Poverty saps the brain: US-India study
From a shopping mall in New Jersey to the farm fields of India, experiments show that poverty saps people's brainpower and may lower IQ by 13 points, scientists said Thursday.
The findings in the US journal Science suggest that being poor can drain a person's mental resources, leaving him or her less capable of focusing on other things, like solving problems and controlling impulses.
"Because you have all these other things on your mind, you have less mind to give to everything else," said co-author Sendhil Mullainathan, a Harvard University economist.
Rather than blaming poverty on the individual or the environment, the study suggests that the state of being poor exerts the same effect as losing a full night's sleep or having lower intelligence.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/poverty-saps-brain-us-india-study-203215314.html#8ZOyZnd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70NeOZPYeq4
If you are broke... you don't eat right... if you don't eat right you have stress... if you have stress you don't sleep right... without proper sleep your brain turns to MUSH.
Simple as that No scientific study needed
::)
They've been saying Our collective IQ is dropping...
Wonder if there's a causal relationship... Hmmmmmm....
Quote from: Amaterasu on September 01, 2013, 12:25:14 PM
They've been saying Our collective IQ is dropping...
Wonder if there's a causal relationship... Hmmmmmm....
No that is caused by i-Phones, video games and chat rooms :P
Quote from: zorgon on September 01, 2013, 11:51:35 AM
If you are broke... you don't eat right... if you don't eat right you have stress... if you have stress you don't sleep right... without proper sleep your brain turns to MUSH.
Simple as that No scientific study needed
::)
If you don't eat right your brain doesn't work as well as it should, the brain needs mostly two things: oxygen and sugar.
Quote from: zorgon on September 01, 2013, 12:31:01 PM
No that is caused by i-Phones, video games and chat rooms :P
Now, z, You have to admit that the poverty in this country (USA) is rising about in pace w/that drop in IQ.
I disagree 100% :P
When you are hungry, your brain goes into overdrive to come up with a (preferably food related) solution.
I tend to keep myself hungry for just that reason, that & i simply have no time to eat or perform other bodily functions, except hot showers which i do twice a day because i sweat & burn calories a lot, & it's also my meditation time.
Where do all the worlds best scam artists come from?
Poor countries :P
Quote from: Amaterasu on Today at 07:25:14 AM
They've been saying Our collective IQ is dropping...
Wonder if there's a causal relationship... Hmmmmmm....
No that is caused by i-Phones, video games and chat rooms
get a kid outside without those and they will blossom..some take longer than others
but dang their little brains just can't stop
Quote from: PlaysWithMachines on September 01, 2013, 07:06:12 PM
I disagree 100% :P
I disagree with your disagreement. ;D
QuoteWhen you are hungry, your brain goes into overdrive to come up with a (preferably food related) solution.
In my case, since I was finishing high-school, I noticed that eating before a test (or, more generically, before needing to use the brain at full power) gave me better results.
That's how I, at the third attempt, got a positive result in the Mathematics exam. :)
Well, to begin with , "poverty" is a word of applied relevance, with no real defnitive meaning. And the brain is one of the least understood organs of the body. And poverty vs brainpower, even if considered to be symbiotic, would be much like the "chicken vs the egg" scenario.
On the basis of the subject poverty assumptions, then should we also assume/suppose that wealth leads to "genius"? ;)
Brains, and brain connections are not all made the same, and IQ levels are very varied naturally. Achievement and degree of wealth are circumstantial evidence which simply portends input from a host of individual factors, including but not limited to IQ, family incentive-for-learning environment, level and direction of education, work incentive, etc, etc, etc,.........................................................etc. I would expect that if any zapping of brain power is actually going on, with such as poverty, it is most likely that such zapping would be just a prevalent with a whole host of other life experiences that also "tax the brain cells"! ;D
The EGG came first because it would have to mutate in the embrio to create a Chicken :D
And if a tree falls in the forest and there are no ears to hear it, its doesn't make a sound :D
Quote from: zorgon on September 02, 2013, 03:28:25 AM
The EGG came first because it would have to mutate in the embrio to create a Chicken :D
Well "do tell" Oh great and mighty Knight of the Pegasus Forest! Pray tell, please, from whence did come the EGG?? :)
I had been thinking that maybe things like GMO foods & vaccines may be responsible for IQ reduction assuming that the article refers to modern day... This is often what Alex Jones & his team often indicates.
But I am not sure that GMOs or poisoned type foods apply in all various countries...
