IQ levels falling?!

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Here is an article suggesting that  IO levels are beginning to fall....!

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190709-has-humanity-reached-peak-intelligence

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Since the intelligence test was invented more than 100 years ago, our IQ scores have been steadily increasing. Even the average person today would have been considered a genius compared to someone born in 1919 – a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect.

We may have to enjoy it while we can. The most recent evidence suggests that this trend may now be slowing. It may even be reversing, meaning that we have already passed the summit of human intellectual potential.

Can we have really reached peak intelligence? And if that is the case, what can the subsequent decline mean for the future of humanity?

When the researcher James Flynn looked at scores over the past century, he discovered a steady increase – the equivalent of around three points a decade. Today, that has amounted to 30 points in some countries.

Whatever the cause of the Flynn effect, there is evidence that we may have already reached the end of this era – with the rise in IQs stalling and even reversing. If you look at Finland, Norway and Denmark, for instance, the turning point appears to have occurred in the mid-90s, after which average IQs dropped by around 0.2 points a year. That would amount to a seven-point difference between generations.

One possibility is that education has become slightly less stimulating than it once was – or at least, has not targeted the same skills.

..in terms of our behaviour as a society, are you impressed with what 30 points has brought us? The 2016 US presidential election was probably about as puerile as any in our history... Moreover, higher IQs have not brought with them solutions to any of the world’s or the country’s major problems..

..we have been exercising certain kinds of abstract thinking, but that hasn’t necessarily improved all cognitive skills equally. And some of those other, less well-cultivated, abilities could be essential for improving the world in the future.

Looking to the future, the “reverse Flynn effect” and the potential drop in IQs should certainly cause us to take stock of the ways we are using our brains, and preventing any further decline should undoubtedly be a priority for the future. But we might also make a more concerted and deliberate effort to improve those other essential skills too that do not necessarily come with a higher IQ.

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IMO common wisdom and the ability to integrate seemingly conflicting ideas, seems to have been lost with all this emphasis on rational thinking.

Cheers.

Sriram

[SteveH]

I wonder if some of the increase in IQ test scores is simply due to the fact that people are now more familiar with them, and know how they work. That would also explain why the increase has plateaued. I don't know why levels should have started to drop again, though, although the increasing prevalence of idiotic conspiracy and anti-scientific theories on the internet, and the near-universal access to the internet, might have something to do with it: some people are wilfully making themselvres stupid, closing their minds to reason and alternative views (and often, ludicrously, preening themselves as "independent thinkers", and calling the sane "sheeple"). I've just come from reading about "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism", a thoroughly dishonest and misleading creationist statement promoted by the Discovery Institute, an American (of course) creationist outfit. This sort of anti-rational bollocks can be propagated much more easily nowadays, via the internet.

[SteveH]

In any case, the value of IQ tests as indicators of general intelligence is widely questioned: it has been said that all IQ tests measure is the ability to do IQ tests.

[Harrowby Hall]

An IQ score is a relative score. It is based on the assumption that the mean score for a population is 100 and that the intelligence quotient of the population is normally distributed. I suppose "best practice" would involve re-normalisation for a given population to be an ongoing  activity.

As Steve H says, IQ tests measure the ability to do IQ tests. And IQ tests are constructed from a range of activities which are relatively familiar in education.

It is decades since I had any dealings with IQ tests and it is not a subject area I have retained any interest in.

[Nearly Sane]

Worth reading Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man on this subject. Inflating IQ scores are meaningless. Same for deflating ones. It's simplistic shite

[jeremyp]

Well IQ does seem to be correlated to general education level, but you have to ask is there a causal relationship and, if there is, which way round is it.

I'm totally unconvinced that an IQ test can be designed that can be properly controlled for non IQ abilities. For example, I know my IQ as measured by a French IQ test would be pretty low because I would struggle to understand the questions. Similarly a highly educated person is more likely to have good reading skills and so could read and understand the questions faster, giving them more time to figure out the answers. To take it to extremes, a person with good IQ skills but who is dyslexic would be at a huge disadvantage in a test where they have to be able to read the questions.

[SteveH]

I think they allow for things like dyslexia.

[Sriram]

I agree that IQ tests may not be an accurate measure of intelligence....but having said that, it probably does measure some degree of intelligence.

More to the point, we can see that as IQ ratings have increased around the world during the 20th century, there has been a greater tendency to dominate and control the environment  leading to environmental problems that we see today. Quite remarkably, as we understand our dependence on our environment and  are beginning to respect Nature, we find  IQ figures are falling. Maybe there is a link.

[jeremyp]

I think they allow for things like dyslexia.

What do you mean "allow for"? And who is "they".

[jeremyp]

I agree that IQ tests may not be an accurate measure of intelligence....but having said that, it probably does measure some degree of intelligence.

More to the point, we can see that as IQ ratings have increased around the world during the 20th century, there has been a greater tendency to dominate and control the environment  leading to environmental problems that we see today. Quite remarkably, as we understand our dependence on our environment and  are beginning to respect Nature, we find  IQ figures are falling. Maybe there is a link.

The problem is that intelligence is not one thing. Intelligence is a whole range of different skills of which IQ probably measures, at best, some.

[Nearly Sane]

I agree that IQ tests may not be an accurate measure of intelligence....but having said that, it probably does measure some degree of intelligence.

More to the point, we can see that as IQ ratings have increased around the world during the 20th century, there has been a greater tendency to dominate and control the environment  leading to environmental problems that we see today. Quite remarkably, as we understand our dependence on our environment and  are beginning to respect Nature, we find  IQ figures are falling. Maybe there is a link.

You are ignoring that we were degrading the environment while the IQ rises were happening.

[Walter]

I think they allow for things like dyslexia.

I totally failed my QI test