Can you think of a connection or two?
April 1, 2010 1:45 PM Subscribe
A little critical thinking fun for your Thursday:
A research study was carried out with 1,800 randomly selected elementary school students. The study showed a very strong connection between the mathematical knowledge of the students and the number of dental cavities and fillings the students have: students with more cavities and fillings can solve more difficult math problems. Please list what you think could have been the possible causes of the study’s findings.
(this is a hypothetical question--there's no right or wrong answer.)
(this is a hypothetical question--there's no right or wrong answer.)
This post was deleted for the following reason: um, no? This is a really weird question and hypo "I just made this up" are not really okay for AskMe -- jessamyn
The math whizzes routinely fell asleep doing their homework, without brushing.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 1:49 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 1:49 PM on April 1, 2010
Age.
posted by PMdixon at 1:50 PM on April 1, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by PMdixon at 1:50 PM on April 1, 2010 [3 favorites]
The students with more fillings have more attentive parents. They're more likely to take their children to the dentist regularly, which increases the chances that they will have had more dental work done, and they also spend more time helping their children with homework, which increases the chances of them doing well on difficult math problems.
posted by lilac girl at 1:50 PM on April 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by lilac girl at 1:50 PM on April 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
The students who excelled at math tended to chew on their pencils, which weakened their teeth.
posted by headspace at 1:50 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by headspace at 1:50 PM on April 1, 2010
They don't usually fill cavities in baby teeth. Also, I'd be willing to bet that older kids have more cavities on average than younger ones. So, the kids who had more cavities and fillings were probably older kids, which is why they did better than the other, younger kids, who did not have as many cavities and fillings. You said this was elementary school-wide, which means the kids age from 5ish to 11ish, and you didn't say the math problems were divided among grade level.
posted by ishotjr at 1:51 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by ishotjr at 1:51 PM on April 1, 2010
Are we talking all cavities, or only filled ones? Parents who take a stronger interest in their kids' educations might also have a stronger interest in taking them to the dentist and taking care of their mouths. Smart people with smart kids might also have better financial ability/health insurance. On preview: what everyone else said.
posted by sdrawkcab at 1:51 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by sdrawkcab at 1:51 PM on April 1, 2010
You're more likely to have dental coverage the more wealthy you are.
Wealth is also correlated with educational ability to some degree.
posted by Lemurrhea at 1:51 PM on April 1, 2010
Wealth is also correlated with educational ability to some degree.
posted by Lemurrhea at 1:51 PM on April 1, 2010
There is some critical information missing - how was the study designed? That would point us in the best direction for speculation. For example, were these age controlled, comparing like age to like age, or not? Because otherwise it is really easy to run into the legendary "IQ is associated with shoe size" problem... they test kids for IQ and find the bigger the shoe, the higher the IQ - which is obvious because older kids are further developed, have bigger feet, and pass those kinds of IQ tests (based on knowledge) with higher scores.
posted by VikingSword at 1:57 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by VikingSword at 1:57 PM on April 1, 2010
This is a classic case of "Correlation does not imply causation".
posted by Kimberly at 1:57 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by Kimberly at 1:57 PM on April 1, 2010
I'm going with age. And pointing out that lily_bart said cavities and fillings.
posted by jdfan at 1:58 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by jdfan at 1:58 PM on April 1, 2010
I think some similar correlations could be found in adults. I've known "math geniuses" that, for instance, don't regularly cut or clean their fingernails.
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:02 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:02 PM on April 1, 2010
As a point of reference I had a lot of cavities when I was a kid (32 in my baby teeth... insane, I know) supposedly due to the fact that I took a lot of antibiotics when my baby teeth were coming in. I also happen to be very good at solving math problems. No idea if one is related to the other. Also, I didn't neglect my teeth as a kid.
posted by thekiltedwonder at 2:10 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by thekiltedwonder at 2:10 PM on April 1, 2010
For those who posit more attentive parents, I want to throw in the wrinkle of dental sealants. The most attentive and wealthy parents may be giving their children dental sealants, thus reducing the risk of cavities and fillings for those children (about 32% of children have them, but kids from families with incomes >200% of the FPL were more likely. When done correctly, they can be 100%) effective. Here are some statistics about cavities, wealth, age, ethnicity, etc. Just throwing it in because it may be an interesting wrinkle in the puzzle.
posted by bunnycup at 2:16 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by bunnycup at 2:16 PM on April 1, 2010
How strong was the correlation? How well done was the study? Was it confirmed in another population? My guess is that it's a statistical fluke.
posted by jedicus at 2:23 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by jedicus at 2:23 PM on April 1, 2010
Alien Abduction (the brain squids that make the kids smarter have higher energy demands on their hosts systems making them crave sweets).
posted by bonehead at 2:25 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by bonehead at 2:25 PM on April 1, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
(Yeah, I wish, lol)
posted by The Biggest Dreamer at 1:46 PM on April 1, 2010 [2 favorites]