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IQ Scores Consistently Dropping Since the 1970s

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday June 14 2018, @08:04AM   
from the tv-and-video-games-cause-brain-rot dept.

JoeMerchant writes:

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.

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Original Submission

• Corroborates Data published in 2006, 2016 (Score: 4, Interesting) by requerdanos on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:38PM

  by requerdanos (5997) on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:38PM (#692882) Journal

  From writer Mike Judge in 2006:

  As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.

  Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/quotes/qt0427933 [imdb.com]

  Ten years later, Nielsen Norman Group published a study that said that less than 10% of people can use a computer to perform the following "highly skilled" tasks in their testing scenario:

  "Schedule a meeting room in a scheduling application, using information contained in several email messages."
  "[Determine] what percentage of the emails sent by John Smith last month were about sustainability."
  ...In the United States, only 5% of the population has these high computer skills. In Australia and the UK 6% are at this level; in Canada and across Northern Europe the number increases to 7%; Singapore and Japan are even better with a level-3 percentage of 8%. Overall, people with [these] strong technology skills make up a 5–8% sliver of their country’s population

  That means that over 90% could not do these tasks if their life depended on it.

  Source: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/ [nngroup.com]

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Interesting=2, Total=2
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4