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from the tv-and-video-games-cause-brain-rot dept.
A Norwegian study published Monday found a seven-point dip in IQ test scores per generation among men born from 1962 to 1991. The results suggest a reversal in the Flynn effect, an observed increase in IQ scores throughout the 20th century in developed countries.
Coverage from The Week adds:
The reasons for the Flynn effect and its apparent reversal are disputed. "Scientists have put the rise in IQ down to better teaching, nutrition, healthcare and even artificial lighting," says The Times.
But "it is also possible that the nature of intelligence is changing in the digital age and cannot be captured with traditional IQ tests", adds the newspaper.
"Take 14-year-olds in Britain. What 25% could do back in 1994, now only 5% can do," Shayer added, citing maths and science tests.
More from The Daily Mail:
Two British studies suggested that the fall was between 2.5 and 4.3 points every ten years.
But due to limited research, their results were not widely accepted.
In the latest study Ole Rogeburg and Bernt Bratsberg, of the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Oslo, found that Norwegian men's IQs are lower than the scores of their fathers when they were the same age.
The pair analysed the scores from a standard IQ test of over 730,000 men – who reported for national service between 1970 and 2009.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday June 14 2018, @12:08PM (1 child)
I disagree. Many of the engineering projects that I worked on were considerable amounts of work by many highly educated people can now be done by low means individuals using a vast array of nearly free and universal resources. You used to have to lay out circuits by hand with masking tape and you had to get it right because mistakes were very expensive. Now computers will route lines and do all the hard parts for you flawlessly. Any mistakes that you do make are corrected by a refresh button. Routing problems were standard fare on brain teaser puzzles I did as a kid ...three houses, three utility plants, connect them all without crossing lines type problems.
Concepts that you had to learn to visualize in your imagination by staring at a page of math for a few hours can now be visualized trivially on a computer and turned into a youtube video.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:36PM
I should have said "those before the 1970's", because from my perspective the 60's and 70's are 'us'. Back then most people had never heard of the design problems you described. I agree that nowadays those problems are hardly challenging at all.