IQ decline in the U.K.?
 

:smile:
Check this out!
Loss of Applied IQ Among UK Youth?
Posted by Zonk on Sunday January 29, @02:38PM
from the duh-whats-iq? dept.
Baldrson writes "The UK Times Online reports that: 'After studying 25,000 children across both state and private schools Philip Adey, a professor of education at King's College London confidently declares: "The intelligence of 11-year-olds has fallen by three years' worth in the past two decades."' 3 years loss at age 11 is an IQ of 100*8/11 or 73 -- a massive loss of 27 points. Although the test measures, not general IQ per se, but general IQ applied to scientific and technical reasoning, it nevertheless appears to blow 'a gaping hole' in what has been called The Flynn Effect: that IQs have been rising in most parts of the world -- particularly the developed countries."
What have you to say about this finding?
Mally :coffee:

[QUOTE=mfgoode]:smile:
Check this out!
Loss of Applied IQ Among UK Youth?
Posted by Zonk on Sunday January 29, @02:38PM
from the duh-whats-iq? dept.
Baldrson writes "The UK Times Online reports that: 'After studying 25,000 children across both state and private schools Philip Adey, a professor of education at King's College London confidently declares: "The intelligence of 11-year-olds has fallen by three years' worth in the past two decades."' 3 years loss at age 11 is an IQ of 100*8/11 or 73 -- a massive loss of 27 points. Although the test measures, not general IQ per se, but general IQ applied to scientific and technical reasoning, it nevertheless appears to blow 'a gaping hole' in what has been called The Flynn Effect: that IQs have been rising in most parts of the world -- particularly the developed countries."
What have you to say about this finding?
Mally :coffee:[/QUOTE]It has been observed that IQ is that quality which is measured by IQ tests.

It seems distinctly possible that educational methods have changed and not intelligence [i]per se[/i]. If kids are not being taught how to approach IQ tests as they were previously, that may be a sufficient explanation.


Paul

IQ tests measure dexterity and not intelligence. School is for the latter.

[QUOTE=xilman]It has been observed that IQ is that quality which is measured by IQ tests.

It seems distinctly possible that educational methods have changed and not intelligence [i]per se[/i]. If kids are not being taught how to approach IQ tests as they were previously, that may be a sufficient explanation.


Paul[/QUOTE]

And the tests themselves can be bad. Here is a sample question
from a pop-up that keeps appearing on the Internet as an ad for taking
an IQ test. The question displays 4 letters, all in upper case and asks
which does not belong:

U S O E

One could select S, because it is the only consonant.
One could select O because it is the only letter that is a closed curve.
One could select E because it is the only one made from straight segments.
One could select U because it is the only letter for which one can't find
a good reason for selecting it......

It becomes a GUESSING GAME to guess what the poser had in mind.

[QUOTE=R.D. Silverman]The question displays4 letters, all in upper case and asks which does not belong:

U S O E

One could select S, because it is the only consonant.
One could select O because it is the only letter that is a closed curve.
One could select E because it is the only one made from straight segments.
One could select U because it is the only letter for which one can't find
a good reason for selecting it......[/QUOTE]

The U-option obviously shows a psychological component:
If taken, it says that "U don't belong here." :wink:

[QUOTE=clowns789]IQ tests measure dexterity and not intelligence. School is for the latter.[/QUOTE]
:unsure: Are you sure?
Take a load of this:
[url]http://www.iqtest.com/whatisaniqscore.html?PHPSESSID=c459eab73c3d7ecf150525340ad9930f[/url]
Mally :coffee:

Mally,

The best definition I have of IQ is that it is potential. The potential to learn, the potential to apply what you have learned. There are several different areas where a person might have more or less potential. Math ability is one such area. Social skill is another. A very good memory is a general factor that seems to leverage other potentials. To give a variant example, Bob has excellent math ability. But his social skills are poor. Is he a genius? Is he inept? Depending on which skill is being discussed, an entirely different conclusion could be reached.

IQ tests don't measure potential. They measure what you have already learned. A Borneo savage with an IQ potential of 200 would be totally lost trying to do simple algebra. A carefully trained person with a measured IQ of 60 might be able to do that simple algebra. Its a dichotomy that makes me conclude that IQ tests are mostly a waste of time.

My take on your reference is that you should kick the school teachers. There is an apparent problem with their ability to teach. Kick the parents while you are at it, they aren't encouraging their children to do their best.

Here is a slightly ridiculous IQ test question for you. You have a set of encyclcopedias set on a bookshelf and arranged in standard order from A to Z starting at the left and ending at the right. Each book is exactly 2 inches thick. Each letter corresponds to exactly one book so for example the book stamped A is 2 inches thick. The book covers are each exactly 1/2 inch thick. So for each book, there are two covers, front and back, totaling an inch thickness and another inch of actual pages of info. A bookworm starts eating at the inside edge of the front cover of A and eats all the way through B and stops eating at the inside edge of the back cover of C. How many inches of book and cover did he eat?:flex:

Fusion

[QUOTE=Fusion_power]How many inches of book and cover did he eat?[/QUOTE]

[spoiler]2 inch of cover, 1 inch of book.[/spoiler]

But my common sense tells me that no one would buy an encyclopedia that consists to 50% of cover... :wink:

IQ decline in the U.K.
 

[QUOTE=Mystwalker][spoiler]2 inch of cover, 1 inch of book.[/spoiler]

But my common sense tells me that no one would buy an encyclopedia that consists to 50% of cover... :wink:[/QUOTE]
:grin: Hurray Mystwalker ! Regardless of the answer there's no common sense in the question. Thats why IQ has to be gauged in people.
And here's one for the road taken from British Mensa.
A caterpillar crawls at a speed of 21 inches per hour towards a vegetable patch. After being over indulgent it returns over exactly the same distance at only seven inches per hour.
What is the caterpillars average speed over the entire journey ?
Mally :coffee:

IQ decline in the U.K.
 

[QUOTE=Mystwalker]The U-option obviously shows a psychological component:
If taken, it says that "U don't belong here." :wink:[/QUOTE]
:grin: It could also mean ' when I see U, I take a U turn' :wink:
Mally :coffee:

[QUOTE=mfgoode]:grin: Hurray Mystwalker ! Regardless of the answer there's no common sense in the question. Thats why IQ has to be gauged in people.
And here's one for the road taken from British Mensa.
A caterpillar crawls at a speed of 21 inches per hour towards a vegetable patch. After being over indulgent it returns over exactly the same distance at only seven inches per hour.
What is the caterpillars average speed over the entire journey ?
Mally :coffee:[/QUOTE]

[spoiler]In the returning journey the caterpillar will spend 3 times the time it took
for the initial journey. That gives 21+7*3/4=42/4=10.5 inches/hour.[/spoiler]