Effort impacts IQ test scores in a minor way:

Timothy C.Bates, Gilles E. Gignac (2022)

Highligths

-> Motivation has been suggested to strongly influence low-stakes intelligence scores.

-> We test this in six studies (N = 4208).

-> In 3 randomized control tests, incentive effects were non-significant.

-> No evidence of dose dependency, Evidence for reverse causation.

-> In neurotypical adults motivation has negligible effects (≈ 2.5 IQ points).

Abstract

Test motivation has been suggested to strongly influence low-stakes intelligence scores, with for instance, a recent meta-analysis of monetary incentive effects suggesting an average 9.6 IQ point impact (d = 0.64). Effects of such magnitude would have important implications for the predictive validity of intelligence tests. We report six studies (N = 4208) investigating the association and potential causal link of effort on cognitive performance. In three tests of the association of motivation with cognitive test scores we find a positive, but modest linear association of scores with reported effort (N = 3007: r ~ 0.28). In three randomized control tests of the effects of monetary incentive on test scores (total N = 1201), incentive effects were statistically non-significant in each study, showed no dose dependency, and jointly indicated an effect one quarter the size previously estimated (d = 0.166). These results suggest that, in neurotypical adults, individual differences in test motivation have, on average, a negligible influence on intelligence test performance. (≈ 2.5 IQ points). The association between test motivation and test performance likely partly reflects differences in ability, and subjective effort partly reflects outcome expectations.

The Desire to be Desired:

"As Psychology Today reports recently, “Most women, for instance, have a strong wish to feel sexually desired. Men also like to be desired, of course. But among the women I see in my office, it’s often much more of a “thing.”

Many women say they don’t feel any spontaneous desire for sex unless it’s stimulated by someone desiring them. As sex therapists, we would say their desire is purely “responsive.” Many women report that feeling desired is what turns them on the most."

-----

Rat Foreplay:

"The female rat runs in front of the male rat, gets his attention, then darts away. With any luck, he’ll be interested enough to chase after her. He might chase her around the cage for a long time, before she finally lets him have her.

The female rats tend to like to prolong all this running around. And more than one sex researcher has wondered whether the female rats enjoy this strange kind of foreplay more than the actual sex.

Many people have noted that the whole thing looks suspiciously like what sometimes during heterosexual human mating: how women’s sexual desire often seems to be as much for the pleasure of being chased as for what happens afterward."

-----

"My colleague Esther Perel describes one of her Spanish-speaking clients playing a game she calls “Juego.” To play this game, the first thing is to make yourself a bit unattainable. If your partner responds by pursuing you, then you’ve won the game.

For many men, the hardest thing about playing “Juego” is to realize there’s a game going on in the first place."

-----

"You think I'm attracted to you and that you can just have me, but you're wrong. You don't have me yet . . . The more persistently you pursue me, the more attractive and irresistible I feel, which makes me move away some more to see if you'll keep coming after me, if I can make you want me even more."

-----

"There is evidence that for women it is important to 'be desired' . . . and it would not be surprising if a woman found that her ability to both attract and, in the process control the behavior of a male partner was rewarding and indeed arousing."

-----

"Female desire, according to Meana, is activated when a woman feels overwhelmingly desired, not rationally considered. Female erotic literature, including all those shades of gray, is built on this fantasy."

Decisions:

farnam street:

"Good decisions need good thinking, and that requires time.”

Personality Neuroscience: An Emerging Field with Bright Prospects

Colin DeYoung et al., 2022

Abstract

Personality neuroscience is the study of persistent psychological individual differences, typically in the general population, using neuroscientific methods. It has the potential to shed light on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying individual differences and their manifestation in ongoing behavior and experience. The field was inaugurated many decades ago, yet has only really gained momentum in the last two, as suitable technologies have become widely available. Personality neuroscience employs a broad range of methods, including molecular genetics, pharmacological assays or manipulations, electroencephalography, and various neuroimaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography. Although exciting progress is being made in this young field, much remains unknown. In this brief review, we discuss discoveries that have been made, methodological challenges and advances, and important questions that remain to be answered. We also discuss best practices for personality neuroscience research and promising future directions for the field.

