, the Gould book was assigned in a class on paradigm formation (a real crowd pleaser, that class), and what I mostly remember is how well it was written–Gould, of course, was an evolutionary biologist, not a psychologist, it’s good to know not to rely on the psychology aspects.