| > Given the correlation they discovered, it is accurate to say that drawing ability predicts intelligence to some degree. Not in a scientific sense. For science, the existence of the correlation isn't enough to argue for a predictive relationship. For science, someone would have to design a test in which the drawing was proven to anticipate later developments, rather than accompany them passively (and with a rather marginal p-factor). In a human study with ethical standards in place, this is quite impossible. In the strictest scientific sense, a study like this would have to show a mechanism, a cause, that connected particular drawing traits with later intelligence. Merely observing a correlation without a proposed explanation is suspect. For example, someone might say, "The development of brain area X by age Y simultaneously shows itself through a particular drawing ability -- to the exclusion of other explanations -- and has been shown to be a precondition for specific intellectual processing ability Z at age 14." Obviously a study like this can't possibly reach those heights while remaining within its budget and while adhering to prevailing ethical standards and neuroscientific knowledge. I emphasize I am not advocating what I say next, it's only hypothetical, to make a point. An imaginary study could say, "We snipped out a small section of brain tissue from region Q, and saw (a) a decline in drawing ability, and (b) a subsequent decline in overall intellectual capacity later in life." But you know what? Such things are done all the time in animal studies, unfortunately with dubious relevance to humans. Also, my hypothetical study would still not explain why that result came about, only that the hypothetical snipping was correlated with a specific outcome. Remember that proposing and then testing explanations is the essence of science. |
You're confusing a "predictive" relationship with a "causative" relationship. A correlation and a predictive relationship are the same thing.