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> Since working memory is a factor in intelligence, one of these statements must be false. That is quite easy to reconcile: "ADHD has no negative effect on int
by schwurb 7y ago
> Since working memory is a factor in intelligence, one of these statements must be false.
That is quite easy to reconcile: "ADHD has no negative effect on intelligence, when accounting for the impaired working memory". It is something you do all the time in psychology, you observe effects in presence or absence of other effects. Psychologists are smart enough to ask questions like "Now that we know that ADHD impairs working memory, does it further impair other factors of intelligence?" The answer seems to be no - which is important, because it implies that improvements in the working memory transition well into improvements in intelligence.
I give you the benefit of doubt here, but I'd wager that most of the non-academic folk that Dr. Barkley communicates with is intuitively aware of what I wrote above and able to form the right mental picture.
- anoncake 7y agoI know how science works and I'd never claim that psychologists are stupid. But being smart does not mean you can't make stupid errors or just not use your intelligence for psychological reasons. Since Barkley lost his brother because of ADHD, I don't think it's impossible that he actually means that it impairs working memory, has no advantages, and does not impair intelligence. Not because he's too stupid to see the contradiction but because he doesn't want to. Then again, it would be quite a coincidence that whatever advantages ADHD has exactly cancel out the working memory issues. I just expected an academic to use precise language (there's nothing wrong with simplifying, but to me, this does not look simplified but wrong.)