Editing James Flynn (academic) (section)

== IQ research and the Flynn effect ==
{{Main|Flynn effect}}
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In 1978, while working on a refutation of classical racism for an upcoming book about "humane ideals", Flynn read [[University of California, Berkeley]] educational psychologist [[Arthur Jensen]]'s 1969 article, "[[How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?]]", which argued that black people scored lower than white people on IQ tests because of genetic differences between the races.{{r|Skeptic|NYT}}<ref name="Chronicle">{{Cite news|last=Shea|first=Christopher|date=2012-10-29|title=IQ Wars Continue With Battles Over New Puzzles|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/iq-wars-continue-with-battles-over-new-puzzles/|access-date=2021-09-21|work=[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]|archive-date=21 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921201526/https://www.chronicle.com/article/iq-wars-continue-with-battles-over-new-puzzles/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Flynn initially planned to spend only a few pages on his book refuting Jensen's work. After studying historical IQ tests, Flynn noticed that although the IQ tests were always calibrated so that a score of "100" was average, the actual raw scores showed that people's performance on the IQ tests improved over time. Flynn calculated that the average American in the year 1900 would have scored a 67 on the version of IQ tests administered in the year 2000, a score that suggested mental impairment.{{r|Chronicle}} Because such an increase in IQ scores over only a few generations could not have been caused by genetic evolution, Flynn concluded that the increases must have been caused by changes in environmental factors, meaning that IQ is influenced more by environment than by genetics.{{r|SA}}

In 1980, Flynn published his research critiquing Jensen's work in his seminal book, ''Race, IQ and Jensen'', which argued that increases in IQ scores over time, and differences in scores between groups of people such as black people and white people, are caused by environmental rather than genetic factors.{{r|Skeptic|NYT|SA}}

In 1984, he published an article, "The Mean IQ of Americans: Massive Gains 1932 to 1978", examining [[Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales|Stanford-Binet]] and [[Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale|Wechsler]] IQ test results, and reported that Americans' average scores increased by 13.8 IQ points in 46 years, almost an entire [[standard deviation]].{{r|Skeptic|NYT|SA}}

In response to critics suggesting that the IQ increase could be attributed in increases in education (as opposed to innate intelligence), Flynn examined the results of [[Raven's Progressive Matrices]] IQ tests, which use visual patterns rather than words to estimate [[fluid intelligence]] or "on-the-spot problem solving", irrespective of educational or cultural differences among test-takers. Such non-verbal tests can be used to compare diverse populations such as [[San people]] and [[Inuktun]]. In 1987, Flynn published "Massive IQ Gains in 14 Nations: What IQ Tests Really Measure", which found that IQ points in 14 countries, as measured by Raven tests, increased between five and 25 points.{{r|SA}}
Test score increases have been continuous and approximately linear from the earliest years of testing to the present. For the [[Raven's Progressive Matrices]] test, subjects born over a 100-year period were compared in [[Des Moines]], [[Iowa]], and separately in [[Dumfries]], [[Scotland]]. Improvements were remarkably consistent across the whole period, in both countries.<ref name="R2000">{{cite journal |last=Raven |first=John |title=The Raven's Progressive Matrices: Change and Stability over Culture and Time |journal=Cognitive Psychology |issue=1 |pages=1–48 |year=2000 |doi=10.1006/cogp.1999.0735 |url=http://eyeonsociety.co.uk/resources/RPMChangeAndStability.pdf |volume=41 |pmid=10945921 |s2cid=26363133 |archive-date=28 April 2019 |access-date=28 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428221444/http://eyeonsociety.co.uk/resources/RPMChangeAndStability.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This effect of an apparent increase in IQ has also been observed in various other parts of the world, though the rates of increase vary.<ref name="gain_14">{{cite journal |last=Flynn |first=J. R. |year=1987 |title=Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure |journal=Psychological Bulletin |volume=101 |issue=2 |pages=171–191 |doi=10.1037/0033-2909.101.2.171}}</ref>

In 1994, [[Harvard University]] psychologist [[Richard Herrnstein]] and [[American Enterprise Institute]] political scientist [[Charles Murray (political scientist)|Charles Murray]] published the highly-controversial book ''[[The Bell Curve|The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life]]'', which discussed Flynn's research and dubbed the increase in IQ scores the "Flynn effect".{{r|Critic|Chronicle|Cambridge}}<ref name="ODT">{{Cite web|last=Hudson|first=Daisy|date=12 December 2020|title=Otago academic 'giant' Jim Flynn dies|url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/otago-academic-giant-jim-flynn-dies|access-date=12 December 2020|website=[[Otago Daily Times]]|language=en|archive-date=12 December 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20201212125948/https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/otago-academic-giant-jim-flynn-dies|url-status=live}}</ref>
Flynn often debated Jensen and Murray, but there was mutual admiration between them, and he defended them against accusations of racism.{{r|Skeptic|NYT|SA}}

