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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: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Thursday March 05 2015, @12:10PM
To abstract "intelligence" away from intelligence about something is wrong and doesn't work. (My ideas about intelligence are influenced by Wittgenstein.) People are not "intelligent" in general, they're intelligent about some subject. Some people find some subjects easier or more interesting than others. When you try to abstract "intelligence" into its own thing, you get bogosity like IQ tests. This kind of test will only test your ability to take IQ tests. They're so far removed from anything real that they don't test anything but some kinds of pattern recognition. If you're good at those (I've never, for example, been able to look at a list of numbers, discover the formula that generates them, and predict the next number - and that's big on IQ tests), then you have a "high IQ" and are "intelligent". But, otherwise, I guess you're dumb.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday March 05 2015, @12:55PM
Will the ability to figure out the next number aid the capability to create a working fusion device? ;)
Being good at tests shows remarkable good in school. Being able to push science forward or society is another ballgame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @09:30PM
People are not "intelligent" in general, they're intelligent about some subject.
I knew right there, thanks to my amazing pattern recognition ability, that this (or some for of why you suck at IQ tests) was about to be next:
I've never, for example, been able to look at a list of numbers, discover the formula that generates them, and predict the next number - and that's big on IQ tests