1992 mug shot after being charged with killing infant son

In a heartbreaking case, a functionally illiterate man named Jay Procopio was arrested in 1992 for causing the death of his infant son.  The man simply wanted the baby to stop crying and the best solution he could think of was to throw him on the floor which killed him.

Tragically, this underscores that intelligence is the mental ability to adapt: to take whatever situation you’re in and turn it around to your advantage.  The situation was to his disadvantage (crying baby), but instead of turning it around to his advantage by soothing and comforting the baby into silence, he killed the baby he loved and spent decades in jail. So what started as a small passing disadvantage (crying baby) turned into a lifelong disadvantage on an epic scale: the opposite of adaptive behavior.

Of course it’s possible that a high IQ person, even an extremely high IQ person, could have done the same thing.  One could imagine someone with an IQ of 150 who was so enraged by the sound of a crying baby, he could not resist the impulse to react violently, but in that case, it would be an example not of maladaptive behavior per se, but of an adaptive response to incredibly maladaptive emotions (uncontrollable rage).

In 1992, a doctor evaluated Procopio and concluded that although he was “defective”, he was competent to stand trial, but in 2014, he was tested at Bridgewater state hospital and clocked in at IQ 47.  Even this figure might be an overestimate because he was likely tested on the WAIS-IV which was normed in 2006, suggesting his IQ should probably be reduced to 45.  In addition, the WAIS-IV was normed on all Americans, and thus gives higher scores than traditional tests normed on only whites. Converting to white norms would reduce his IQ from 45 to 40.  And even this might be an overestimate because the WAIS-IV suffers from floor bumping which is when people with extremely low ability can not score as low as they should because there are not enough easy items on the test.

Only one in 30,000 biologically normal whites has an IQ of 40 or lower. An IQ of 40 is at the bottom end of the Trainable (moderate) Retardation level (IQ 30-49) which is one step below the Educable (mild) Retardation level (IQ 50 – 69).  Historically, the former were called “imbeciles” and the latter were called “morons”). Tests like the Wechsler do not even pretend to measure below 30-49.  People below 30 are sometimes labelled with Totally Dependent (severe) Retardation, and were historically known as “idiots”.

Assuming Procopio really does have an IQ of 40, and was not, somehow, feigning less ability to avoid culpability, it is interesting that he was able to start a family with not, one, but two kids (one of whom was killed).

Assuming his retardation is familial, and not organinc, the expected IQ of the offspring of an IQ 40 father is 0.45(40 – 100) + 100 = 73, and if one believes the HBD narrative that family environment becomes irrelevant by adulthood, the same IQ is expected regardless of whether the father raises the baby or not. Although tragically in this case, Procopio allegedly shook his daughter when she was a baby causing bleeding on the brain, and this may be the kind family environmental trauma that lasts a lifetime.

I recently posted about the man challenging a law that allowed his parents to declare him mentally incompetent, and thus have complete control over his life. In the Fifth Estate episode I posted in my lasted article on this topic, he mentioned that his IQ score was 69, which is in the upper end of the Educable (mildly) Mentally Retarded range (EMR).  Unlike the Trainable (moderately) Mentally Retarded (TMR), EMRs are usually biologically normal, and have no other physical defects, though sadly, this man suffered from epilepsy and a heart condition, but his appearance is completely unimpaired, and he even has a girlfriend and kids.

Our very own CBC Radio did an excellent interview with him on As It Happens, and it’s a great opportunity to hear how people in this IQ range think and what they’re capable of understanding.  He talks about his dream of having an 8-5 job (I assume he means 9-5) and says at one point he had that at a car dealership but sadly he blames his mother for sabotaging it.

The most heartbreaking part was the way he equivocated when asked if his parents loved him.  Clearly they do, and I don’t even know them, but why would they go to the trouble of having him declared incompetent and running his life if they didn’t want to protect him.

The interviewer mentions that his mother is so protective because when he is allowed to make his own decisions, other people “take advantage” of him.  This reminds us once again that no matter how many different parts there are to intelligence (verbal, spatial, memory etc), the single umbrella that covers it all is the ability to adapt: to take whatever situation you’re in, and turn it around to your advantage.  And if you can’t turn the situation to your advantage, others will take advantage of you.