Detachment from normal human experiences:

farnam street:

"For most Harvard undergrads, our lives during Covid aren’t that different from the way they have always been. To get into this university, we chose to detach ourselves from normal human experiences, neglecting our interests, hobbies, robust social lives—anything that couldn’t appear on a college application or be touted in an interview. Almost everything in life was subordinate to whatever was necessary to get into college ..."

Schon ein interessanter Gedanke, dass ein Mensch normalen menschlichen Erfahrungen, aus Leistungswillen oder aus anderen Gründen heraus, geradezu ausweichen kann; und das gegebenenfalls über Jahre, wenn nicht gar über Jahrzehnte hinweg. Die selektive Zuwendung zu Erlebnissen und die Flucht vor anderen Erlebnissen, das sind interessante Themen ...

Mate Choice:

Physical Attractiveness & Competence:

"Beyond physical attractiveness—an initial and well-studied filter (Egebark et al., 2021; Kenrick et al., 1993), another fundamental and cross-culturally important feature that people use to identify suitors is the ability to acquire resources—what might be called “competence” (Jonason & March, 2021) ..."

-----

"Although romantic relationships may seem trivial compared with other matters in the modern world, such as pandemics, global climate change, and food insecurity, we would not be here to ponder these modern-day existential threats if our ancestors had made deleterious mate choices. Mate choice, in both our ancestral and modern past, has a real impact on individual well-being. Mating mistakes have both reproductive and psychosocial outcomes ..."

Focus:

Winifred Galagher:

"That your experience largely depends on the material objects and mental subjects that you choose to pay attention to or ignore is not an imaginative notion ... When you focus on a STOP sign or a sonet, a waft of perfume or a stock-market tip, your brain registers that "target", which enables it to affect your behavior. In contrast, the things that you don't attend to in a sense don't exist, at least for you. ... Indeed, your ability to focus on this and suppress that  is the key to controlling your experience ..."

Die Welt, in der wir leben, wird durch dasjenige eingefärbt, auf das wir unseren Fokus richten. Ändern wir unseren Fokus, richten wir unsere Aufmerksamkeit neu aus, so wird die innerlich erlebte Umwelt umgestaltet. Wesentlich sind auch folgende Aussagen:

"As the poet says in Beowulf, >Every life has more than enough sadness and more than enough joy.< By skillfully managing your attention, your are able to experience both in a balanced way and stay oriented in a positive, productive direction. John Milton might have been thinking of the power of focus when he wrote: >The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.< "

Jedes Leben birgt viel (oder genug und ausreichend) an Freude, an Leid. Dennoch kann es passieren, dass  sich ein Mensch beispielsweise im Leid oder in manchen Ereignissen verliert. Das Spektrum an Ereignissen wahrzunehmen, positive und negative, darum geht es wohl. Um also im Erleben nicht zu sehr in eine Schieflage zu geraten.

Nerds and Anti-Nerds:

John Nerst:

here’s a cluster of psychological traits that in my mind make up the nerd pattern:

• an interest in things and ideas over people
• a concern for correctness over social harmony
• a preference for routine and predictability
• obliviousness to and/or disregard for social norms and expectations
• sensitivity to inconsistency, vagueness and ambiguity
• difficulty appreciating the social implications of their actions
• subdued emotional expression
• a view of conversation as information sharing
• a tendency to take statements literally and assume honesty
• preference for codified knowledge and rationality over instinct, experience and intuition
• strong appreciation for trivia, games and building things
• lack of appreciation for appearance, food and exercise

We get the hypothetical anti-nerd personality by reversing this:

• an interest in people over things and ideas
• a concern for social harmony over correctness
• a preference for spontaneity and novelty
• sensitivity to social norms and expectations
• obliviousness to inconsistency, vagueness and ambiguity
• difficulty appreciating the logical implications of their ideas
• strong emotional expression
• a view of conversation as relationship building and -negotiation
• a tendency to take statements as indications of implicit intentions
• preference for instinct, experience and intuition over codified knowledge and rationality
• strong appreciation for appearance, food and exercise
• lack of appreciation for trivia, games and building things

This isn’t just a random bag of traits. Many of them naturally go together and to my eyes these are two coherent clusters. I have no problem matching the anti-nerd pattern to the real world: it describes most people working in media and the arts and to a lesser degree those in social services, education, sales, marketing, PR and politics.

