Originally Posted by Dazed&Confuzed
I've always wondered about the studies putting kids in high-SES homes. Although it's probably splitting hairs...but I wonder if the IQ is not changing, rather the environment is allowing them to reach their potential. What you are measuring is increasing but whatever biological processes which make up IQ is not. I also think this more applicable at the lower end. You can take a kid scoring in the 80s and put in a better home (nutrition, love, exposure) and get an IQ of 100. It was shown that if those kids are put back in the original environment, IQ drops once again (that was done in Polish orphanages I believe) but you won't take a 120 kid and get them to 140.

Am I making any sense? probably not...


Yes, I think this makes perfect sense. I think the "environment allowing them to reach their potential" makes a great deal more sense than the idea that they're somehow "magically finding" extra IQ points that aren't possible for them to have any other way.

Kriston