Keep in mind that IQ test scores are calculated relative to others taking a test. In Aristotle's day, he was the cat's pajamas. And if he took a modern day IQ test, he'd probably still do quite well. But if they had IQ tests back in Ancient Greece, the average score of the population would probably have been much lower than it is today (at least for tests involving operational scientific thought).
According to Flynn's resolution, we have to face a different set of problems today that were unheard of to our ancestors. Today, we take such thought for granted.
Are you satisfied with Flynn's resolution to the paradox? Please weigh in.
Personally, I am most satisfied with Flynn's resolution in comparison to the alternatives, but I have a few qualms.
Sure, it's easy to see how providing an answer on the verbal Similarities sub-test of the WISC-R IQ test in terms of the function or value of the two entities (such as in the liberty and justice example) can get you a lower score on that subtest. The scoring instructions do indeed damn "the concrete in favor of the abstract." It's harder for me to imagine though how this would operate on the nonverbal Ravens Progressive Matrices test which is not open ended and clearly requires one to make abstract generalizations.
Indeed when it comes to performance on the Ravens test, one can't be penalized for providing a functional response, because it's impossible to give a functional response on this test (this test is multiple choice only)! Of course, Flynn may still be right that the cause of lower performance on Ravens may be due to the general lack of education and familiarity with the form of thinking that is required to do well on the test. But "the scoring instructions are biased against that habit of mind" argument can't be applied in the case of Ravens (which is the particular test that has displayed the largest increases-- gains much larger than seen on the verbal Similarities test).
My second qualm is that people were capable of formal operational thought back then. Piaget started his research back in 1929 and found that after about age 11, people really could handle formal operational thinking. So to propose that the mechanism behind the Flynn effect is a shift from concrete operational to formal operational thought is to say that the average person back then used the same form of thinking as the average 10 year old today. I feel as though, if true, the implications of this would be interesting in its own right and may raise just as many issues as the Aristotle paradox raised!
Therefore, let's not be too quick to accept Flynn's explanation in its entirety as fact. In nearly every popular media discussion of the Flynn effect, the writer summarizes Flynn's argument and treats it as the truth. Not even Flynn is that dogmatic!
In my opinion, Flynn's major contribution is not solving the paradox definitely, but specifying the parameters of the paradox. This limits the number of reasonable alternatives. This is why I admire Flynn so much: he possesses a unique combination of philosophical and scientific thinking.
In Flynn's words, here are the parameters: "Our ancestors were not mentally retarded; yet they could not cope with a huge number of Raven's items; nor could they, as recently as those born in the 1930s, cope with a large number of Similarities items - and that we must seek an explanation in new habits of mind, rather than talk about test sophistication."
We're not done though. So far, I've only discussed one paradox raised by the Flynn Effect. But there are more.
Chew on this one for a little while:
The rise in IQ from generation to generation suggests that the average IQ score of a particular population can change through the influence of environmental factors. And quite a bit.
If this is so, how can IQ tests be meaningfully capturing anything of importance, if those things that are captured are so dependent on environmental influence?
Indeed, twin studies demonstrate the strong influence of genes in determining IQ score. And IQ tests do show pretty good stability and predict various practical outcomes within a generation.
What's going on here? In my next few posts, I'll try to work ourselves out of this mess.
© 2008 Scott Barry Kaufman, All Rights Reserved
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Notes:
The dialogue at the beginning of this post as well as all quotes from James Flynn are taken from Flynn's recent book, What is Intelligence? Beyond the Flynn Effect. I thank James Flynn and the syndicates of Cambridge University Press for allowing me permission to reproduce the dialogue. Also thanks to Elliot Paul for his insightful comments on an earlier draft of this post.
I have been quite impressed by some of the responses to the first paradox. A few readers of my blog hit the nail right on the head. In fact, one individual personally emailed me because they were too shy to post their solution on my blog, and this person was in near perfect agreement with Flynn's hypothesis! I look forward to reading potential solutions to this next paradox. There is usually more than one interpretation of data, and some of you may hit upon something none of us intelligence researchers have ever thought of. So stay involved!
