The Science Times – Nayomi Chibana
“A continual increase in intelligence quotient (IQ) scores over the past century seems to indicate that most Americans are smarter than their grandparents were. Is this really true? And if so, why? The dramatic rise in IQ scores over the past century has been termed the Flynn effect, after psychologist James Flynn who discovered this trend in the 1980s. Flynn states that if a person living a century ago would have taken an IQ test and scored it against today’s standards, he or she would have received an average score of 70. Meanwhile, if a person from the current generation were to take a test in accordance with prior generations’ norms, he or she would score an IQ of 130. Hypotheses pointing toward the role of genetics and nutrition have generally not satisfied the academic community, while the notion that we’re geniuses and that our grandparents were mentally retarded is also regarded as illogical and improbable. Researchers such as David Baker, professor of sociology and education at Penn State, have tried to come up with other explanations related to a confluence of environmental factors.”(more)