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Flynn Effect
The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century, named after researcher James Flynn (1934–2020).[1][2] When intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are initially standardized using a sample of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100 and their standard deviation is set to 15 or 16 IQ points. When IQ tests are revised, they are again standardized using a new sample of test-takers, usually born more recently than the first; the average result is set to 100.
Bratsberg & Rogeberg (2018) present evidence that the Flynn effect in Norway has reversed between the years 1962–1991, and that both the original rise in mean IQ scores and their subsequent decline within this period can be observed within families consisting of native-born parents and their children, indicating that environmental factors were the likely cause for these changes. A puzzling longitudinal trend in the opposite direction, known as the 'Flynn effect', has been well documented in successive revisions of major intelligence tests (like the S-B and the Wechsler scales) that invariably involve the administration of both the old and new versions to a segment of the newer standardization sample, for comparative purposes. Ulric Neisser; James R. Flynn; Carmi Schooler; Patricia M. Greenfield; Wendy M. Williams; Marian Sigman; Shannon E. Whaley; Reynaldo Martorell; Richard Lynn; Robert M. Hauser; David W. Grissmer; Stephanie Williamson; Sheila Nataraj Kirby; Mark Berends; Stephen J. Ceci; Tina B. Rosenblum; Matthew Kumpf; Min-Hsiung Huang; Irwin D. Waldman; Samuel H. Preston; John C. Loehlin (1998).
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