Or if things are different from poverty from previous generations as it has always been around at least on and off even in more richer 1st world countries where has it has been indicated that it may still be seen as being relevant... where the poor in the western world is still far better off than other countries like parts of Africa and India..
Quote from: rdunk on September 02, 2013, 03:38:44 AM
Well "do tell" Oh great and mighty Knight of the Pegasus Forest! Pray tell, please, from whence did come the EGG?? :)
Simple. The egg came from some other bird that wasn't a chicken :P
Same way an ELEPHANT came from a MASTADON :P
But I guess MASTADONS have to be figments of the imagination too in your version of realyty because they cannot possibly be millions of years old :P
Speaking of which I here there is a Mastadon pit in a wash near Vegas that isn't protected yet I could use a couple of those tusks
8)
Quote from: ArMaP on September 01, 2013, 02:49:13 PM
If you don't eat right your brain doesn't work as well as it should, the brain needs mostly two things: oxygen and sugar.
hence the expression...
LET THEM EAT CAKE...was a POSITIVE suggestion at the time :P
Suggestions that Youngsters watching TV is dumbing them down more..
Especially in later years for their Vocabulary and maths Skills..although he refers this effecting very young children..
BUT I also suspect similarly that the modern Computers and Smart phones are just as likely to be responsible....as it may make them lazy to think in the same way that they had to in the past before such devices were available...
They said this about the use of calculators before PCs were the norm.
BUT In some ways rather than using mental arithmatic.. they could apply quicker and maybe deal with more complex maths without the hard mental boring side of calculations..so I am not so sure I agree.
ie they may suffer in some parts but gain in others.
likewise TV and Computers offer a LOT in Human learning in later life..
although maybe some forms of mental abilities will suffer long term...
as many may become almost hypnotized in their mental states..
such as no longer being able to think for themselves or do certain types of mental agility or apply logical reasoning etc..
Not that a large % of just average people are taught to think for themselves very well.. and MAYBE they are just NOT very capable no matter how hard they try as frustrating as this may seem..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70NeOZPYeq4
Quote from: zorgon on September 02, 2013, 03:53:18 AM
hence the expression...
LET THEM EAT CAKE
...was a POSITIVE suggestion at the time :P
It was, too bad it was not applicable. :)
Quote from: astr0144 on September 02, 2013, 04:31:49 AM
Suggestions that Youngsters watching TV is dumbing them down more..
I don't think the problem is watching TV (that's how I learned English), is not doing anything besides that. That way, all that you can learn from it is wasted because it's not tried in real world situations.
Maybe they ought to teach more classes in school that actually have something to do with living in society and common sense. Something involving some form of ethics would be a good thing. When I go to work I notice a lot of grown up men do things typical of teenagers. They won't clean up after themselves and generally don't have much respect for anything that does not belong to them. I don't see this behavior stemming from TV or videogames but rather a failure to learn how to co-exist properly so that your fellow man/woman won't want to choke you. My father used to tell me "Assume everyone is an @$$H0l3 unless they can prove otherwise". I completely understand why he told me this. :P
Good advice Ellirium :)
Peeps think that because i'm a tech junkie that i have the latest iphone.
They laugh at me when i show them my 4 year old LG.
It works, it does the job, it even has internet.
It does what i need it to do, and i don't have time to learn how a new phone works every 6 months.
I blame the Flouride.
Been off it for 2 years now & i feel great :P
Ditto agree much Ell,
I found when I was studying applied math along with requiste math I mathed out and left school. I can only speak in my own experience, as other people may not have this issue, but I found it boring for hour on end applying forumlas where x = nothing, y = just as much nothinginess and z means something from nothing.
Real World applications of general tools that we learn in education are lacking. In one way though I am envisionagin a socitey or yore where people may have naturally around the skill master's that could teach them, or in a current society of utopia where learning didn't encumber people with a huge debt.
Wish I had have done a building apprenticship now 20 odd years down the track LOL. ;D
lab rat speaks,
ive been watching this thread without posting to see how yall think.as a member of the poverty class,i would say no in my specialized situation .lol.i have seen improvements in my iq from just drinking filtered water.also from staying on top of science is best i can.i believe sugar has played a great role also as i use to be a dr.pepper junky.four liters a day sometimes.between the caffiene and sugar.the majority of folks couldnt keep up with me.my teeth paid the price.
my daughter seems to be in the high percentiles and she eats like a bird.but i try to let her do her own thing such as sleep.she is 15 and allowed to sleep whenever she wants.most times she comes home from school and goes right to bed.then around midnoght she will get up for a few hours and then go back to bed.rather than a rigid schedule.this allows the brain to process better.ive also noticed that staying in the cool enviroment makes the brain process better.as i worked alot outside and when it gets hot my brain just shutsdown.
