Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA18598 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 19 Aug 2001 20:09:21 +0100 Message-ID: <000901c128e8$0dcf55e0$c2a2bed4@default> From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745FFA@inchna.stir.ac.uk><3B7D5BAF.12845.7C575B@localhost> <3B7DABCC.14C60A8A@pacbell.net> <998141696.3b7e6f0022b82@rugth1.phys.rug.nl> Subject: Re: Gene-Meme Co-evolution in Reverse? Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 21:48:33 +0200 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: Philip Jonkers <P.A.E.Jonkers@phys.rug.nl>
?
>
> > "The rising-IQ trend is often called the Flynn Effect after New
> > Zealand sociologist James Flynn, who first noticed the phenomenon
> > in the 1980s. Since 1984, Dr. Flynn has published a series of
> > papers showing that IQs in at least 13 developed countries have
> > gained five to 25 points in recent decades.
> >
> > He managed to find what others had missed because he did not look
> > at average IQ scores, which rank how people compare with each
> > other at a certain point.
> >
> > Instead, Dr. Flynn looked at the number of questions people
> > answered correctly on the intelligence tests over the years and
> > found everyone from school children to soldiers was scoring
> > progressively better.Interestingly, Dr. Flynn does not
> > necessarily believe the Flynn Effect points to a rise in
> > intelligence.
> >
> > "If people, children, were really becoming smarter, teachers
> > would be saying, 'My gosh I can't believe how fast kids learn
> > today,' and they are not saying that," he said in an interview
> > this week.
> >
> > "If people were really getting as smart as the test scores
> > suggest, we should be blinded by brilliance."He suggests that the
> > rising-IQ trend tells us more about what society demands of
> > people's mental abilities than about their actual intelligence
> > level because the gains have been in very specific skills.
> > >>
> >
> > So the data is misreported. IQ scores have not been rising. And thus
> > IQ,
> > whatever the term may mean, if anything, has not been rising. What has
> > been increasing is specific knowledge, both declarative and
> > procedural.
> > So people today would have scored higher on previous IQ tests. The
> > Flynn
> > Effect illustrates the cultural relativity of IQ tests, reflecting
> > cultural change over time.
Hi Bill, Philip,
I don 't want to spoil the pleasure you both have with this thread, but what
Flynn did or not did in a way, could be an illustration of morphic resonance
at work.
For a real report we should be testing people not for specific abilites
and skills but for general knowledge.
Unfortunely the data Flynn presents is inconclusive to be used in any
morphic experiment.
But thanks for the idea....
Best,
Kenneth
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