[1]Principia Cybernetica Web

                       Increasing intelligence: the Flynn effect

   The results of intelligence tests in different countries show that over the past
   century average IQ has been increasing at a rate of about 3 points per decade
     ____________________________________________________________________________

   [externallink.GIF] [2]James Flynn, a political scientist working in New Zealand,
   observed in the 1980's that the scores of different groups of people on standard
   intelligence tests had consistently augmented over the past decades. Earlier
   researchers had failed to pay attention to that trend, because IQ scores are
   always calculated with respect to the average score for the present group. By
   definition, the average is set to 100. Someone who scores 20% more than the
   average would therefore get an IQ of 120. But if that person's score would be
   compared with the average for the corresponding group, tested one generation
   earlier, the final score would be about 130. Flynn was the first to
   systematically make such cross-generational comparisons.

   Since then, the so-called "Flynn effect" has been confirmed by numerous studies.
   The same pattern, an average increase of over three IQ points per decade, was
   found for virtually every type of intelligence test, delivered to virtually every
   type of group. The pattern applied to some 20 countries for which data were
   available, including the USA, Canada and different European nations, although
   [externallink.GIF] [3]the rate increase varied somewhat according to country and
   type of test. The increase was highest, 20 points per generation (30 years), in
   Belgium, Holland and Israel, and lowest, 10 points per generation, in Denmark and
   Sweden. Although the data are limited, it moreover seems that the increase is
   accelerating. In Holland, for example, scores went up most (over 8 points) for
   the last measured period, 1972 to 1982. For one type of test, Raven's Progressive
   Matrices, Flynn found data that spanned a complete century. He concluded that
   someone who scored among the best 10% a hundred years ago, would nowadays be
   categorized among the 5% weakest. That means that someone who would be considered
   bright a century ago, should now be considered a moron!

   Such a result has unexpected implications for the relation between intelligence
   and age. Older people tend to have lower scores on IQ tests than younger people.
   Until now, it was always assumed that this means that intelligence diminishes
   with age. However, this observation can be explained as well by noting that older
   people were raised in a period when the general level of intelligence was lower.
   Flynn showed that if people's IQ is evaluated with tests calibrated for the
   period during which they grew up, an old person scores as well as a young one.
   The reason that older people do less well on IQ tests is not that they have
   become more stupid with age, but that the younger generation simply got a head
   start.

   One might expect that the Flynn effect would be more clear for tests that
   emphasize culture or education. The opposite is true, however: the increase is
   most striking for tests measuring the ability to recognize abstract, non-verbal
   patterns. Tests emphasizing traditional school knowledge show much less progress.
   This means that something more profound than mere accumulation of data is
   happening inside people's heads. None of the scientists who have studied the
   effect can offer a simple explanation.

   Flynn himself admits that he is baffled by the results, and that he finds it hard
   to believe that his generation is significantly more intelligent than the one of
   his parents. He proposes the following argument. Compared to the previous
   generation, the number of people who score high enough to be classified as
   "genius" has increased more than 20 times. This means that we should now be
   witnessing, in Flynn's own words, "a cultural renaissance too great to be
   overlooked". Because he finds this conclusion implausible, he suggests that wat
   has risen is not intelligence itself but some kind of "abstract problem solving
   ability". But if we look at the ever accelerating production of scientific
   discoveries, technological innovations and cultural developments in general, the
   "cultural renaissance" does not seem such an absurd idea anymore. And whether you
   call the factor that rises "intelligence" or "abstract problem solving ability",
   the conclusion that people have become intellectually more capable remains the
   same.

   To me, it seems likely that this intellectual progress is caused by a combination
   of factors, just like the [4]general progress in quality of life. Some factors
   may have a negative influence on intellectual development, but most developments
   are positive and reinforce each other. The most obvious one is longer schooling,
   but this cannot explain everything, as Flynn found that the IQs of American
   children have been rising even during periods when the time spent in school
   remained the same. Stimulation by the media, and in particular by television, may
   be another one, but this cannot explain progress before the advent of television
   in the 1950s. Generally improved health and nutrition is likely to contribute
   too. It has been shown that poor nutrition in early age impairs intellectual
   development, but this only applies to children who have been severely underfed. A
   factor that may have been overlooked is that parents nowadays tend to pay much
   more attention to their children, thus stimulating their cognitive development.
   This is possible because parents tend to have less children to care for, to have
   more free time, to be more wealthy, to be better educated, and to have a better
   insight in the needs of their children.

   A more general factor is that society as a whole functions at a higher
   intellectual level, proposing to the curious child more information, more
   intellectual challenges, more complex problems, more examples to be followed, and
   more reasoning methods to be applied. Just using everyday appliances, such as
   VCRs, microwave ovens, and thermostats, demands a more abstract type of
   reasoning, of which the older generation is often incapable. The increased
   [5]complexity of life is likely to stimulate an increased complexity of mind. The
   growing use of computers for education or games at an early age is likely to
   further boost general knowledge, abstract reasoning and intellectual agility.

   References
     * James R. Flynn: The mean IQ of Americans. massive gains. New York: Harper and
       Row 1984
     * James R. Flynn: Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: what IQ tests really measure.
       Psychological Bulletin 101: 171-191, 1987
     * Ulric Neisser: [externallink.GIF] [6]Rising Scores on Intelligence Tests,
       American Scientist, September - October 1997
     * [externallink.GIF] [7]APA Task Force Examines the Knowns and Unknowns of
       Intelligence
     * [externallink.GIF] [8]Flynn's Effect, Scientific American
     ____________________________________________________________________________

   [9]Copyright© 2000 Principia Cybernetica - [10]Referencing this page

   Author
   F. [11]Heylighen,

   Date
   Aug 22, 2000

                                       [12]Home
                                       [up.gif]
                           [13]Metasystem Transition Theory
                                       [up.gif]
                              [14]The Future of Humanity
                                       [up.gif]
                                 [15]Societal Progress

                                          Up
                           [16]Prev. [4arrows.gif] [17]Next
                                         Down
     ____________________________________________________________________________
   ____________________________________________________________________________

                                    [18]Discussion
     ____________________________________________________________________________

     * [19]Flynn effect a result of relaxed evolutionary constraints?, Comment by
       Brett Bellmore

                                  [20]Add comment...

                                      [space.gif]

References

   1. LYNXIMGMAP:http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/FLYNNEFF.html#PCP-header
   2. http://www.otago.ac.nz/politicalstudies/Jim_Flynn.html
   3. http://plaza.powersurfr.com/delajara/Locations.html
   4. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/PROGRESS.html
   5. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/COMPLEXI.html
   6. http://www.amsci.org/amsci/articles/97articles/neisser.html
   7. http://www.apa.org/releases/intell.html
   8. http://www.sciam.com/1999/0199issue/0199profile.html
   9. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/COPYR.html
  10. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/REFERPCP.html
  11. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
  12. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/DEFAULT.html
  13. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MSTT.html
  14. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/FUTEVOL.html
  15. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/PROGRESS.html
  16. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/PROGRESS.html
  17. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CHINNEG.html
  18. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MAKANNOT.html
  19. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/FLYNNEFF.0.html
  20. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/hypercard.acgi$annotform?

[USEMAP]
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/FLYNNEFF.html#PCP-header
   1. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/DEFAULT.html
   2. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HOWWEB.html
   3. http://pcp.lanl.gov/FLYNNEFF.html
   4. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/FLYNNEFF.html
   5. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SERVER.html
   6. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/hypercard.acgi$randomlink?searchstring=.html
   7. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/RECENT.html
   8. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/TOC.html#FLYNNEFF
   9. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SEARCH.html