Flynn effect facts for kids

The Flynn effect is a name for something interesting. It's about how average IQ scores have gone up over time. This rise has been seen since IQ tests first started. In many countries, IQ scores have increased by about three points every decade. James R. Flynn first talked about this in 1984.

Other experts agreed with Flynn. They noticed that the biggest increases were for people who scored below 100 on IQ tests. This meant fewer people were classified as having an intellectual disability over the years. However, scores for people above 100 did not change much.

What is the Flynn Effect?

IQ tests are regularly updated. This is done to keep the average score for an age group at 100. This updating first hinted to Flynn that IQ scores were changing over time. Newer versions of the tests are based on new groups of people. The only way to compare how hard two versions are is to have the same group of people take both tests. This helps confirm that IQ scores have indeed gone up over time.

How Much Have Scores Risen?

The average rise in IQ scores seems to be about three points every ten years. You might think that skills learned in school, like vocabulary or arithmetic, would show the biggest gains. This is because children today go to school for longer. They are also more used to taking tests.

However, the opposite is true! Skills like these have shown only small gains, and sometimes even drops. The biggest changes are seen in tests that measure general intelligence. An example is Raven's Progressive Matrices. For instance, Dutch soldiers gained 21 points in just 30 years (1952-1982). That's 7 points per decade!

Who Shows the Biggest Gains?

Some studies have looked at how the scores are spread out. They found that the Flynn effect mostly happens with lower scores. However, a researcher named Raven (in 2000) said that a lot of old information needed to be looked at again. This old information used to suggest that many abilities got worse as people got older.

But now, this data shows that many abilities have actually increased a lot, just as Flynn predicted. This increase happens at all levels of ability on many tests. For example, two large groups of Spanish children were tested 30 years apart. Comparing their IQ scores showed:

• The average IQ went up by 9.7 points (this is the Flynn effect).
• The gains were mostly in the lower half of the scores. There was almost no gain in the top half.
• The gains slowly became smaller as the IQ level went from low to high.

What Does This Mean?

Some scientists think these changes are very big. One of them is Ulric Neisser. In 1995, he led a group of experts for the American Psychological Association. This group was tasked with understanding intelligence research.

Neisser estimated that if American children from 1932 took an IQ test made in 1997, their average IQ would have been only about 80. This means half of the children in 1932 would be seen as having a borderline intellectual disability or worse in 1997.

Looking at the Raven's tests, Neisser suggested that if we guess beyond the known data (which shows a 21-point gain from 1952 to 1982), an even larger gain of 35 IQ points could be argued. However, another scientist, Arthur Jensen, warned that guessing too far beyond the data can lead to strange results. For example, it could suggest that Aristotle would have an IQ of minus 1000!

Most often, the Flynn effect is about IQ scores going up. But a similar effect has also been found. It shows increases in semantic (understanding words) and episodic (remembering events) memory.

See also

In Spanish: Efecto Flynn para niños