Flynn believed in racial equality. He advocated for open scientific debate about controversial social science claims, and was critical of the suppression of research into race and intelligence.<ref name="F2013">{{cite journal|last=Flynn|first=James|year=2013|title=Arthur Robert Jensen (1923–2012)|journal=[[Intelligence (journal)|Intelligence]]|volume=41|issue=2|pages=144–145|doi=10.1016/j.intell.2012.10.012}}</ref> He urged those who believe in racial equality to use solid evidence to advance those beliefs.<ref name=":0" />
Flynn did not believe genetic differences in intelligence between races existed; he argued that intelligence is influenced by environmental factors that correlate with socioeconomic status.{{r|SA|Skeptic|Critic}}

The "Flynn effect" is the substantial and long-sustained increase in intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world. When [[intelligence quotient]] (IQ) tests are initially [[Standard score#Standardizing in mathematical statistics|standardised]] using a [[Sample (statistics)|sample]] of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100 and their [[standard deviation]] is set to 15 IQ points. When IQ tests are revised they are again standardised using a new sample of test-takers, usually born more recently than the first. Again, the average result is set to 100. However, when the new test subjects take the older tests, in almost every case their average scores are significantly above 100.<ref name="rising">{{Cite book |title=The Rising Curve: Long-Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures |editor-last=Neisser |editor-first=Ulric |editor-link=Ulric Neisser |year=1998 |publisher=American Psychological Association |location=Washington (DC) |isbn=978-1-55798-503-3 |series=APA Science Volume Series |url=https://archive.org/details/risingcurvelongt00neis }} This review of contemporary research includes chapters by [[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]], and [[John C. Loehlin]].</ref>

Flynn gained international recognition for the Flynn effect,{{r|Stuff|Cambridge|ODT}} which has become widely accepted by psychologists and has been documented in large portions of the developed world and several developing countries, at rates too fast and dramatic to be caused by changes in genes, and correlating with environmental changes such as modernisation and improvements in education.{{r|Critic}}
Although Flynn was not the first to document increases in IQ or criticise IQ tests, international discussion and acceptance of the Flynn effect sparked a significant reassessment by researchers of IQ tests and the nature of human intelligence.{{r|NYT|Wilby|SA|Chronicle}}

There are numerous proposed explanations of the Flynn effect, as well as some scepticism about its implications. Similar improvements have been reported for other cognitions such as [[semantic memory|semantic]] and [[episodic memory]].<ref name="Rönnlund">{{cite journal |last1=Rönnlund |first1=M. |last2=Nilsson |first2=L. G. |title=Flynn effects on sub-factors of episodic and semantic memory: parallel gains over time and the same set of determining factors |journal=Neuropsychologia |volume=47 |issue=11 |pages=2174–2180 |date=September 2009 |pmid=19056409 |doi=10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.11.007 |s2cid=15706086 |url=http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/fe/LinkedDocuments/ronnlund2009.pdf |archive-date=3 August 2021 |access-date=12 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803105939/http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/fe/LinkedDocuments/ronnlund2009.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Recent research suggests that the Flynn effect may have ended in at least a few developed nations, possibly allowing [[Race and intelligence|national differences in IQ scores]]<ref name="IQGI">{{cite book |first1=Richard |last1=Lynn |first2=Tatu |last2=Vanhanen |year=2006 |title=IQ and Global Inequality |publisher=Washington Summit Publishers |location=Augusta, GA. |isbn=978-1-59368-025-1}}</ref> to diminish if the Flynn effect continues in nations with lower average national IQs.<ref name="reversal">{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.intell.2007.01.007 |last1=Teasdale |first1=T. W. |last2=Owen |first2=D. R. |title=Secular declines in cognitive test scores: A reversal of the Flynn Effect |journal=Intelligence |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=121–126 |year=2008 |url=http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/fe/LinkedDocuments/teasdale2008.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2012 |access-date=28 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015184832/http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/fe/LinkedDocuments/teasdale2008.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Flynn himself, with co-worker [[William Dickens]], has suggested an explanatory model which points to two-way causality between IQ and environment: a cognitively challenging environment raises an individual's IQ, while in addition, a higher individual IQ makes it more likely that an individual will self-select or be sorted into more cognitively challenging environments.<ref>Dickens, William T., and James R. Flynn. "Heritability estimates versus large environmental effects: the IQ paradox resolved." Psychological Review 108.2 (2001): 346.</ref>