However the evidence from neuroscience does not support the correlation.
I don't know what "evidence" you think you have, but try reducing your brain mass by 50% and see if your capacity for mental function isn't drastically decreased.
It's beyond question that there's a gross corellation between brain mass and mental capacity. I don't see in what rational way this proposition can be disputed; certainly not with the true assertion that there's little or no corellation between small-scale brain size variation and the degree to which you can absorb education.
Crashfrog stated that IQ measured education — not intelligence.* Not sure where he got that notion
From Alfred Binet. Maybe you've heard of him? He's the inventor of the IQ test, named after him in it's most modern incarnation, the Stanford-Binet V.
but IQ experts disagree.
Well, no, they don't. IQ experts and psychologists agree that IQ tests measure what they're supposed to measure - the degree to which the subject has absorbed the educational objectives appropriate for his age-peers.
That's why your IQ changes as you age, why it can go up or down - sometimes you pull ahead of your peers, sometimes you fall behind. IQ is based on age. An adult with an IQ of 100 is way, way more educated than a child of the same IQ.
In regards to what IQ measures, let's look closer at that Standford-Binet V. The test itself gagues performance in five key areas:
Fluid Reasoning
Knowledge
Quantitative Reasoning
Visual-Spatial Processing
Working Memory
See? "Knowledge". Since none of us are
born with knowledge, since knowledge is not an innate quality of the human brain, another way to refer to "knowledge" is "education." And all the rest are skill areas that can be improved with excercise, like video games, puzzles, or even
taking IQ tests.
The inventor of the test invented it to test education. The test itself gagues your education. Scores on the test are positively correlated (prior to "correction") with socioeconomic status - in other words your access to quality education. Proposition proved, as far as I can tell.
Exactly who do you have that's telling you the test measures something other than education? Because they're wrong. What does the test measure if not education?
This message has been edited by crashfrog, 08-08-2005 07:31 PM