Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Ecological Disturbance

Ecological Disturbance

An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.

Damped Oscillations

Damped Oscillations

In the real world, oscillations seldom follow true simple harmonic motion. A system that continues its motion indefinitely without losing its amplitude is termed undamped. However, friction of some sort usually dampens the motion, so it fades away or needs more force to continue. For example, a guitar string stops oscillating a few seconds after being plucked. Similarly, one must continually push a swing to keep a child swinging on a playground.
Although friction and other non-conservative...

Types of Damping

Types of Damping

If the amount of damping in a system is gradually increased, the period and frequency start to become affected because damping opposes, and hence slows, the back and forth motion (the net force is smaller in both directions). If there is a very large amount of damping, the system does not even oscillate; instead, it slowly moves toward equilibrium. In brief, an overdamped system moves slowly towards equilibrium, whereas an underdamped system moves quickly to equilibrium but will oscillate about...

Limits with Oscillating Discontinuities

Limits with Oscillating Discontinuities

An oscillating discontinuity is a type of discontinuity in which a function’s values fluctuate infinitely often as the input approaches a particular point. Unlike jump discontinuities, where the function suddenly shifts between two values, or infinite discontinuities, where the function diverges without bound, an oscillating discontinuity arises from rapid back-and-forth variation. Because the function never stabilizes toward a single value, no finite limit exists at that point.One of the...

Stability

Stability

The time response of a linear time-invariant (LTI) system can be divided into transient and steady-state responses. The transient response represents the system's initial reaction to a change in input and diminishes to zero over time. In contrast, the steady-state response is the behavior that persists after the transient effects have faded.
The stability of an LTI system is determined by the roots of its characteristic equation, known as poles. A system is stable if it produces a bounded...

Second Order systems II

Second Order systems II

In an underdamped second-order system, where the damping ratio ζ is between 0 and 1, a unit-step input results in a transfer function that, when transformed using the inverse Laplace method, reveals the output response. The output exhibits a damped sinusoidal oscillation, and the difference between the input and output is termed the error signal. This error signal also demonstrates damped oscillatory behavior. Eventually, as the system reaches a steady state, the error diminishes to zero.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Questionable necessity effects on creativity in the workplace: a comment on Mercier and Lubart (2026).

Frontiers in psychology·2026

Same author

Spurious effects in random-intercept cross-lagged panel models: Results from simulations and reanalyses of data on self-esteem and problematic eating behaviors used by Beckers et al. (2023).

PloS one·2026

Same author

Inconclusive prospective associations between maternal emotional expressiveness and children's callous-unemotional traits: a reanalysis and comment on Hu et al. (2026).

Frontiers in psychology·2026

Same author

The power of many small sex differences in cognition, personality, and interests.

Scientific reports·2026

Same author

Questionable prospective associations between internalizing problems and aggression: A comment on Wei et al. (2026).

Journal of affective disorders·2026

Same author

The serotonin transporter and the serotonin 1B receptor in relation to social cognition in healthy adults.

EJNMMI research·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Assembly and Tracking of Microbial Community Development within a Microwell Array Platform

Assembly and Tracking of Microbial Community Development within a Microwell Array Platform

Published on: June 6, 2017

Diminishing returns as a function of disturbance.

Kimmo Sorjonen¹, Bo Melin¹

¹Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

|July 21, 2020

Summary

Spearman's law of diminishing returns (SLODR) suggests IQ scores are more influenced by general intelligence in lower ability individuals. Simulations indicate disturbing factors can create this effect, potentially threatening SLODR findings.

Keywords:

Differentiation hypothesis Disturbance Performance Simulation Spearman’s law of diminishing returns Validity

More Related Videos

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter

Published on: March 12, 2013

Development of an Individual-Tree Basal Area Increment Model using a Linear Mixed-Effects Approach

Development of an Individual-Tree Basal Area Increment Model using a Linear Mixed-Effects Approach

Published on: July 3, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Assembly and Tracking of Microbial Community Development within a Microwell Array Platform

Assembly and Tracking of Microbial Community Development within a Microwell Array Platform

Published on: June 6, 2017

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter

Published on: March 12, 2013

Development of an Individual-Tree Basal Area Increment Model using a Linear Mixed-Effects Approach

Development of an Individual-Tree Basal Area Increment Model using a Linear Mixed-Effects Approach

Published on: July 3, 2020

Area of Science:

Psychometrics
Cognitive Psychology
Statistical Modeling

Background:

Spearman's law of diminishing returns (SLODR) posits that general intelligence (g) saturation in test scores is higher for lower ability individuals.
Previous research has primarily focused on theoretical underpinnings and empirical observations without extensive simulation of confounding factors.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether disturbing factors, varying in magnitude across individuals, can simulate Spearman's law of diminishing returns (SLODR).
To assess the impact of negatively skewed disturbance variables on SLODR criteria.
To evaluate the potential threat to the validity of findings supporting SLODR.

Main Methods:

Computer simulations were employed to model the effects of a disturbing factor on test scores.
The disturbing factor was introduced with varying magnitudes across simulated individuals.
Disturbance variables with different distributions, including negative skew, were examined.

Main Results:

Simulations demonstrated that a disturbing factor, such as low motivation or illness, can produce the pattern predicted by SLODR.
The observed difference in g saturation between high and low ability groups was replicated under simulated conditions.
Contemporary SLODR criteria were met when the disturbance variable was negatively skewed.

Conclusions:

The findings suggest that observed support for SLODR may be an artifact of uncontrolled disturbing factors.
Researchers must actively mitigate the influence of individual-level confounding variables to ensure the validity of SLODR research.
This highlights the critical importance of methodological rigor in psychometric studies.