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Tai Guo

Mrs. Stevens

Life Science

21 February 2020

Does Temperature Have a Greater Impact on Test Scores of People of Different Ethnicities?

When I was young, I had to take a test in a freezing room. The air conditioning of the

classroom isn’t working and it’s below 40 out. All I have is a sweatshirt and I turned out failing

that test. This experience made me wonder if the temperature has an impact on test scores. It

turns out that I decided to do an experiment on that topic. I thought that if European and Asian

take the same leveled test under cold and hot environments, then the Asians’ test scores would be

affected more.

What Factors Affect Test Scores?

The test scores of people are affected by a variety of different factors. One of the factors

is the person’s overall intelligence, which is shown in a study in 1997. It suggested that people

with high IQ often do better; however, it’s not a direct cause, but a strong correlation. Another

factor is the familiarity with test materials, which in a sense is self-explanatory. Students can do

a lot of practice questions that are similar to the ones that are on the test in order to not struggle

on the test. The ability to focus is a factor too. It allows the student to not burn out or get

distracted during the test. The state of mind of the student, which is another factor, is very

important because the mood will directly affect the emotions and cause the student to be

distracted and have a negative effect. A study shows that students from families with a higher

income often perform better than students from families with a lower income because they can’t

afford extra study resources or extra help. If the income is low enough the student can struggle
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on living and be distracted from the test. This income factor is called socioeconomic. Lastly, the

culture, which is the student’s background, language, and the environment that they grew up in.

That can greatly affect their test scores. (Machucho)

Does Temperature Affect the Brain?

The temperature will not affect the brain’s abilities, but it will affect how it performs.

Studies have shown that a hotter room affects the brain more than a colder room. That is because

the body needs to burn more glucose in a hotter room and not much left for the brain to use.

Numerous studies have shown that people in a colder room can do almost as twice as better as

people in a hotter room. However, this does not affect people living under changing climates.

Also, the human body prefers 72 Fahrenheit (22 Celsius) as the “perfect” temperature.

(enthusiast)

How Does Wealth Affect Intelligence and IQ?

Wealth can affect IQ in many different ways. IQ is sometimes affected by the regional

economy, in which richer countries often usually have a higher IQ than poorer countries. That is

because the children in richer countries can have better educational resources and environment. It

is very rare for rich countries to have low IQ and poor countries to have high IQ. Also, IQ can be

one of the main factors to success, which could be shown by the fact that most successful people

have a high IQ. Children from wealthy families often have a higher IQ than children from poor

families, too. (Unz)

Which Nationality Has the Highest IQ? Why?

The Asians have the highest IQ, even though the IQ tests are developed in an European

way. Here is a list of IQ’s: East Asians - 106, Whites - 100, Blacks - 85, Africans - 70. Although

the IQ of different races are different, the gene situations are the same. The brain sizes of
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different races matters too, which bigger brains contain more neurons and synapses to process

information faster and better. On average, Asians have 1 more cubic capacity of the brain than

Whites, which have 5 more than the Blacks. Different cultures and education are factors too, and

they can directly affect the IQ. (2005)

How is IQ Tested?

The IQ score is calculated by dividing the mental age by the biological age, then multiply

by 100. The mental age is determined by a specific IQ test. IQ stands for Intelligent Quotient

because it is the quotient of mental age and biological age. It means that IQ can shift and won’t

necessarily last the whole life, it’s changeable upon changeable performance. Some IQ tests

compare a person’s performance to a “normal” person’s performance that has the same

biological age. That means IQ tests are different from age to age. (Garlic)

On Average Do People of Different Ethnicities Prefer Different Temperatures? Why?

First of all, there is no race that will die at a certain temperature that other races can

survive in. The race itself kind of effects the preferred temperature, but not fully. Different races

definitely live and adapt to different temperatures, but not necessarily prefer it. The preferences

are mostly decided as a personal opinion rather than a whole race. Our body functions as

different races are mostly the same since we’re all human. That’s why different races won’t be

able to tolerate a certain temperature upon birth, but will be able to adapt to them. (Kershner)

Conclusion

I thought that the result would be the Asians would be affected more by the temperature

change and I found out that I was wrong, Europeans were more greatly affected. On average,
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the test scores of Europeans are changed by 17.14% and the test scores of Asians are changed by

11.43%. The test scores in a warmer environment is the listed percent higher than the test scores

in a colder environment. The average score of Asians in the cold environment is 54.3% and the

average score of the same people in a colder environment is 65.7%. The average score of

Europeans in the cold environment is 40% and the average score of the same people in a hotter

environment is 57.1%. These are the final results of the experiment.

Works Cited

2005, Apr 26. “Race Differences in Average IQ Are Largely Genetic.” News, 24 June 2019,

www.news-medical.net/news/2005/04/26/Race-differences-in-average-IQ-are-largely-
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genetic.aspx.

Garlic, Dennis. “The Confusing Concept of IQ.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 4 Sept.

2010, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/intelligence-and-the-brain/201009/the-

confusing-concept-iq.

enthusiast, TriNetflix. “How Temperature Affects Our Decision Making Abilities.” Examined

Existence, examinedexistence.com/how-temperature-affects-our-decision-making-

abilities/.

Kershner, Kate. “Can Your Ethnicity Affect Your Weather Tolerance?” HowStuffWorks Science,

HowStuffWorks, 10 July 2019, science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-

myths/can-ethnicity-affect-weather-tolerance.htm

Machucho, Megan. “Factors That Affect Students' Test Scores.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 22 May

2018, owlcation.com/academia/Factors-That-Affect-Students-Test-Scores.

Unz, Ron. “Race, IQ, and Wealth.” The American Conservative, 18 July 2012,

www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/race-iq-and-wealth/comment-page-2/.