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IQ is rising in many parts of the world. What's behind the change and does it really mean people are cleverer than their grandparents?
It is not unusual for parents to comment that their children are brainier than they are. In doing so, they hide a boastful remark about their offspring behind a self-deprecating one about themselves. But a new study, published in the journal Intelligence, provides fresh evidence that in many cases this may actually be true.
The researchers - Peera Wongupparaj, Veena Kumari and Robin Morris at Kings College London - did not themselves ask anyone to sit an IQ test, but they analysed data from 405 previous studies. Altogether, they harvested IQ test data from more than 200,000 participants, captured over 64 years and from 48 countries.
(Score: 4, Funny) by cmn32480 on Thursday March 05 2015, @03:17AM
What I can't understand is why the vast majority of the world seems SO much dumber? Is it just a lack of common sense? Or is IQ not REALLY a good indicator?
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SlimmPickens on Thursday March 05 2015, @03:32AM
I think the main thing is that at memory is a hierarchical-temporal phenomenon. Something may well be in another persons brain but we may not have said it in a way that sets off their memory. Not everyone is blessed with a high degree of transference, and even those that are may still need some time to sift through everything.
That and human nature, anytime someone doesn't understand us we assume the person is stupid.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Balderdash on Thursday March 05 2015, @02:32PM
That is the reason that so many training courses, covering similar topics but from different speakers, have a fair amount of overlap.
Each person learns differently, and the delivery method of one trainer may appeal to one person, and a totally different spin on the same topic will resonate with another person.
I browse at -1. Free and open discourse requires consideration and review of all attempts at participation.
(Score: 5, Funny) by frojack on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:02AM
I think it has to do with your age, and your understanding of IQ.
When you are young, you tend to think everybody else is dumber than you. You may occasionally find yourself in error, but never in doubt. You are quicker to pick up on new and tech, but have no idea what to do with a maul and a wedge.
When you are old, (geezerhood) you've seen everything, at least twice, seen three or four generations of technology come and go. You delight in letting the wippersnappers hang themselves with their own rope, and would rather keep your mouth shut and let people think you're ignorant, than start running your mouth and prove them correct. You don't have all the facts on the tip of your tongue, (because the mind is the Second thing to go), but you know where to find where to look it up. You need a password vault to remember all your passwords, and you have that password tattooed on your left foot. You have the words "other foot" tattooed on your right foot.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:11AM
So memory is a pedantry-temporal-heirarchy?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:31AM
You need a password vault to remember all your passwords
If I didnt have 200 different passwords I wouldnt bother... If jackasses wouldnt let my password leak I could reuse the samish password everywhere. But nooooooo.....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:15AM
Lamentation of reality is okay. There are bad actors in the world. If there were no thieves or overly curious then there would be little need for locks. However to point the blame for that reality at the only people that are actively trying to protect you is Greek tragedy levels of unfair.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:49AM
Bro! This is our frojack. There are many like him, but this one is ours. At least I think I remember he is.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:22AM
Think of someone you know with an IQ of 100...
Now, realize that half (more or less) of people are dumber than that.
Said the wise, dead guy.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:37AM
IQ is a meaningless indicator of intelligence to begin with; pure pseudoscience.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @06:37PM
You might want to actually look at the several tens of thousands of papers correlating IQ with various actions we mere humans perceive as being intelligent. Any one would prove you wrong. Sure it is not an objective measure of intelligence and that is why the second word is Quotient. Often relative measurements are the best science can do. That does not mean it is pseudoscience.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 06 2015, @04:00AM
You might want to actually look at the several tens of thousands of papers correlating IQ with various actions we mere humans perceive as being intelligent.
I am not interested in completely arbitrary definitions of intelligence. I am interested in good science. The field of physics, for example, has lots of good, objective science. The same can't be said for the social 'sciences', where most of the studies are biased, subjective, never replicated, and where arbitrary conclusions are drawn based on often poorly-collected data (which is often gathering using subjective questions).
Tens of thousands of studies or millions of studies makes no difference if they are faulty. And IQ is still in question.
Any one would prove you wrong.
No, they wouldn't, as you later state: "Sure it is not an objective measure of intelligence and that is why the second word is Quotient."
It's not an objective measure of intelligence; it's completely arbitrary and unscientific, much like much of psychology.
Often relative measurements are the best science can do.
Bad science is still bad science even if that's the 'best' we have. It's better to admit that you don't know what intelligence is or have a good way of measuring it rather than relying on trash like IQs.
The idea that you can measure someone's intelligence using a simple number and arbitrary tests might seem great to the simple-minded, but I suspect the real answer is far more complex than that. We have a long way to go. And I'm tired of hearing about trash like IQ in the media; it's time to put it to rest.
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Thursday March 05 2015, @05:28AM
Half of people that get tested.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @11:43AM
It is a great asshole ratio estimate. Two kinds of people take the test. People too stupid to know they'll suck at it, and people who **know** they'll get a high score.
Next time someone feigns stupidity you can assume he was malicious.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:44AM
Of course it is a good indicator! The entirety of what it means to be human summed into a single number? It doesn't get better than that!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SlimmPickens on Thursday March 05 2015, @06:17AM
Nothing more to being human than being smart?
(Score: 1) by soylentsandor on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:05AM
Or being dumb, duh.
Hey if AC says it, it must be true. It can't possibly have been sarcasm.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:57AM
> Nothing more to being human than being smart?
Your poor word choice aside, yes.
There is nothing unique about the human experience that does not derive from the intelligence of the species.
Otherwise we'd just be goldfish.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @06:57AM
IMO its a little better than the number between 1 and 10 used by men to define women.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @11:07AM
IQ is just another way of picking out the idiots - if you think IQ means anything more than jack shit, you are an idiot.