Struktur:

Die Zeit lässt sich auch und insbesondere dadurch strukturieren, indem man sich anhört, was jemand zu sagen hat. Das ist das Schöne an Gesprächen, an Hörbüchern, etc.

Analog, Überlegungen von P. Hofstätter:

"Ich habe mich oftmals gefragt, ob nicht sehr viele der Menschen, die sich durch unsere Geschäftsstraßen drängen - recht ziellos, ohne dass sie meist ernsthafte Absicht oder auch nur die Mittel für einen Kauf hätten - Müßiggänger sind, beladen mit inneren Widersprüchen, getrieben von der Angst, allein zu sein, und vom "horror vacui". Man merkt es schon ihrem Gang an, dass sie eigentlich nicht wissen, wohin sie wollen; was sie zu erwarten scheinen, ist ein Reiz, der ihre Unentschlossenheit zu überblenden vermöchte. Sie sind reizhungrig und schließlich den Neon-Röhren der Auslage dafür dankbar, dass sie ihnen ein qualvolles Selbstgespräch ersparen."

 

~ Einen Mangel an innerer Struktur überblenden.

Is High Self-Esteem Beneficial? Revisiting a Classic Question

Ulrich Ort & Richard W. Robins


Abstract

Debates about the benefits of self-esteem have persisted for decades, both in the scientific literature and in the popular press. Although many researchers and lay people have argued that high self-esteem helps individuals adapt to and succeed in a variety of life domains, there is widespread skepticism about this claim. The present article takes a new look at the voluminous body of research (including several meta-analyses) examining the consequences of self-esteem for several important life domains: relationships, school, work, mental health, physical health, and antisocial behavior. Overall, the findings suggest that self-esteem is beneficial in all these domains, and that these benefits hold across age, gender, and race/ethnicity, and controlling for prior levels of the predicted outcomes and potential third  variable confounds. The meta-analytic estimates of self-esteem effects (which average .10 across domains) are comparable in size to estimates for other hypothesized causal factors such as self-efficacy, positive emotionality, attachment security, and growth mindset, and larger than some generally accepted pharmaceutical interventions. Discussion focuses on several issues that are critical for evaluating the findings, including the strength of the evidence for making causal inferences, the magnitude of the effects, the importance of distinguishing between self-esteem and narcissism, and the generalizability of the results. In summary, the present findings support theoretical conceptions of self-esteem as an adaptive trait that has wide-ranging influences on healthy adjustment and adaptation, and suggest that interventions aimed at boosting self-esteem might, if properly designed and implemented, benefit individuals and society as a whole.

Gespräche:

Man lässt sich wieder und wieder auf ein Gespräch mit dem Anderen ein, wieder und wieder. Das ergibt sich so bei funktionierenden Beziehungen, aber auch bei Freundschaften. Interessant ist hierbei, dass sich zwei finden, denen es nicht oder kaum "fad" wird dabei, sich miteinander zu unterhalten.

Lesen:

Etwas "Wertvolles", etwas "Gutes", oder, in Termini der Wissensgewinnung gesprochen, etwas "Interessantes" aufzuspüren in einem Buch, das ist die Quintessenz, der Dreh- und Angelpunkt der Auseinandersetzung mit Sachbüchern, des Lesens von Sachbüchern. Ein paar Stunden sich Gedanken durch den Kopf gehen zu lassen, die sich im Buch finden. Einem Autor beim Reden zuzuhören. Hin und wieder mit eigenen Überlegungen auf Aufgenommenes zu reagieren. Das ist es, das ist es auch schon.

