What is the Flynn effect and how does it affect the IC?

The Flynn effect describes the fact of why the general population scores change increasing over time. And it is a fact that the results in the intellectual quotient (CI) tests have been improving incessantly since the early twentieth century.

Content

• The origin of the Flynn effect
  • Origin of the data of the IC studied for the Flynn effect
• What are the possible causes of the Flynn effect?
  • Flynn's hypothesis
• Hypothesis 1: Education
• Hypothesis 2: Social changes
• Hypothesis 3: Better nutrition
  • References

The origin of the Flynn effect

In the eighties James R. Flynn, researcher at the University of Otago in New Zealand, discovered a curious phenomenon that happened with the calculation of the population's IC.

Flynn examined the intelligence tests of more than two dozen countries (countries for which there were data) and discovered that the scores increased at a rate of 0.3 points per decade.

This interesting phenomenon, today known as Flynn effect, has been confirmed after almost 30 years of monitoring in numerous countries. And the scores continue to rise.

Research shows that countries have suffered generational increases between 5 and 25 points. The biggest profits seem to occur in the tests that measure fluid intelligence instead of crystallized intelligence.

Origin of the data of the IC studied for the Flynn effect

The countries on which data has been collected to investigate the increase in CI scores over time are: Australia, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Canada, China, Denmark, United States, France, Israel , Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norte Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

What are the possible causes of the Flynn effect?

What really measure intelligence tests? To what extent do learning value pure intelligence or any other factor that correlates with intelligence? The answers to these questions are still being investigated by academics around the world.

Flynn's hypothesis

According to Flynn, the hypothesis that best fits the results is that Intellectual quotient tests do not measure real intelligence, but a part of it, the most academic or that we acquire with practice and learning.

Based on the presence of the effect on nonverbal tests such as Raven's matrices (Raven's test consists in finding the missing piece in a series of figures that are showing). Flynn believes that the increase is actually an increase in resolving abstract problems instead of general intelligence. Flynn favors environmental explanations about the increase in test scores.

Hypothesis 1: Education

In many countries, the general education level of new generations is increasing significantly. People spend a lot of their time learning and being examined in formal educational environments. This is why in many cases, CI profits are highly correlated with the increase in the last years of formal education. On the other hand, some scholars also indicate the increase in the tests to measure the IC, free of academic parameters, are evidence against the educational hypothesis.

Hypothesis 2: Social changes

Other scholars sugges that social changes, especially in terms of task execution control within a fixed time, could be a cause of the gains of CI. The idea behind this hypothesis is that People in our society have learned to work better within a limited time frame. This social trend allows subsequent generations to obtain better scores in the scheduled tests, because they make intelligent conjectures and do not waste time trying to make each test element correct. Although this hypothesis seemed promising, there have been investigations that contradict their fundamental assumptions.

Hypothesis 3: Better nutrition

The hypothesis that CI gains are the result of better world nutrition has also been formulated. This hypothesis is based on The best nourished brains allow subjects to have a better performance in intelligence quotient tests, as well as in everyday activities. Experimental data trying to prove this theory are also mixed, which leads to think that nutrition, even if it is a possible contributing cause, cannot completely explain mass profits in CI measures worldwide.

All this leads us to think that most likely, it is that the three hypotheses have their really part, and the conjunction of all of them is what makes us achieve this progressive increase in scores in intelligence test in the population. So let's take this advantage for good and try to make the earth a better world.

References

• Deary, i. J. (2001). Intelligence: A Vary Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• An accessible and colorful analysis of a wide rage of intelligence topics. The Chapter on The Flynn Effect (Chapter 6) is Among the Best in the Book.
• Flynn, j. R. (1984). The Mean Iq of Americaons: Massive Gains 1932 to 1978. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 29-51.
• Flynn, j. R. (1985). Wechsler Intelligence Tests: Do We Really Have at Criterion of Mental Retardation? American Journal of Mental Deficiety, 90, 236-244.
• Flynn, j. R. (1987). Massive IQ Gains in 14 Nations: What IQ Tests Really Measure. Psychological Bulletin, 101,171-191.
• Flynn, j. R. (1991). ASIAN AMERICANS: ACHIEVEMENT BEYOND IQ. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Inteligence test. CI calculation