Children's I.Q.s are increasing

Instapundit links to a piece about I.Q.s in Der Spiegel. Across the world, children's I.Q.s are increasing. Don't forget, though, that American psychologist Lewis Terman found in his research that how a child is raised is as important as I.Q. (things like self-confidence and perserverance) in predicting a child's later success.

Here are some of the points in the piece that I found interesting:

"From generation to generation, children find it easier to organize symbols, create categories and think abstractly.

While young test subjects are particularly good at solving visual and logical tasks quickly, their vocabulary is increasing only minimally -- unlike that of their parents.

"Linguistically, the generations are growing apart," Flynn states. "Young people can still understand their parents, but they can no longer mimic their style of speech. That was different in the past." One possible reason for the change is that today's young people read and write many short messages on Facebook and on their cell phones, but they rarely immerse themselves in books anymore."

 Last week, a working group under Osvaldo Almeida, an Australian professor of geriatric psychiatry at the University of Western Australia, in Perth, released the results of a long-term study of over 5,500 seniors. The finding: Study participants who used computers had over 30 percent less risk of developing dementia."

 http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/studies-contest-theory-that-internet-is-making-people-dumber-a-855668.html