stress probably is a factor because i cant relax when the end of the world is around every corner.we are too busy processing survival and dont have time for rocket science.tv is just programing.trash in trash out.so spending the extra money for dish i hope is improving the quality of trash i get.another thing is exposure to new tech.when the economy was blasting away i was being exposed to new tech everyday.how i would love to spend a month working beside pwm.now that economy is at a standstill.my exposure is limited to the bottleneck called the droid.thats why i believe the best advancement of the collective iq of humans comes from full blown economic boom.the most food .exposure to new ideas .new comforts and peace of mind knowing all the bills get paid.oh and i love a good hot shower to meditate.
Interesting Robo!
I lived in a backpackers for a few years, that also doubled as a halfway house for youth that didn't fit in for whatever reason. There is no doubt their health lacked, but what was more odd is that some of them were great at biz... Heck one guy was sustaining himself on Ebay with 4.95 shipping on 99c items LOL
If that was a big corporation it would be lauded as brilliance. In his case I wonder where he is now. :(
EDIT TYPO
"my daughter seems to be in the high percentiles and she eats like a bird.but i try to let her do her own thing such as sleep.she is 15 and allowed to sleep whenever she wants.most times she comes home from school and goes right to bed.then around midnoght she will get up for a few hours and then go back to bed.rather than a rigid schedule.this allows the brain to process better."
Cool Robo,
I remember reading something years ago that said as kids grow into adolescence they actually require huge amounts of sleep. It's not that they are lazy ( like we always thought ).
I have absolutely no prob at all with kids and TV/technology.
With TV they get language, social etiquette and protocol,ideas and
Culture awareness. The good AND the bad.
And tech,
I went in to my 12 year old sons room the other night. He was playing COD online on his PS while skyping the lad he was playing with on his ipad streaming his tunes on his phone.
And I bloody love it.. Kids have the world at their fingertips today.
It's Scary as hell really, but its here and it ain't goin away.
Yeah thats the cool thing EH
I grew up with an Atari, then a Commodore Vic 20, which followed with a C64. FUN times clocking game's! I may be different in only aspect though as I grew on a 1000 acres. All time was divided up between my grandparents who lived next door and baking with my gran, more games in the forms of cards or board games and then shredding dirt on two wheels along with building jumps with a shovel and a wheelbarrow !
I am poor now in comparrision to the other people in regards to the barometer people talk about "Real Estate" , but heck I can get sugar cheap... and the brain run's on sugar ;)
" SO the system not so much wrong, people are wrong " ;D
Som, every kid needs a thousand acres to grow up on.
Wouldn't that be nice.:)
Quote from: robomont on September 02, 2013, 06:29:33 PM
ive also noticed that staying in the cool enviroment makes the brain process better.as i worked alot outside and when it gets hot my brain just shutsdown.
Hot air has less oxygen, that's why I feel better in those cold, dry winter days and bad in the hot days like today and tomorrow, with 36ยบ C expected. :(
Another thing the brain needs (a lot) is exercise, so a brain that is mostly used to think "how can I feed my kids?" is not working as it should be, so, like most things in our bodies, it starts to shift the energy (20% to 25% of all the energy we use goes to the brain) to other things.
Some interesting comments !
With ref to some exams...something else that Alex Jones / Paul J Watson commented on was that they claim that those in education will make Secondary School and College leavers in the UK ( at age about 16 to 18 yrs) level exams deliberately harder some years.. and easier other years..
So the Teenagers do not really know where they stand sometimes....
Some years the % rate of passes is very high, but often employers are finding in these instances that if they employ them that they do not meet their requirements...
Then other years...The Youths may feel disappointed believing that they may not had done too well not realizing that their exams were made to aid them to fail. In some cases they do not get the jobs that they deserve.
If I can find the video where they describe this I will post it...
Today I just heard that if school leavers do NOT make the required grade for a pass in their GCSEs at a grade "C" minimum (similar to the old "O levels" that lasted for years until they changed things) at age of 16 yrs old.. that they will now be FORCED to stay on another TWO years UNTIL they pass....
As unemployment is so high for school leavers...its hard to find jobs for them...
But is this right to force them to stay on in education..
I do NOT believe that everyone can pass a GCSE in Maths & English at "Grade C"
Is this another scam that the government in enforcing or is it to youngsters advantage ?
For some Yes !, others I am not so sure ....
