August 11, 1922
It Happens in the Best Regulated Families by Clare Briggs
You've heard of people griping about "these dumbass kids these days," now meet its more interesting (and true) sibling, "kids these days are a whole magnitude smarter than we were."
[ID: A balding man with mustache and spectacles leans back in his armchair, one hand holding open a magazine, the other ashing his cigar. The magazine is opened to an article titled, "My Job as a Father by Edgar Guest." A headline on the other page reads, "Be a Companion to Your Boy." /end]
Father: A good idea. A VERY good article. I agree with Mr. Guest. We should take more interest in our sons.
[ID: The father puts his magazine down and eagerly greets his son, who stands with his hands in his pockets in front of his father's chair. /end]
Father: Yes, Willie?
Willie: I want to talk to you, Dad, about my radio.
[ID: The father puffs on his cigar and goes red in the face as the boy explains things. /end]
Willie: A wire came off the variometer and I wondered if it fastened to the grid leak or the vario-coupler.
Willie: Buddy Guest said it would cause high frequency oscillations in the amplifier.
Father: He DOES, does he!?
[ID: The boy goes on as the father, deeply embarrassed, tries to read the article further. /end]
Willie: I think it would more likely affect the grid potential so as to get highest possible inductance in order to produce voltage amplification, don't you?
[ID: The father slinks down into his chair and buries his face in his magazine. Willie walks off, dejected. /end]
Father: Yes, I think you're right.
Willie: Ah-h-h...
In recent years, research by Professor James R. Flynn, an American expatriate living in New Zealand, has shaken up the whole IQ controversy by discovering what has been called "the Flynn effect." In various countries around the world, people have been answering significantly more IQ test questions correctly than in the past.
This important fact has been inadvertently concealed by the practice of changing the norms on IQ tests, so that the average number of correctly answered questions remains by definition an IQ of 100. Only by painstakingly going back and recalculating IQs, based on the initial norms, was Professor Flynn able to discover that whole nations had, in effect, had their IQs rising over the decades by about 20 points.
Since the black-white difference in IQ is 15 points, this means that an even larger IQ difference has existed between different generations of the same race, making it no longer necessary to attribute IQ differences of this magnitude to genetics. In the half century between 1945 and 1995, black Americans' raw test scores rose by the equivalent of 16 IQ points.
In other words, black Americans' test score results in 1995 would have given them an average IQ just over 100 in 1945. Only the repeated renorming of IQ tests upward created the illusion that blacks had made no progress, but were stuck at an IQ of 85. But we would never have known this if some researchers had not defied the taboo on studying race and IQ imposed by black "leaders" and white "friends."
Incidentally, Professor Jensen pointed out back in 1969 that black children's IQ scores rose by 8 to 10 points after he met with them informally in a play room and then tested them again after they were more relaxed around him. He did this because "I felt these children were really brighter than their IQ would indicate." What a shame that others seem to have less confidence in black children than Professor Jensen has had.
On High-Range Test Construction 27: Bob Williams, The Flynn Effect: A testing phenomenon, not psychometric g
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees:…
Ask A Genius 1106: The Matter with What We Think Matters
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/09/27
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, I interviewed with Steven Pinker. I had some correspondence with someone who is a dissenter from him. They cited people that Pinker has either been associated with or has referenced in his work and, therefore, concluded that Pinker…
The Flynn Effect shows that average IQ scores are steadily rising with each generation. IQ tests are made harder to keep the average at 100, and today’s children score significantly higher on past tests.
On High-Range Test Construction 9: Bob Williams, Overview of the Flynn Effect
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open…
Conversation with Bob Williams on General Intelligence Now: Retired Nuclear Physicist (6)
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None…