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Many psychological findings are remarkably un-surprising in retrospect. And I agree with you, this seems stupidly obvious once I know the answer. But I took a
by rauljara 16y ago
Many psychological findings are remarkably un-surprising in retrospect. And I agree with you, this seems stupidly obvious once I know the answer. But I took an undergraduate course basically dedicated to the history of IQ testing and this gem never came up. A lot of things seem obvious if you know the answer. But I guarantee you, this never occurred to many, many people who have devoted their lives to studying IQ. Also, a lot of things that seem fairly common sense turn out to be wrong when you subject them to empirical testing, so be careful about the applying the 'common sense' filter.
- wccrawford 16y agoMany people think that IQ tests will measure accurately even if the participant doesn't try hard, kind of like how psych tests work. It's not true, though. The questions are -hard- and if you don't try, you won't get the right answer and you'll do worse. So while it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's taken one, not everyone understands how the test works.
- a1k0n 16y ago> A lot of things seem obvious if you know the answer. [...] Also, a lot of things that seem fairly common sense turn out to be wrong when you subject them to empirical testing, so be careful about the applying the 'common sense' filter. A Yahoo researcher wrote a book about this very thing: http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Obvious-Once-Know-Answer/dp/0385531680 http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Obvious-Once-Know-Answer/dp...