Many years ago, when my elder sister was finishing her art course, a professor told her and some other students that they had received orders from the ministry of education to let less people pass, as they weren't going to get as much from high school as they needed to keep the money flowing.
I think Robo got it again.
They started to make the GCSE's easier in the 90's and then realised their mistake.
But i also think that the 6th graders of yesterday were taught more than the post-grads of today.
I have seen college professors reach for a calculater to add stuff like 5+3=?
(if you know the answer, you have just passed this years exam)
I took 16 'o' levels in 2 years, passed 12 of them, mostly C grades, and 2 'B's in Metalwork & geometrical drawing.
No-one gets straight A's, if they do, i want them on my team :P
Interesting further comments on this thread....
Robo's comments on his ideas and actions certainly seem to have done him well...becoming aware of things that may have been affecting him and trying or willing to change them if he thinks that his IQ was being reduced by certain drinks or foods...and avoiding them to later on find positive changes in his IQ is good to know from his experience and any monitoring & comparison of his performance.
His or any of us trying to keep up and or to study Science would be for better IQ performance I would think..
I believe IQs can be improved by doing & practicing IQ test...say when leading up to any sort of tests....Which I believe has benefited myself at certain times in my life if say having to prepare for certain Psychrometic tests that I have had to take for some jobs that I have applied for in my past. Sometimes I would practice each day for so many hours a week or so in advance...
BUT I will be honest and say that IF I do not keep this up or do the work required, that I could soon slip back to what Id call my average ability.. so I am not always sure that it would be for the best long term...as later on even if I got the job, if I am not keeping up with certain mental exercises... that I may begin to struggle and become stressed out if I still am required to work with somethings that I would normally not prepare for.. I suspect this would apply to most average people... BUT those gifted just seem to have been born to think clearly and have good memory & other intellect skills that seem natural to them..
Some years ago in one job I was in I was being pushed by some Technical boss in my training... and one day my mind just seemed to click into gear and things just became so much clearer to me ...I felt as if My memory & IQ had improved very well for a few months...as if a switch had been turned on...at the time the feeling was good in some ways , but the downside is my mind became overactive and it later effected my sleep patterns....that later effected my performance..
It became a bit of a catch 22 situation.
But Later other things happened in life , we had the pressures in the recession periods and it was not long before I was back to my normal abilities...and I have never since been back to that state..
I think since then I have experienced things that for whatever reason stressed me out and this gradually has eroded my abilities..
Wow PWMs.... 16 GCSEs...with 12 "C" Grades that is a lot of exams to have taken...
It is hard to say just how things changed since the Old "O" levels..to when the brought the GCSEs in...
There was talk that the early GSCEs were easier...and admittedly in some ways they were... as "O" levels had mainly been one exam at the end of the 2 years of learning for each subject..which I think is harder than the GCSE system that used being assessed for certain things throughout the terms...where you got so many marks for projects and so many marks for the end of term exam..
BUT some years students did well if they got a grade "C" which was supposed to be the equivalent of a lower "O" level pass grade..
Then other years a numerous % of students seemed to be getting "A" grade passes...much more than the average...and it seemed too good to be true....
Then other years you read that very few students pass "A grades "
So I do suspect that it is manipulated...
Before Alex Jones came on the scene I read a book once that claimed that the education system was corrupted...so that students / employers often would not know the reality of youngsters abilities...
I also recall reading somewhere in a psychology book at college one day ... that on average (Not all cases )people who had a "wider" forehead frontal lobe ( don't quote me..but if I recall over 12 CMs ) tend to have better memories and do better in exams and tend to make supervisor or management positions...and these tend to say do better in the OLD "O" & "A" levels where they can recall things better for the longer term for one main exam at the end of the terms...and that their longer term memories seem to be better..
Not sure if this is true...BUT I often do note many manager types appear this way...
I also read those with bigger heads tend to live longer...
and it may be that they are stronger..at least mentally..
It may down to pure fate of biological development or maybe this is part of general human genetics....
Id only say that I became aware of this as I have got older...and NO ONE ever warned me about it until I read it...
I suspect that many teachers are aware of youngsters as they are growing up and develop that they are aware of such things and maybe know who is likely to do well in exams / life...by observing such or related type of things in a child's development.....Maybe also a child's level of testosterone / estrogen levels /development may also play a similar part in their assessments..
This may be things most average parents would never have been aware about...
IF the Governments / health authorities are involved in things that may alter some of these things...then maybe they are using the changes of certain things in food and water & in vaccines to alter the future of our present or upcoming generations mental & physical development..as to how they desire !