Maggie's Farm

You are right about immigration and dysgenics having an effect, but not the IQ tests. Except at the extremes, of cultures that don't even know what a test, especially a paper-and-pencil test is, the IQ tests do measure aptitude, not learning. They measure horsepower, which pisses off a lot of psych majors who didn't do well on their SATs, so they use smoke and mirrors to convince us that they somehow measure "test-taking ability."

A favorite psychiatrist of mine (who had done well on standardised tests of all kinds) protested to me that there was a knack that you picked up from taking the tests. I agreed, but smirked that some people picked up that knack after one exposure. A PhD psychologist with forty years of testing agreed that there were people who took those tests more often than average who still never figured it out. The three of us were alone and the psychiatrist said "I know, but I've learned never to say that. Especially in front of my wife."

Exactly. A genetic explanation is not even imagined. But it "might be...might be...might be..." everything they have been assuming for three generations.

Sure there are environmental influences at the extreme. Don't starve your children. Don't drop them on their heads. Don't let them eat lead paint. Don't let them be raised by wolves (It's hard to find wolves willing to take the job these days anyway).

The genetic explanation was not even imagined for this paper, and nearly all recent papers. The genetic explanation was laughed at when I was at school in the 1970s and Jensen was condemned for it in the 60s. So you changed the subject, but would have been wrong anyway.

As for the Flynn Effect, there is a great deal to say which I shall not bother with here. For the purposes of brief discussion, there IS some possibility that exposure to tests and education in general has pushed up scores at the lower end of the distribution, which is where most of the Flynn effect is. That the rise is general also suggests that there is something of test artifact.

However, the difference between individuals WITHIN a society has not been tied to any environmental factor convincingly. The rise in each nation separately is on schedule with a generation after widespread war trauma, which would surely fit my definition of "extreme." There has been a leveling, even a downturn, in developed countries since the 90s. The Flynn effect continues in developing countries, which have generally been exposed to more warfare. Though even that does not seem to affect the upper ranges. The general growth of communication has also provided a much more stimulating environment worldwide and one school of thought believes this has led to greater expressed intelligence because of speed, though not greater intelligence as we usually think of it.