Science, growing up, and language and numbers

[dieseltaylor]

Ho hum.

1. Poor food in early life lowers IQ !

2. If you have no words[signs] for numbers you lose numeracy. Always a favourite of mine as I hold words form the way we think.

1.

http://www.labspaces.net/108998/Processed_food_diet_in_early_childhood_may_lower_subsequent_IQ

A diet, high in fats, sugars, and processed foods in early childhood may lower IQ, while a diet packed full of vitamins and nutrients may do the opposite, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The authors base their findings on participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which is tracking the long term health and wellbeing of around 14,000 children born in 1991 and 1992.

Parents completed questionnaires, detailing the types and frequency of the food and drink their children consumed when they were 3, 4, 7 and 8.5 years old. Three dietary patterns were identified: "processed" high in fats and sugar intake; "traditional" high in meat and vegetable intake; and "health conscious" high in salad, fruit and vegetables, rice and pasta. Scores were calculated for each pattern for each child. IQ was measured using a validated test (the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) when they were 8.5 years old. In all, complete data were available for just under 4,000 children.

The results showed that after taking account of potentially influential factors, a predominantly processed food diet at the age of 3 was associated with a lower IQ at the age of 8.5, irrespective of whether the diet improved after that age. Every 1 point increase in dietary pattern score was associated with a 1.67 fall in IQ. On the other hand, a healthy diet was associated with a higher IQ at the age of 8.5, with every 1 point increase in dietary pattern linked to a 1.2 increase in IQ. Dietary patterns between the ages of 4 and 7 had no impact on IQ.

The authors say that these findings, although modest, are in line with previous ALSPAC research showing an association between early childhood diet and later behaviour and school performance. "This suggests that any cognitive/behavioural effects relating to eating habits in early childhood may well persist into later childhood, despite any subsequent changes (including improvements) to dietary intake," they say. The brain grows at its fastest rate during the first three years of life, say the authors, by way of a possible explanation for the findings, adding that other research has indicated that head growth at this time is linked to intellectual ability. "It is possible that good nutrition during this period may encourage optimal brain growth," they suggest, advocating further research to determine the extent of the effect early diet has on intelligence. BMJ-British Medical Journal: http://www.bma.org

2.

http://www.labspaces.net/108990/Words_help_people_form_mathematical_concepts

Language may play an important role in learning the meanings of numbers, scholars at the University of Chicago report. A study based on research on deaf people in Nicaragua who never learned formal sign language showed that people who communicate using self-developed gestures, called homesigns, were unable to comprehend the value of numbers greater than three because they had not learned a language containing symbols used for counting. By contrast, deaf people who acquire conventional sign language as children can learn the meaning of large numbers.

Researchers believe this is because conventional sign language, like spoken languages, imparts a counting routine early in childhood. The study illustrates the complexity of learning the symbolic relationships embedded in language, including seemingly simple numerical concepts. The work may help researchers learn more about how language shapes the way children learn early mathematical concepts, and how that crucial process can go awry in the preschool years. "It's not just the vocabulary words that matter, but understanding the relationships that underlie the words––the fact that 'eight' is one more than 'seven' and one less than 'nine.' Without having a set of number words to guide them, deaf homesigners in the study failed to understand that numbers build on each other in value," said Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Bearsdley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University.

The findings are reported in the paper, "Number Without a Language Model," published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The lead author is University researcher Elizabet Spaepen, a 2008 Ph.D. graduate in psychology who did field work in Nicaragua as part of the study.

Inability to think rather than communicate about numbers Scholars have previously found that people in isolated cultures do not learn the value of large numbers when they are not part of the local language. Two groups studied in the Amazon, for instance, do not have words for numbers greater than five and are unable to match two rows of checkers containing more than five items. Their local culture does not require the use of exact large numbers, which could explain the Amazonians' difficulty with them. However, most Nicaraguans do use exact numbers in everyday monetary transactions. Although the deaf homesigners in the UChicago study understood the relative worth of different currency items, they apparently had an incomplete understanding of their numerical values because they had never been taught number words, Spaepen said. For the study, scholars gave homesigners a series of tasks to determine how well they could recognize money. They were shown 10-unit and 20-unit bills and asked which had more value. When asked if nine 10-unit coins had more or less value than a 100-unit bill, each of the homesigners was able to determine the money's relative value. "The coins and bills used in Nicaraguan currency vary in size and color according to value, which give clues to their value, even if the user has no knowledge of numbers," Spaepen said.

