|
|
Re: Marshmallow test -Reply
Stephanie Wilson (swilson@CHEMONICS.COM)
Wed, 16 Oct 1996 08:57:01 -0400
Sorry, John. I didn't mean for this to be taken seriously. Just a joke for those Generation X-ers
among us who have been seriously over tested in our lives to the point where special classes
and even schools have been set up just to make sure we pass the various standardized tests set
up as obstacle courses on our road to higher education. Once you add in aptitude and personality
tests, it approaches the point of absurdity.
Of course, the point brought up here by my friend is that the researchers may not have been
measuring what they think they were measuring (substitute intelligence or success for IQ if it
makes it easier to read). Maybe the kids who succeed are the ones who are healthier because
they don't like marshmallows.
>>> John McCreery <jlm@TWICS.COM> 10/15/96 10:24am >>>
>I had to post the marshmallow test to a few friends who brought up the
>following point:
>
> Beth brings up a very valid point which anthropolists or statisticians
> should not overlook. That is of course the fact that there may be a
> correlation between those kids who just don't like marshmellows and
> those that like them too much. Perhaps a quick study of this would
> help to prove the theory that IQ is based on the degree to which a
> child likes marshmellows.
>
>
Dear Stephanie,
With due respect to your friend she missed the point. The marshmallow test
is NOT correlated with IQ. It is more strongly correlated than IQ with
later life success both academic and otherwise.
John McCreery
3-206 Mitsusawa HT, 25-2 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama 220, JAPAN
"And the Lord said unto Cyrus, 'Shall the clay say to him who moldest it,
what makest thou? Let the potsherd of the earth speak to the potsherd of
the earth." --An anthropologist's credo
|