Lecture 4

Question 1

Things that help intelligence

Answer 1

Intelligence may be effected by pre-natal and post-natal healthcare that a child experiences when young as well as nutritious food sources and a cognitively stimulating environment. This can be limited by inequality across society though.

Question 2

Nelson et al (2020)

Answer 2

Trauma effects brain development, and therefore intelligence

Question 3

Coutrot et al

Answer 3

Living in cities has a negative impact on navigation ability, with evidence from 38 countries. The simpler the street network (more grid-like layout) showed worse spatial ability in people who grew up in cities relative to their compatriots raised outside cities. They also found that females performed worse than males.

Question 4

First born advantage definition

Answer 4

As parents move from parenting one child to multiple there are systematic shift in parental behaviour and home environment. This is thought to affect, and lower, IQ.

Question 5

Lehmann, Nuevo-Chiquero and Vidal-Fernandez (2014)

Answer 5

Surveyed 12686 American youths born between 1957-64. First beginning in 1979. Found later born children are not born disadvantages but parents are unable to provide them with the same cognitive development as they did with the first-born.

Also, systematic differences in maternal behaviour during pregnancy and in the first year of life (i.e. alcohol and tobacco consumption, and decision to breastfeed).

Question 6

NHS Choices (2011)

Answer 6

It is rumoured that breastfeeding leads to more intelligence offspring, but there is no significant link

Question 7

Angelson et al (2001)

Answer 7

Children who were breastfed for less than 3 months had an increased risk, compared to children breastfed for at least 6 months, of a test score below the median value on scales of infant development (aged 13 mths) and IQ (aged 5 yrs).

Question 8

Deoni et al (2013)

Answer 8

By age 2 children who were breastfed had higher language skill and enhancement development in key parts of the brain associated with higher-order cognition.

Question 9

Victora et al (2015) - Participants

Answer 9

Surveyed years of schooling and income at age of 30 years, also collected whether they had been breastfed.

Question 10

Victora et al (2015)

Answer 10

Those breastfed for less than a year have 3.76 IQ points advantage, 0.91 more years of education, and higher monthly incomes (341 Brazilian reals), than those breastfed for <1 month.

Question 11

Victora et al (2016) - Child health

Answer 11

Lower infectious morbidity and mortality, fewer dental problems, and higher intelligence. Might protect against being overweight and diabetic later in life.

Question 12

Victora et al (2016) - Mothers

Answer 12

Prevents breast cancer, improves birth spacing and might reduce a woman’s risk of diabetes and ovarian cancer

Question 13

Powls and Cooke (1998)

Answer 13

Children born at a very low birth rate tend to have a lower IQ.

Question 14

Roddy (2012)

Answer 14

Concerns were raised about anaesthesia in early childhood based on animal findings

Question 15

O’Leary et al (2018)

Answer 15

No detectable adverse child development outcomes when comparing children that went under anaesthesia compared to siblings that didn’t.

Question 16

Glatz et al (2017)

Answer 16

exposure to anesthesia before age 4 was associated with 0.97% lower IQ score (33,514 children relative to 159619 control children; IQ age 18 Swedish military conscription) – very small effect.

Question 17

Anderson and Kunin-Bateson (2009)

Answer 17

Chemotherapy in early childhood can affect intelligence

Question 18

Flynn Effect definition

Answer 18

IQ scores on average have been getting higher through the generations because we are used to thinking more abstractly than our ancestors.

Question 19

Wonggupparaj, Kumari and Morris (2015)

Answer 19

The Flynn Effect is present in both developed and non-developed countries.

Question 20

Sundet, Barlaug and Torjussen (2004)

Answer 20

there was a sharp rise in IQ scores between the mid 50s and mid 70s, it started to stabilise until a dip. There was also a correlation between IQ and height

Question 21

Daley et al (2003)

Answer 21

Looked at the Flynn effect in rural Kenya between 1984 and 1998. They found that Kenyans’ family size was dramatically decreasing and calorie intake/protein was increasing. Hookworm was decreasing and hemoglobin deficiency was increasing.

Question 22

Riedermann, Becker and Coyle (2017)

Answer 22

The Flynn Effect is happening due to immigration and more intelligent people having fewer children

Question 23

Teasdale and Owen (2005)

Answer 23

There is a dip in IQ scores in the 90s.

Question 24

Boyle et al (2021)

Answer 24

Low levels of blood lead explain loss in IQ scores in elementary school. Black students struggle the most with the blood lead correlation.