The deaf homesigners could learn about currency based on its color and shape without fully understanding its numerical value. To see if the homesigners could express numerical value outside of the context of money, the scholars showed them animated videos in which numbers were an important part of the plot. They then asked the deaf individuals to retell the video to a friend or relative using homesigns. As the numbers grew, the homesigners became increasingly less able to produce an accurate gesture for the number with their fingers. They were then shown cards with different numbers of items on them, and asked to give a gesture that represented the number of items. The homesigners were accurate only up to the number 3. In addition, they had difficulty making a second row of checkers match a target row when there were more than three checkers in the target, despite the fact that this task did not require any comprehension or production of number gestures. Their difficulty in understanding large numbers therefore did not stem from an inability to communicate about large numbers, but rather from an inability to think about them, the researchers concluded. Researchers performed the tests on hearing, unschooled Nicaraguans, as well as deaf individuals trained in American Sign Language. Both groups outperformed the Nicaraguan homesigners in the study.

University of Chicago: http://www-news.uchicago.edu

[abneo3sierra]

I have, for a long time, thought this. It is interesting to see it researched. It also helps explain one possible reason why so many "poor, uneducated" people stay that way....by this, they do not have the money, to eat well enough, to change the fortunes of their children, and so the cycle continues. Perhaps that is taking it beyond what the study intended, but it is a path that does make some sense I think.

[Tero]

The study illustrates the complexity of learning the symbolic relationships embedded in language, including seemingly simple numerical concepts. The work may help researchers learn more about how language shapes the way children learn early mathematical concepts, and how that crucial process can go awry in the preschool years.

....

The deaf homesigners could learn about currency based on its color and shape without fully understanding its numerical value.

It seems to me these scholars would benefit from getting a few children of their own before they start associating understanding of the relative value (purchase power) and numerical value of currency units.

And they should have embedded in their study the development of virtual money in the equation.

With kids of my own the concept of money has chanced even in the last 10 years or so. Yes, we converted from markka to euro but even so the increased use of plastic and virtual money as the mode of payment has resulted in a vicious circle. An item may cost 20 euros/pounds/dollars but it may as well cost 200 000 Martian rupies at least as far as my kids are concerned. The amount has become a number detached from reality as a monetary value pertaining to the value of the item and the relative purchase power of said amount of currency.

As it happens the story about the sign language people missing the point in the story the fact is the monetary unit value may have been presented in the story prominently but the deaf do not follow the stories the same way hearing people do. Unless the story was contructed by deaf people who are proficient in English the study is null and void as the deaf follow the story differently.

[undead reindeer cavalry]

re:food, one just has to laugh at the never ceasing ideologically motivated pseudostudies, repeating the same crap again and again. the part that is less funny is the millions and billions wasted in social programs based on similar inane studies, even when again and again proven to have zero effect.

oh the shock horror of IQ being inheritable and more intelligent parents feeding their children with more healthy food, tending to read more books or whatever the current choise of trying to "mistakenly" get the causation totally opposite to the reality.

[JonS]

Milk here costs ~$4-5 for 2L. It's good milk, too.

Coke here costs ~$2 for 2L.

[abneo3sierra]

re:food, one just has to laugh at the never ceasing ideologically motivated pseudostudies, repeating the same crap again and again. the part that is less funny is the millions and billions wasted in social programs based on similar inane studies, even when again and again proven to have zero effect.

oh the shock horror of IQ being inheritable and more intelligent parents feeding their children with more healthy food, tending to read more books or whatever the current choise of trying to "mistakenly" get the causation totally opposite to the reality.

Actually, you are probably correct...it comes close to the sports announcer going into long dialogue on how usually the team that scores the most, will win...