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Subject:Re: Math vs. writing From:Michael LaTorra <mikel -at- HUEY -dot- ACCUGRAPH -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 14 Nov 1994 11:22:05 MST
An interesting article with some relevance to this thread has
appeared in SCIENCE NEWS (Oct. 8, 1994). In the article titled
"Images of Intellect", writer Bruce Bower reports on the work of
a couple of different research teams who have used PET scans
and written questionaires to elicit some intriguing data.
PET (Positron Emission Tomography) tests of people with
different IQs who work at solving the same test questions have
revealed something unexpected. It seems that the brains of people with
lower IQ's have to work harder to solve certain test problems when
measured in terms on how much glucose their brains burn in the
process. The brains of higher IQ people run more efficiently,
it seems.
However, change the kind of test questions being asked and different
data results. In tests that demanded more memory usage (in which
the subject must memorize strings of numbers), the high IQ people
burned more energy than did the average IQ ones.
Finally -- and this is perhaps a jumping off point for a new thread --
there are the extremely talented math students (boys and girls who scored
700 or above on the math SAT *at age 13*) who were questioned about
how they view mathematics. Girls in this group reported that they
were strongly influenced by "aesthetic" values such as sensitivity
to form and beauty. Boys in this group reported that they were
strongly influenced by "theoretical" considerations such as wanting
to know how a machine works.
What's it all mean? Beats me. But it sure is suggestive of some
interesting lines of future research. Stay tuned.
Live long & prosper,
Mike LaTorra
Documentation Supervisor
Accugraph Inc.
mikel -at- accugraph -dot- com
..........................................................................
The opinions expressed are my own, ][ "The superstitions of intellectuals
and not necessarily those of my ][ are still superstitions -- and they
company -- but they probably ][ have a lot of them. The real ques-
should be. ][ tion is why we keep listening to
][ them after their nostrums have
][ failed time and time again."
][ -- Thomas Sowell
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