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How poverty taxes the brain

JP Hochbaum

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"Researchers publishing some groundbreaking findings today in the journal Science have concluded that poverty imposes such a massive cognitive load on the poor that they have little bandwidth left over to do many of the things that might lift them out of poverty – like go to night school, or search for a new job, or even remember to pay bills on time.

The condition of poverty imposed a mental burden akin to losing 13 IQ points

In a series of experiments run by researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Warwick, low-income people who were primed to think about financial problems performed poorly on a series of cognition tests, saddled with a mental load that was the equivalent of losing an entire night’s sleep. Put another way, the condition of poverty imposed a mental burden akin to losing 13 IQ points, or comparable to the cognitive difference that’s been observed between chronic alcoholics and normal adults.

The finding further undercuts the theory that poor people, through inherent weakness, are responsible for their own poverty – or that they ought to be able to lift themselves out of it with enough effort. This research suggests that the reality of poverty actually makes it harder to execute fundamental life skills. Being poor means, as the authors write, “coping with not just a shortfall of money, but also with a concurrent shortfall of cognitive resources.”

How Poverty Taxes the Brain - Emily Badger - The Atlantic Cities
 
"Researchers publishing some groundbreaking findings today in the journal Science have concluded that poverty imposes such a massive cognitive load on the poor that they have little bandwidth left over to do many of the things that might lift them out of poverty – like go to night school, or search for a new job, or even remember to pay bills on time.

The condition of poverty imposed a mental burden akin to losing 13 IQ points

In a series of experiments run by researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Warwick, low-income people who were primed to think about financial problems performed poorly on a series of cognition tests, saddled with a mental load that was the equivalent of losing an entire night’s sleep. Put another way, the condition of poverty imposed a mental burden akin to losing 13 IQ points, or comparable to the cognitive difference that’s been observed between chronic alcoholics and normal adults.

The finding further undercuts the theory that poor people, through inherent weakness, are responsible for their own poverty – or that they ought to be able to lift themselves out of it with enough effort. This research suggests that the reality of poverty actually makes it harder to execute fundamental life skills. Being poor means, as the authors write, “coping with not just a shortfall of money, but also with a concurrent shortfall of cognitive resources.”

How Poverty Taxes the Brain - Emily Badger - The Atlantic Cities

The work by Marian Cleeves Diamond shows how an enriched environment can increase the size of the frontal cortex.

School of Education at Johns Hopkins University-Response of the Brain to Enrichment
 
jbhe.gif



The Widening Racial Scoring Gap on the SAT College Admissions Test

The Widening Racial Scoring Gap on the SAT College Admissions Test
(2009)

The racial scoring gap on the SAT test has now become Wider than has been the case for the past two decades. Many believe that in the years to come the gap may grow smaller, not because blacks are catching up to whites in educational achievement, but rather because the test makers are adding a writing component to the test that may be manipulated to Lessen Racial Differences and therefore reduce public criticisms of the test.

For many decades The College Board has used a 200 to 800 scoring scale of performance for both the verbal and mathematical sections of the Scholastic Assessment Test. Now a writing component has been added to the SAT. From now on, students will receive three scores each ranging between 200 and 800. In the past a 1600 has been the best possible score on the composite SAT. Hereafter, the best composite score will be 2400. This means that this year's test results will be the last time JBHE will be able to compare black-white SAT scores based on the scoring system that has been used since racial differences in test results were first made public in 1976.
[..........]
Explaining the Black-White SAT Gap
[...]
But there is a major Flaw in the thesis that income differences explain the racial gap. Consider these three observable facts from The College Board's 2005 data on the SAT:

• Whites from families with incomes of less than $10,000 had a mean SAT score of 993. This is 129 points Higher than the national mean for all blacks.

• Whites from families with incomes below $10,000 had a mean SAT test score that was 61 points Higher than blacks whose families had incomes of between $80,000 and $100,000.

• Blacks from families with incomes of more than $100,000 had a mean SAT score that was 85 points Below the mean score for whites from all income levels, 139 points Below the mean score of whites from families at the same income level, and 10 points Below the average score of white students from families whose income was less than $10,000.
[..........]​
 
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jbhe.gif



The Widening Racial Scoring Gap on the SAT College Admissions Test

The Widening Racial Scoring Gap on the SAT College Admissions Test
(2009)

The racial scoring gap on the SAT test has now become Wider than has been the case for the past two decades. Many believe that in the years to come the gap may grow smaller, not because blacks are catching up to whites in educational achievement, but rather because the test makers are adding a writing component to the test that may be manipulated to Lessen Racial Differences and therefore reduce public criticisms of the test.

