Human Brains Shrinking for 30,000 Years

[alfheim]

1 hour ago, rideforever said:

 

Why do you think it contradicts the OP ?   The second study shows a 40 year decline to 2009, and the other one was a decline since Victorian times.  Both hard data studies showing decline.

There has been an increase of iq known as the flynn effect which seems to slow down or decrease again depending on country.

This is from 2009:
The Raven's data show that over the 65 years from circa 1942 to the present, taking ages 5–15 together, British school children have gained 14 IQ points for a rate of 0.216 points per year. However, since 1979, gains have declined with age and between the ages of 12–13 and 14–15, small gains turn into small losses. This is confirmed by Piagetian data and poses the possibility that the cognitive demands of teen-age subculture have been stagnant over perhaps the last 30 years.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X09000057

[rideforever]

54 minutes ago, thelerner said:

I believe that since this (the article you link to) doesn't fit into your current paradigm that  will ignore it.  Thus your beliefs will always be unshakeable because you ignore evidence to the contrary.

Yes that's true, I am personally concerned and would like to take action.
I don't want to be part of the idiocracy.
Plus there always the explain-it-awayers and the i-see-nothingers.
But anyway, I will take my own course.

[thelerner]

You do get that you are an I-see-nothinger also, right?  That when there's evidence against your position, you ignore it.  

 

Measuring intelligence is admittedly a hard subject.  Different eras have different focus's.   And as mentioned early its easy to compare the best of one era to the average of another, particularly your own and find it wanting. 

 

I don't think biology explains why IQ is up since the Victorian age but as Alfheim's article above says, better nutrition has played a large role, and you see that in the world today.  People who aren't getting adequate nutrition, and in the 18th century that was common, the average person was spending 50%+ of there income (as I recall) on food.  Course the slow down and perhaps slight reversal in the last couple decades could also be nutritionally related too, ie we're overloading our kids (& selves) w/ too much sugar and junk food.

 

Education is a tricky thing to measure too.  Thankfully literacy rates have sky rocketed, and so have the number of kids going on to higher education.  That is wonderful as is the ability of people to learn things cheaply on the internet plus decent libraries abound.  The downside is curriculum's have been watered down.   Fundamentals have suffered, partly because there so many shiny new areas that call for attention from modern tech to social issues.   Problematic, but I see it as part of a pendulum swinging.  It'll swing back eventually.