“Being a scientist though I think the proper ‘experiment’ would be between two groups, one with a B.S. degree and the other with a B.A. degree in the same subject - and a test upon that subject.
And with a sample size of n=1 for each group I would be leery of accepting such a test as anything more than anecdotal evidence.”
Well, I’m a ringer, so it’s not really a fair test.
I have 60 science credits, and the bare minimum of BA credits for both my major and my electives.
10 years experience in the industry has taught me a thing or two as well!
Biology is such a specialized subject (as History can be), especially with an advanced degree, that I think whoever designed the test would bias it towards their own area of expertise.
Like if one Historian were a Middle ages specialist and the other a WWII specialist - the test would have to be on Ancient Egyptian history or something to accurately compare.
I am a Molecular Biologist by education (specializing in genetics, signal transduction, and cardiac myocytes), and a Pharmacokinetician by training (what the body does to a therapeutic).
If you found a Taxonomist to quiz me on the names of species and phylogenies, I could give an excellent discourse on HOW such things should be determined (and if he were a morphologist classifier instead of a DNA classifier we would NOT get on!) - but couldn't tell you the NAMES to save my life!