Lebendigkeit:

Lebendigkeit, das Leben selbst, findet sich da und dort:
Wenn sich ein paar lebendige Stunden einstellen,
bei der Beschäftigung mit Wissen,
dann hat man seine Zeit gut verbracht,
dann haben sich einige gute Pfade aufgetan und erschließen lassen.

Den Zugang zu einem subjektiv gutem Leben

schafft man sich auch und insbesondere dadurch,

indem man nachspürt, wenn etwas den Wissensdurst weckt.

Informationen nachgehen, genau solchen Informationen,

die langanhaltendes und tieferes Interesse wachhalten.

-----

Subjektiv ist mein Zugang zum Wissen recht ähnlich wie mein Zugang zur Kunst. In der Kunst ist es dasjenige, sind es Filme, ist es Musik, sind es Bilder oder ist es Geschriebenes, was nicht oder kaum an Reiz verliert, was mit der Zeit sogar an Reiz gewinnt, was von mir subjektiv als "Kunstwerk" erlebt wird; eben über die Dauer dieser Reize oder des Werthaften. Analog besteht mein Zugang zu Wissen darin, dass sich in Büchern Stellen, Bereiche oder Gedanken finden, die auch bei wiederholter Auseinandersetzung oder Vertiefung ihren Reiz bewahren, ggf. an Reiz gewinnen. Das ist mein Zugang zum Wissen, eben solche Stellen in Büchern aufzuspüren, ja mich geradezu in diese Inhalte zu "verlieben", das Leben zu genießen, das aus der Beschäftigung mit interessanten Inhalten entspringt.

Aufmerksamkeit:

Mir gefällt der Gedanke von Winifred Gallagher sehr, der die Kernaussage ihres Buches "Rapt" bildet: "your life - who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love - is the sum of what you focus on."

Wenn wir anderem Aufmerksamkeit widmen, so verändert uns das. Viele erfahren negative Ereignisse. Diese negativen Ereignisse per se würden nicht so viel ausmachen, wenn nicht, potentiell, die Aufmerksamkeit mehr als notwendig an ihnen haften bliebe. Analog ereignen sich oft positive Ereignisse. An manchen Personen ziehen diese aber anscheinend vorüber, da sie sie kaum beachten. "Gutem" und "Schlechtem" jeweils ein bestimmten Maß an Zuwendung oder an Abwendung zukommen lassen, mit seiner Aufmerksamkeit gut haushalten, das ist für ein gelingendes Leben sehr wesentlich.

Mehr oder Weniger?

Frei nach Hebbel: Es braucht nicht mehr Schriftsteller in der Welt, sondern eher weniger. Analog: Nicht mehr Blogger, sondern eher weniger. Tja, und wie rechtfertige ich dann das Bloggen und diesen Blog? Hmmm ... ja ... gute Frage.

Craft Industries / The Art of Programming:

Freeman Dyson, 1999:

"Because of the enormous variety of specialized applications, there will always be room for individuals to write software based on their unique knowledge. There will always be niche markets to keep small software companies alive. The craft of writing software will not become obsolete. And the craft of using software creatively is flourishing even more than the craft of writing it."

"Today the most successful craft industries are concerned with software and biotechnology."

Conversation Technique:

Scott Adams:

1) Ask Questions
2) Don't complain (much).
3) Don't talk about boring experiences (TV show, meal, dream, etc.).
4) Don't dominate the conversation. Let others talk.
5) Don't get stuck on a topic. Keep moving.
6) Planning is useful but it isn't conversation.
7) Keep the sad stories short, especially medical stories.

KI:

Eine Software bauen, die dann, schließlich, Software entwirft.

Die Idee der sich selbst schreibenden Programme.

Intelligenz:

Wir sind umgeben von Strukturen. Unterschiedliche Phänomene sind miteinander verknüpft. Der Intelligenz geht es eben darum, die Verknüpftheit unterschiedlicher Phänomene zu erkennnen, zu detektieren.