Show notes
Today’s guest is Dr. David Geary, a cognitive developmental scientist whose wide-ranging interests are particularly focused on evolutionary psychology, sex differences and children’s mathematical development.He is a Curators’ Distinguished Professor and a Thomas Jefferson Fellow in the Department of Psychological Sciences and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at the University of Missouri Columbia.David’s book, “Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences,” has been described as a landmark text that provides a comprehensive evolutionary model to explain sex differences. His research on children’s mathematical development resulted in a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health. In addition to authoring four books, he has published more than 300 articles and chapters across a diverse range of topics.David has served as a member of the President’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel and was appointed by President George W. Bush to the National Board of Directors for the Institute for Education Sciences.Show notes:[[[[[[[[[[[[[00:14:44] David talks about his interest in Evolutionary Educational Psychology, and how that relates to the insights gleaned from his recent article that argued that there is built-in scaffolding that helps a child’s mind learn to talk, use tools, and play, but that there is nothing of the sort for learning how to read, write, or do math. [00:17:14] David has been investigating children’s mathematical cognition for nearly 25 years, including a 2015 paper on the numerical foundations of young children’s mathematical development.Dawn asks David to share his key takeaways from this research.[[[00:23:46] Dawn asks about David’s paper that focused on human cognitive sex differences, which illustrated how sexual selection can result in sex differences in the brain and cognition. The paper also explored how these differences appear to be related to mitochondrial functioning, which led David propose a taxonomy of sex differences in human condition-dependent cognitive abilities. Dawn asks David to talk about these underlying brain systems and their development.[[00:28:56] Dawn mention’s David’s 2018 paper in “Psychological Review”that argued that the overall efficiency of mitochondrial functioning is critical to general health, brain development and functioning, as well as age-related changes in health and cognition. She goes on to ask David about his view that mitochondrial functioning provides a plausible basic biological mechanism that underlies the relations among all these phenomena.[00:32:10] Ken mentions Doug Wallace, one of the pioneers of mitochondrial research, who was interviewed on episode 67 of STEM-Talk, who has shown that mitochondrial haplotypes have adapted to the environment, with some being better adapted to colder weather. He asks David if these haplotypes are at greater risk of decreased intelligence due to their decreased ATP efficiency as a result of their environmental adaptation.[[[[00:39:30] David talks about his interest in Evolutionary Educational Psychology, and how that relates to the insights gleaned from his recent article that argued there is built-in scaffoldingthat helps a child’s mind learn to talk, use tools, and play, but that there is nothing of the sort for learning how to read, write, or do math.[00:42:21] Ken mentions that David, and a number of other scientists, were cited in a 2010 Discover magazine article titled, “If Modern Humans Are So Smart, Why Are Our Brains Shrinking?”Ken asks David to talk about why human brain volume is shrinking.[[[[[[[[01:02:32] Dawn asks about David’s book Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences, and how it has been described as the first comprehensive evolutionary model to analyze sex differences and how they have evolved by means of sexual selection.[01:05:34] David elaborates on his words in an interview with The Guardian, where he said “People talk about cultural factors creating sex differences. I think it’s the other way around: There’s pressure to disconfirm the way people are. Cultural hype tries to make the sexes more alike, which is stressful for boys and girls and men and women.”[[01:11:56] David discusses the Basic Index of Gender Inequality, which was devised in partnership with Gigster Stoet of the University of Essex in the UK. He describes why the index as a new measurement tool is fairer to both men and women. He talks about how the index presents a simplified but more accurate picture of people’s well-being than measurements like the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index.[[[[Links:David Geary bioMU Math StudyDavid Geary Amazon pageLearn more about IHMCSTEM-Talk homepageKen Ford bioDawn Kernagis bio