But he feels that he knows when he’s being taken advantage of and can recognize the criminals who say with an ulterior motive, “let’s go for a walk to Timmy’s“.  Timmy’s is the iconic doughnut shop that defines Canadian culture, although Canada’s higher social classes tend to refer to it by its full name: Tim Horton’s.  Having seen his mother on the Fifth Estate, I’m sure she would have referred to it by its full name, and the fact that he uses a more lower class lingo than his own parents is not a coincidence.  People with cognitive challenges often fall down the class ladder in one generation, not just economically, but culturally.

Even though he feels smothered by his mother, I wish he could learn to appreciate all she is trying to do for him.  But of course he doesn’t want to be locked in his parent’s house or confined to an institution, he wants to live with his girlfriend and kids.  Perhaps the solution is for him, his girlfriend and kids to all move in with his parents, under their protective eye.  But perhaps there is tension between the girlfriend and his mother and the girlfriend (who strikes me as having a high IQ of 110) perhaps does not want to live under his legal guardians.  Or maybe the mother doesn’t trust her.

Someone get this family their own reality show!

There’s a story in the Daily Mail about a woman named Alicia Englert accused of leaving her baby in a neighbor’s trashcan, but the neighbor heard noises and the baby was luckily rushed to the hospital and saved.  Englert took a court ordered IQ test (apparently the Wechsler) and scored 51.  The Wechsler scale is normed so that Americans have a mean IQ of 100 with a standard deviation of 15, but because of massive demographic changes that have occurred in America over the last several decades, the white IQ distribution tends to be higher (but narrower) than America’s as a whole (103, SD = 14.5).  As a result, scholar Richard Lynn converts IQs based on American norms onto a scale where Whites have a mean of 100 and an SD of 15, because this makes scores more comparable with older IQ tests normed when the country was more white.  Compared to whites, the average American has an IQ of 97, and Englert would have an IQ of 46.

Now, presumably the reason Englert took an IQ test is that people with IQs below 70 (below 66 on white norms) are not legally responsible for their alleged crimes in certain states so scoring low would help her defence.   What’s interesting about her having a white IQ of 46 is that she has an online dating profile, graduated high school, and was apparently literate enough to write the following:

‘hi my name is alicia im 23 years old I work full time I have brown hair im 5’1 I have no kids I do drink but only on the weekends I have my own car I still live with my mom and dad for now!!! if you want to know more just ask

Back in 1980, scholar Arthur Jensen talked about the expected achievements of people with different IQ levels.  Jensen didn’t distinguish between IQ and white IQ because back in 1980, America was overwhelmingly white, so IQs based on American norms were pretty much the same as IQs based on white norms, so it was pointless to make that distinction.  Jensen wrote the following:

The four socially and personally most important threshold regions on the IQ scale are those that differentiate with high probability between persons who, because of their level of general mental ability, can or cannot attend a regular school (about IQ 50), can or cannot master the traditional subject matter of elementary school (about IQ 75), can or cannot succeed in the academic or college preparatory curriculum through high school (about IQ 105), can or cannot graduate from an accredited four-year college with grades that would qualify for admission to a professional or graduate school (about IQ 115).

So based on Jensen’s thresholds, someone with an IQ below 50 should not have been able to attend a regular school, let alone graduate high school.

But then thanks to the Flynn effect, which is probably mostly caused by rising nutrition improving brain size and brain function over the 20th century, a white IQ of 46 is probably a lot smarter than it used to be.  Indeed Richard Lynn argues that the average bushman has a white IQ of 54.

The alleged crime itself indicates a lack of IQ on Englert’s part.  Why not just give the baby up for adoption when there are so many loving couples that would provide it with a wonderful home?  And if she wanted to do something as terrible as putting her baby in a trashcan, she should have known that a trashcan that belongs to a neighbour greatly increased the odds of her getting caught.

Even still, it does seem suspicious that someone with an IQ this low would be smart enough to graduate high school, drive a car and use the Internet.  I hope she didn’t score low on purpose for legal reasons.