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<\/a><\/p>\nNothing, it seems, had changed.<\/p>\n
Those facts, however, disguise a surprising truth.<\/p>\n
IQ tests are based on scaled scores. That is: the student’s\u00a0raw<\/em> test score is translated<\/em> into an IQ score according to a formula. And — here’s the key part — that formula is readjusted every ten years.<\/p>\n So: the reason that average IQ scores haven’t<\/strong> changed is that\u00a0the formula has<\/strong> changed<\/em> to keep the average at 100. A lot. Raw scores on the underlying test have gone considerably over the history over the test.<\/p>\n If our grandparents’ raw scores were translated according to today’s formula, their average would be about 70. If our scores were translated according to our grandparents’ formula, the average would be about 130.<\/p>\n What’s going on here?<\/em><\/p>\n Are we really that much smarter than our grandparents?<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/james_flynn_why_our_iq_levels_are_higher_than_our_grandparents?language=en#t-524785<\/p>\n James Flynn, who first noted this astonishing increase, has a different way of thinking about this question.<\/p>\n He, instead, pointed to differences in schooling. For instance:<\/p>\n Children today, on average, get LOTS more schooling than did children when the IQ test was first developed.<\/p>\n Today’s schooling tends to focus more on abstract and hypothetical thinking than did school 100 years ago.<\/p>\n Flynn’s argument, of course, includes many more details and insights.<\/p>\n