Classical-Music Fans May Have More Brains

[mahlertitan]

i swear this is at least the 10th time that some idiots start to boast about their IQs, geez, we get the message, your smart, omnipotent being!
what is next? SATs? SAT subject test scores? MCATs? how about AP scores? or IB scores?

have a good life

-mt

[Hector]

This is OT, but I remember a little man I met in my early years of teaching guitar whom just always had to dig at me in reference to my religion (Catholicism is subject to that alot these days). When he continually saw me just smile, unaffected, he asked me how I stayed so imperturbable. I told him that people whom either loudly trumpet their beliefs, or get defensive over them, are in reality questioning their faith. Those whom really live with and respect their own beliefs have no reason to contest and/or defend them.

Imagine the same little man's face when I told him that Nietzsche's incredibly beautiful/ironic portrayal of Christ in Der AntiChristlich (one of my favorite books) helped steer me back to Roman Catholicism!

Or it could mean that, like Pooh, you are a 'bear of very little brain' and unquestioning in your beliefs.

In my vast experience of life as we know it I find that some people will believe and accept anything, absolutely anything, without any outside pressure or influence whatsoever.

Scientology is a prime example. To me, absolute tosh, probably dangerous, but to many of the 'religions' followers a way to lead their lives.

No offence intended, by the way.

[greg]

http://www.iqtest.dk/main.swf

i looked at that test and messed around for about 10 minutes, but didn't feel like finishing it.
The first 10 or so questions are way too simple, a 1st grader could do them. There are a few that are REALLY hard, though. I haven't gotten to the last ones, they're probably impossible.

[Scriptavolant]

Ok, let's back track a bit. The argument is this: can somebody with lesser mental ability be able to grasp higher forms of musical expression given the individual in question works hard and long at it?

Remember, a sudden lessening in mental power changed the musical taste of the subjects included in the original study, bypassing whatever knowledge or experience they have accumulated during the time they were exposed to classical music.

1. Too many factors are non-defined. What do you mean with "mental ability"? There are very different kind of mental abilities: linguistical, spatial, mnemonic, purely abstract, logical. Intelligence is a theoretical construct generally subdivided in two factors.
a) fluid intelligence: the ability to solve problems, the ability of reasoning, in its wide meaning.
b) crystallized intelligence: notions you acquire in your cultural formation.
By the way, IQ tests which are really reliable are for example: the WAIS, the WISC (crystallized intelligence), Culture Fair Test, Raven progressive matrices (fluid intelligence).

2. As I've already said, dementia induces a sudden lessening of a lot of other functions: you could forget your habitual butcher's name (or even your mother's name), as well as the place where you've parked your car 10 minutes before. I suspect that a study on normal subjects would be more suitable to study inter-subjective variability in musical abilities.

[Philoctetes]

i swear this is at least the 10th time that some idiots start to boast about their IQs, geez, we get the message, your smart, omnipotent being!
what is next? SATs? SAT subject test scores? MCATs? how about AP scores? or IB scores?

have a good life

-mt

I find that this always comes about in direct relation to reproductive organs.

[greg]

I find that this always comes about in direct relation to reproductive organs.

yep, the better with one, the worse with the other

[Philoctetes]

yep, the better with one, the worse with the other

I don't know if I would say that at all.

[greg]

I don't know if I would say that at all.

so i'm guessing you're saying this because you're really smart?   

[Philoctetes]

so i'm guessing you're saying this because you're really smart?   

lol

[rhomboid]

IQ is higher, temporarily