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American IQ scores have rapidly dropped, proving the 'Reverse Flynn effect'

(www.popularmechanics.com)
256 points hirundo | 3 comments | 10 Apr 23 13:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.595s | source
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JoeAltmaier ◴[10 Apr 23 22:29 UTC] No.35518164[source]▶
When IQ tests were invented folks didn't know about tests, at least in the US. They were rural immigrants who could maybe read. So when asked logic questions, they would answer pragmatically and be 'wrong'. That had some impact on perceived early low results.

As folks became better-read and educated they began to understand that IQ test questions were a sort of puzzle, not a real honest question. The answer was expected to solve the puzzle, not be right in any way.

E.g. There are no Elephants in Germany. Munich is in Germany. How many elephants are there in Munich? A) 0 B) 1 C)2

Folks back then might answer B or C, because they figure hey there's probably a zoo in Munich, bet they have an elephant or two there. And be marked wrong.

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pseudo0 ◴[10 Apr 23 22:57 UTC] No.35518406[source]▶
That theory could be plausible, except Flynn used results from Raven's Progressive Matrices, which is just pattern recognition. There are no questions about elephants or text-based questions that could introduce cultural bias. It's simply picking the shape that matches the pattern presented in a grid.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven's_Progressive_Matrices

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WalterBright ◴[10 Apr 23 23:09 UTC] No.35518518[source]▶
I've often heard from humanities academics that STEM majors do not confer critical thinking skills.
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analog31 ◴[11 Apr 23 03:29 UTC] No.35520427[source]▶
Every subject claims to teach critical thinking. If I learned it anywhere, it was from my parents, both scientists. Observing my kids, the high school classes that seemed to teach the most about critical thinking were in English and social studies. Unfortunately, STEM was heavily burdened by test prep.
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1. WalterBright ◴[11 Apr 23 04:07 UTC] No.35520699[source]▶
> STEM was heavily burdened by test prep

That's the wrong way to learn STEM, and is the fault of your high school.

Sadly, I know some highly educated STEM professionals who rigorously use the scientific method to separate truth from crap in their field. Outside their field, the scientific method goes right out the window and they rely on emotional arguments and wishful thinking.

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2. Apocryphon ◴[11 Apr 23 04:10 UTC] No.35520726[source]▶
In a rapidly overcomplicated world where people are forced into hyper-specialization, everyone compartmentalizes.
3. analog31 ◴[11 Apr 23 12:36 UTC] No.35524282[source]▶
>>> That's the wrong way to learn STEM, and is the fault of your high school.

Indeed, but I would say the high school "system" as a whole, burdened by pressure from parents. And pressure from the state, which was rewarding and punishing schools for test scores and other metrics.

Middle class parents were just gaa-gaa over pushing their kids into STEM programs at top colleges, to the point where it was kind of overbearing. I might have been one of those parents, but my neighbor, a high school math and physics teacher, talked me out of it when my kids were younger.

At the same time, some of the non-STEM classes were pretty hard nosed, like the one were they took apart media and advertising.

Fortunately my kids learned the scientific method at home, same place they learned to read. But it was for the love of knowledge and learning, not to get ahead. That's also how I learned it.