For many decades The College Board has used a 200 to 800 scoring scale of performance for both the verbal and mathematical sections of the Scholastic Assessment Test. Now a writing component has been added to the SAT. From now on, students will receive three scores each ranging between 200 and 800. In the past a 1600 has been the best possible score on the composite SAT. Hereafter, the best composite score will be 2400. This means that this year's test results will be the last time JBHE will be able to compare black-white SAT scores based on the scoring system that has been used since racial differences in test results were first made public in 1976.
[..........]
Explaining the Black-White SAT Gap
[...]
But there is a major Flaw in the thesis that income differences explain the racial gap. Consider these three observable facts from The College Board's 2005 data on the SAT:

• Whites from families with incomes of less than $10,000 had a mean SAT score of 993. This is 129 points higher than the national mean for all blacks.

• Whites from families with incomes below $10,000 had a mean SAT test score that was 61 points higher than blacks whose families had incomes of between $80,000 and $100,000.

• Blacks from families with incomes of more than $100,000 had a mean SAT score that was 85 points Below the mean score for whites from all income levels, 139 points below the mean score of whites from families at the same income level, and 10 points below the average score of white students from families whose income was less than $10,000.
[..........]​

Thanks for proving JP's point.
 
Let step up the War on Poverty by a couple hundred billion so we can free up some more bandwidth for the poor! How else could they ever get out of poverty, especially in a country like the United States?
 
Let step up the War on Poverty by a couple hundred billion so we can free up some more bandwidth for the poor! How else could they ever get out of poverty, especially in a country like the United States?

Good evening, JC! :2wave:

I haven't decided if I'm living in the Land of Oz with Dorothy, or if I've joined Alice in Wonderland, or if I'm living in the Matrix. It is an ongoing puzzle.... :lamo:
 
Just admit. This is the innate problem with individualistic and thus capitalistic cultures. If we provide the basic necessities for everyone, everyone would be free to pursue their essence of man; the essence of who they are. This is a much more meaningful and fulfilled life. People from across the globe would be free to pursue various interests that is their passion, ranging from acting, writing, engineering, or scientific research. People would not have to worry about how they are going to feed their families and ensure their people's survival. This will inevitably drop crime and even entire international conflict, if we were to distribute basic resources to everyone.

We have the know how to do this. We have the know how to provide a space based solar energy network capable of satisfying the power demands of the entire globe 3 times over! The power being transmitted would cost about half the amount of current power! We have the know how to install maglev trains. We have the know how to power homes individually using renewable methods. We have the know how to create a more efficient and completely public transportation system. If we took the cost of one B2 bomber, this cost in of itself would bolster struggling schools increasing the efficiency of our education, which keep in mind would decrease costs with regards to criminal behavior.

But why don't we do this? We have the resources. The resources are there. The exact cost of a space based solar energy network is under 100 billion dollars, or less than an International Space Station. We have built a space station, so obviously we could build this network. Okay so we don't want the government to do it, have the private sector to do it! The top 1% of this world holds trillions of dollars. For less than 1% of their total income, they could install a global power network and still make a profit. But again, this isn't done.

We aren't consistent. We constantly give credit to the successes of our current society and mindset, but refuse to acknowledge the failures that it has brought. It is a failure in my mind as to why we have not provided basic necessities to everyone including electricity, while also not providing the basic cost of transportation. We all know how to do it! So why isn't it done?

We have the physical resources, we have the mindpower, and we definitely have the money, but it is this religious loyalty to our current mindset of capitalism.

This gross mindset of hording resources for the individual creates a life of unnecessary struggle to billions of people on this planet.

We had insane amounts of production during WWII. We created the interstate highway system in the 50's. We launched the Apollo program in the 60's. The possibilities are endless if we really put our heads together and worked together. We could provide basic necessities to everyone. We could provide transportation to everyone. And this would allow people to pursue other interests leading to a more healthy and fulfilling lifestyle.
 
:agree

Evening Polgara :2wave:

Good evening, JC! :2wave:

I haven't decided if I'm living in the Land of Oz with Dorothy, or if I've joined Alice in Wonderland, or if I'm living in the Matrix. It is an ongoing puzzle.... :lamo:
 
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