Tests carried out in 1980 and again in 2008 show that the IQ score of an average 14-year-old dropped by more than two points over the period.

 

Among those in the upper half of the intelligence scale, a group that is typically dominated by children from middle class families, performance was even worse, with an average IQ score six points below what it was 28 years ago.

 

The trend marks an abrupt reversal of the so-called "Flynn effect" which has seen IQ scores rise year on year, among all age groups, in most industrialised countries throughout the past century.

 

Professor James Flynn, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, the discoverer of the Flynn effect and the author of the latest study, believes the abnormal drop in British teenage IQ could be due to youth culture having "stagnated" or even dumbed down.

 

He used data gathered in IQ tests on UK children to examine how the country's cognitive skills have changed over time.

 

He found that while children aged between five and 10 saw their IQs increase by up to half a point a year over the three decades, teenagers performed less well.

 

"It looks like there is something screwy among British teenagers," said Professor Flynn. "While we have enriched the cognitive environment of children before their teenage years, the cognitive environment of the teenagers has not been enriched.

 

"Other studies have shown how pervasive teenage youth culture is, and what we see is parents' influence on IQ slowly diminishing with age.

 

"Up until the age of nine and ten, the home has a really powerful influence, so we can assume parents have been providing their children with a more cognitive challenging environment in the past 30 years.

 

"After that age the children become more autonomous and they gravitate to peer groups that set the cognitive environment.

 

"What we know is that youth culture is more visually orientated around computer games than they are in terms of reading and holding conversations."

 

He added that previous studies have shown that IQ increases as teenagers move into adulthood, entering university or starting work.

 

Professor Flynn also believes that the larger drop in IQ among the upper half of the ability range could be due to effects of social class.

 

He said: "IQ gains are typically correlated by class, but the results in this case are very mixed. Maybe the rebellious peer culture of the lower half of British society has invaded the peer culture of the upper half.

 

"It could be the classes in the upper half were insulated from this rebellious peer culture for a time, but now it is universal."

 

His research, which is presented in a paper published online by the journal Economics and Human Biology, also refutes the commonly held belief that increases in IQ over time are a result of improving nutrition.

 

Previous research has suggested that using text messages and email causes concentration to drop, temporarily reducing IQ by 10 points, while smoking marijuana has been associated with a four-point drop in IQ.

 

IQ, or intelligence quotient, is normally expressed as a single numerical score, with 100 being the average.

 

Professor Flynn's study was conducted using a respected IQ test known as Raven's Progressive Matrices. Questions involve matching a series of patterns and sequences, so that even people with no education can take the test.

 

Dr John Raven, the Edinburgh-based psychologist who invented the test, said he was surprised by the fall in teenage IQ.

 

He said: "IQ is influenced by multiple factors that can be dependent upon culture, but the norms tend to be very similar across cultures even in societies that have no access to computers and television.

 

"What we do see is that IQ changes dramatically over time."

 

He cautioned that since the study did not record the social class of participants, "it is very difficult to make inferences about how changes within social classes can impact on these changes in IQ".

 

Richard House, a senior lecturer in therapeutic education at Roehampton University and a researcher into the effects of television on children, said: "Taking these findings at face value, it appears that there is something happening to teenagers.

 

"Computer games and computer culture has led to a decrease in reading books. The tendency for teachers to now 'teach to the test' has also led to a decrease in the capacity to think in lateral ways."

 

source: sunday telegraph

I'm really not surprised. I know I've complained time and time again about this in the Lounge, but it's almost as if society doesn't credit intelligent people as much as it should. Hell, even I'm having to dumb myself down on my CV (baring in mind I didn't even get AMAZING A Level results, just a B and a C) to get a part time job, yet I STILL get turned down opportunities for being to "skilled and experienced".

 

I'm sorry, but where's the point in having an education, when teenage mothers (maybe not so much), secondary school dropouts and mere simpletons not ony get jobs over a person of AVERAGE intellect, but infact have jobs up in the top hierarchy of companies; so of course it'll look bad if you employ someone smarter than you.

 

I know this isn't the main focus of the article, but the way it seems to be deemed inappropriate to be an intelligent person these days (or is it just where I live?...) doesn't half get on my goat. It was a PC field day when the thickos weren't getting employed....

 

UGH.

with a face like yours (girl above) i'd employ you lol

IQ tests are worthless in my opinion.

 

Often they have very little to do with actually intelligence and more with trying to "pick the next symbol in a pattern".

 

Someone who was merely good at solving patterns and had a decent vocabulary could pass an IQ test with flying colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it comes as no surprise when todays youth are cosseted and not taught to think for themselves, having everything handed to them on a plate....plus teachers are powerless to prevent unruly/disruptice behaviour.

^ Absolutely.

 

Oh anddd, lessons don't seem as complex...well not complex, but, beneficial. I mean, back in the day people had to make a bloody three course meal or whatever for Food Tech., these days it's just like "your task is to make a sandwich". Hardly the most brain-stimulating of things lol. So people just take them as a dudd course, because obviously you'll get high marks in them.

it comes as no surprise when todays youth are cosseted and not taught to think for themselves, having everything handed to them on a plate....plus teachers are powerless to prevent unruly/disruptice behaviour.

Agreed. I sit in my media class (ok maybe not the most important of subjects but still) and wonder why the hell some of these people are here...

And it was SHOCKING to hear that I was the only one to get an A in an essay we done... 0.0 In A-Level...

