American IQ Scores Have Rapidly Dropped, Proving the 'Reverse Flynn Effect'

Re:American IQ Scores Have Rapidly Dropped, Proving the 'Rev... by watwut on Tuesday April 11, 2023 @10:07AM (#35525360)

I studied CS and it seems to me that it did not taught critical thinking all that much. It taught logical thinking. We have tendency to create simplified model of the world, make logical inferences on it and then ignore actual messy real world evidence when it contradicts our theories.

So, the caricature of a STEM student will make theory in his mind and then ignored pretty much all nuance in the article the theory is based on.

Another example would be bias. The history students are specifically trained to deal with bias in source material and accept that every single historical source is biased by own point of view. The amount of STEM graduates who split world into two neat categories "biased" and "non-biased" is staggering.

All of these are elements of critical thinking.

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Re:American IQ Scores Have Rapidly Dropped, Proving the 'Rev... by worrycue on Tuesday April 11, 2023 @11:05AM (#35526194)

> We have tendency to create simplified model of the world, make logical inferences on it and then ignore actual messy real world evidence when it contradicts our theories.

That's not the world of engineering - the "E" in STEM - though.

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Re:American IQ Scores Have Rapidly Dropped, Proving the 'Rev... by zenapollo on Tuesday April 11, 2023 @11:55AM (#35526959)

Yes. This one is so pernicious. One problem is that most stem disciplines are built upon equation based models or something related. This works great for math, great for physics, good for chemistry, and not great for biology, really bad for psych or econ. Equation based models have neat linear-causal thinking that simply fails in understanding complex systems in all but the most reductive questions. Most stem students leave hs/bachelors thinking the world is mostly linearly causal. Hell even most doctors think this way - like a mechanic. Discussing the world’s current set of wicked problems with these linear thinkers is unimaginably painful.

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Re:American IQ Scores Have Rapidly Dropped, Proving the 'Rev... by flippinburgers on Friday April 14, 2023 @06:21PM (#35575578)

I would argue that if you cannot first think logically then the supposed "critical thinking" you are doing is little more than you expressing things in a more or less persuasive way. In this case, persuasion is more hinged on charisma than anything material.

Logical thinking is the precursor to proper critical thinking.

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