What Is the Flynn Effect?

Flynn effect refers to the phenomenon that the results of IQ tests increase year by year. Named after James Flynn. The first person to raise this phenomenon was Richard Lynn. In a 1982 issue of Nature, he suggested that Americans are getting better at intelligence tests.

Flynn effect

Flynn effect means

Of course, if a country overcomes a disease, the intelligence of its residents will increase. The rise in intelligence in rich countries has been noticed over the past few decades. It is called the "Flynn Effect", named after its discoverer James Flynn, and in 1983 James R. Flynn claimed that he had discovered an important trend: in the past half century The IQ index (IQ test score) of young people in developed countries has continued to increase. This discovery has received widespread attention, known as

The cause of the Flynn effect has been a mystery-until now. If Epig is correct, get vaccinated in those countries

Most people now agree that genetic factors contribute at least 60% to the IQ index. Flynn was puzzled by this. But four years ago, a friend of Flynn, William Dickens, an economist at the Brookings Institution, helped Flynn give a theoretical explanation. Imagine that a person has only a little advantage in height due to genetic factors and is slightly better in playing basketball. It is because of this advantage that he tends to like playing basketball; when he enters high school, he is more likely to encounter A good coach to train him, so he entered a virtuous cycle, this cycle may even bring him into the NBA. Imagine again that this person has an identical twin brother who grew up in different environments, and at first enjoyed this advantage as well and entered the same virtuous circle. Then, if a geneticist conducts a survey of basketball players, at the end of this cycle, it will be discovered that the two off-site twins are excellent players, so it is easy to conclude that they have The distinctive "excellent basketball player gene". But the fact is that genes only give them a 1% advantage, and this advantage gives them 99% positive environmental support. The same principle can be used in the field of intelligence, that is, small genetic differences are gradually amplified in the environment, and eventually huge differences are produced. As a result, the genetic contribution of the IQ test has been newly sociologically interpreted, supporting environmentalism.

1. Biological factors: Decreased intermarriage, better nutrition, and increased cranial crest in humans.

2. Sociological factors: more people get education and social complexity increases: when society is more complicated, people receive more stimuli.

The Flynn Effect and the IQ Paradox

For a long time, humans seem to face a dilemma: the so-called "real" we face every day is actually not real. The reason is that what we know as "real" is in fact expressed indirectly through multiple layers of "intermediaries". Here I borrow the famous "three worlds" of British philosopher Popper, that is, the true reality (first world) enters the specific cognitive system of man and becomes the filtered reality (second world). , And then the narrative becomes the so-called "real" (third world) we face. But after "subcontracting" a few times like this, the "truth" of the third world is often completely different from that of the first world. In other words, the "truth" we face is actually more of an artificial "truth", which is not the same as the true "truth". In recent years, many scholars in the West have pointed out that "truth" in the sense of the "third world" is a concept created by human beings, "truth", which is not much related to "original truth".

The subject to be explained in this article proves this to a considerable extent.

As we all know, IQ-is an artificial general term used to judge and define the intelligence level of each individual. The IQ test (IQ test) is a specific means to determine the level of individual intelligence. People often judge a person's cleverness and stupidity by the level of IQ, and use this to determine a person's future direction. It is reported that some units and schools have so far conducted so-called IQ tests on candidates and candidates, and ruthlessly eliminated those so-called unqualified people. Some school teachers are even extremely indifferent to those students with low IQ values, which leads to their self-confidence being severely damaged and life-long.

We know that there is a famous experiment in the field of psychology. Some psychologists use the name of IQ test to divide randomly selected students into two groups, and then arbitrarily point out that one group is a high IQ and the other is a low IQ. After a few months, the intelligence of the group of students who were considered to have a high IQ really improved a lot, while the intelligence of the other group of students really decreased. In addition, a psychology professor in the United States, after years of follow-up investigations, found that some students who were considered not to have a high IQ in those years had much higher achievements in their later development than their classmates with so-called high IQs. Therefore, the professor questioned the significance of using IQ.

So, what exactly does the IQ reflected in the IQ test mean? Is it an artificial criterion to replace real existence? Let us first understand a piece of history.

In 1983, an American professor named Flynn claimed that he had discovered an important phenomenon-the IQ index of young people in all developed countries had continued to increase over the past half century. For example, from 1932 to 1978, the average IQ index of young Americans increased by 14 points. This discovery has attracted widespread attention and is known as the "Flynn effect". However, even Professor Flynn himself finds it incredible that according to mainstream theory, the IQ index is mainly determined by genetic genes, and humans cannot achieve such a rapid "evolution" in such a short time. Furthermore, with the advent of post-industrial society, the proliferation of sensory hedonism and the tendency of entertainment in the whole society have caused a serious decline in the speculative spirit and ability in the traditional sense. "This deteriorating trend has been called by critics as a" mentally retarded "tendency, and this status quo" does not match the continuous improvement of the IQ index "," students have not seen a significant improvement in their test scores, why they have IQ Did the test result improve? "

From this point of view, we must explore what kind of test the so-called IQ test is, and what layer of truth it reveals. In fact, Professor Flynn has already answered this question: "The key is that the IQ test is a special type of intelligence test. The problem is mainly a series of visual images. Each question contains a mixture of graphics. The answer is to fill A correct figure. To solve this kind of problem is to scrutinize a set of changing icons and look for patterns. "

We know that one of the salient features of a modern society is that people's mediums of contact with this society and the way they think have fundamentally changed. For modern people, "this type of thinking is not obtained in reading books, talking with people, or preparing for history exams, but in setting up an automatic recording program for a video recorder or mastering the interface functions of a new phone. What we get ... Every new visual media, especially interactive visual media, brings new challenges to our brains. We must solve the logic of the new interface, search for clues, judge the appropriate choice, and obtain hidden information. The law of inclusion. Not surprisingly, these are exactly the thinking skills we need in the IQ test. "

At this point, we have basically understood the true meaning of the so-called "Flynn effect"-the continuous improvement of this IQ index is, in fact, the change in people's contact with the outside world caused by modernity, and the way of thinking caused by it A new cognitive model caused by change. However, the problem is that this trend of continuous improvement of IQ is based on the premise that modernity is widely criticized by academics as being "mentally mentally weak." Then a more serious question arises: Is the IQ of modern people increased or decreased? In other words, if the basis for the improvement of IQ of modern people is obtained by the sensitivity to sensibility, images and numbers beyond rationality, thinking and reading, then is this the evolution or degradation of human intelligence?

In my opinion, the so-called IQ test based on "science" largely reflects a "one-dimensional" scientific thinking. As Hayek pointed out in the book "Scientific Counter-Revolution": "The entire history of modern science is a process that increasingly gets rid of our classification of external stimuli until they finally disappear completely ... at this time ... the only appropriate thing is Language is mathematical language. "

If it is said that the truth of IQ can only be changed through the transformation of "three worlds"-only in the description of geometry, images, and numbers, can it be a measure of a person's "real" IQ. ", Into a" robot "that can be made with a model. And this is exactly what Hayek criticized: "Human history is the result of the interaction of countless human minds. Today, so many people think that it must follow the simple rules that can be found by the human mind, so that almost No one realizes how appalling it is ... "

Looking back at history, there was an 8-year-old child who was kicked out of the school because his teacher thought he was "inferior." However, it is this "intellectual" little boy who lights up the night sky for all mankind in the future-thanks to his invention, people no longer fear the night. Illuminated the future of mankind-this "low energy" is Edison. ^[1]