 

Although talking to my parents about this a while back, they said that the educational system is better here than it is in Portugal... Mainly cos of the help and advice they give you here rather than in Portugal where they just gave you work and expected you to get on with it...

 

And yes, teachers let pupils get away with bloody murder.. A boy in my class called the teacher racist and the teacher done nothing... Another punched a PREGNANT teacher in the stomach and the boy is still in the school.. It is bloody ridiculous.. Luckily the pregnant teacher was okay and so was the baby..

Edited February 9, 200916 yr by Joao.

Too much "do a unit, get the grade , forget it all" has crept into our education even at advanced levels. Pupils used to be tested on a year or more's knowledge at real exams and had to retain and apply knowledge. They didn't for example get "formula" sheets for science and maths or the luxury of calculators for basic tasks they should be able to do mentally.

 

I'd love to see how today's youth would cope with log tables.

I'd love to see how today's youth would cope with log tables.

 

oh god YES! logarhythms!

 

and long division! remember that? :lol:

^ Absolutely.

 

Oh anddd, lessons don't seem as complex...well not complex, but, beneficial. I mean, back in the day people had to make a bloody three course meal or whatever for Food Tech., these days it's just like "your task is to make a sandwich". Hardly the most brain-stimulating of things lol. So people just take them as a dudd course, because obviously you'll get high marks in them.

 

I disagree with that, well partly anyway. At my high school we had to do a technology subject anyway and I chose Food Technology, although we didn't have to make a full course meal so yes in that way we did have it lightly. I made alternatives for vegetarians, so I tried out different foods which would be suitable for vegetarians but something quick and I found that challenging. However we got told a month before our coursework had to be in that everything we had to do was wrong, so everything had to be re-done including cooking, most people didn't even bother.

The tendency for teachers to now 'teach to the test' has also led to a decrease in the capacity to think in lateral ways."

Certainly an excellent point there. This happens way too much. Its sooo much more interesting if you learn about the SUBJECT not the exam. Which is why Business is so crap :lol:

 

IQ tests are worthless in my opinion.

 

Often they have very little to do with actually intelligence and more with trying to "pick the next symbol in a pattern".

 

Someone who was merely good at solving patterns and had a decent vocabulary could pass an IQ test with flying colors.

I don't think they're pointless. They have everything to do with intelligence, not just knowledge, though of course both of those things often go together, and those who lack intelligence often lack knowledge, and vice versa. Anyway, i find picking the next symbol in the pattern bloody hard!

 

Exams have got easier, or at least Maths. Our maths teacher thought the new textbooks were too easy so we got some textbooks from 1998 :blink: . They're unbelievably harder but i prefer them because rather than stating the rules formulae they actually explain why they are there and how they are found. It does create a big workload though, particularly on top of an extra statistics module GCSE.

Certainly an excellent point there. This happens way too much. Its sooo much more interesting if you learn about the SUBJECT not the exam. Which is why Business is so crap :lol:

I don't think they're pointless. They have everything to do with intelligence, not just knowledge, though of course both of those things often go together, and those who lack intelligence often lack knowledge, and vice versa. Anyway, i find picking the next symbol in the pattern bloody hard!

 

Exams have got easier, or at least Maths. Our maths teacher thought the new textbooks were too easy so we got some textbooks from 1998 :blink: . They're unbelievably harder but i prefer them because rather than stating the rules formulae they actually explain why they are there and how they are found. It does create a big workload though, particularly on top of an extra statistics module GCSE.

Was not impressed to hear recently Carol Voderman recently said maths tests have definitly become easier.

Surely the examination boards could be taken to task for this. Surely that is the purpose of an examination board? :arrr:

Was not impressed to hear recently Carol Voderman recently said maths tests have definitly become easier.

Surely the examination boards could be taken to task for this. Surely that is the purpose of an examination board? :arrr:

The exam boards are all different. I hate OCR. They do the Modular Maths and 21st Century Science exams. The science exams are just ticking boxes. In my Chemistry mock exam my longest answer was 4 words :blink:. Maths is meant to be about logic and using BRAINPOWER imo, but its reduced to revising rules of formulae. I can't believe i'm saying this, but its too easy. I might be being slightly arrogant here, but i think that i'm above average when it comes to Maths, but there is very little to distinguish myself from others. AQA and Edexcel aren't that bad i guess.

 

Anyway, exam boards are quite relevant. You could tell which exam board set the paper by looking at the questions...

Edited February 13, 200916 yr by Harve

it comes as no surprise when todays youth are cosseted and not taught to think for themselves, having everything handed to them on a plate....plus teachers are powerless to prevent unruly/disruptice behaviour.

 

Amen to that.... Schools only seem to teach the exams and not the subjects.... Little wonder that so many school leavers are so utterly lost at University, where knowledge of the acutal subject and the research and reading and formulating your own ideas is paramount....

 

As for Joao's point.... That little b'astard who hit the pregnant teacher should be in bloody PRISON, not in a classroom...... <_<

 

oh god YES! logarhythms!

 

and long division! remember that? :lol:

 

And slates? Remember writing on slates?

 

Ah ... the good old days! :lol:

 

I'll tell you what though ... if I'm ever in hospital ... if anyone under the age of 50 is giving me an injection of anything ... I'm going to ask them 10 mental arithmetic questions first. If they get them right ... they can go ahead.

 

Norma