Understanding Society
The Test of Inflected Acquisition
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
The impressive-sounding ‘Test of Inflected Acquisition’ was really an ordinary IQ test; the children identified as likely ‘bloomers’ were selected by chance. Revisiting Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson’s experiment through Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: A Hopeful History, Doug concentrates on who gained most — young children, particularly boys perceived as Latino — and compares expectations benefiting another person to a placebo working at one remove.
A Note on the Original Text
Doug’s writings are presented as originally written. Spelling, punctuation, and grammatical irregularities have been retained to preserve his words and the integrity of the original record.
ORIGINAL WRITING
The content in this post is based on the book Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.
This test was a common IQ test. Rosenthal and his group gave the IQ test and then tested the results aside. They tossed a coin to decide which kids they would tell teachers were ‘high potentials.’ The power of expectation worked its magic. Teachers gave the group of ‘smart’ pupils more attention, more encouragement, and more praise. This changed how these students thought of themselves. The effect was clearest among the youngest kids, whose scores increased by twenty-seven in a single year. The largest gains were among boys who looked Latino, a group typically subject to the lowest expectations in California.
This was the previously mentioned Pygmalion Effect. And, as was mentioned before, the Pygmalion Effect resembles the placebo effect, instead, of benefiting oneself, these are exceptions benefitting others.