Editing Millennials (section)

== Cognitive abilities ==
Intelligence researcher [[James Flynn (academic)|James R. Flynn]] discovered that back in the 1950s, the gap between the vocabulary levels of adults and children was much smaller than it is in the early twenty-first century. Between 1953 and 2006, adult gains on the vocabulary subtest of the [[Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale|Wechsler IQ test]] were 17.4 points whereas the corresponding gains [[Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children|for children]] were only 4. He asserted that some of the reasons for this are the surge in interest in higher education and cultural changes. The number of Americans pursuing tertiary qualifications and cognitively demanding jobs has risen significantly since the 1950s. This boosted the level of vocabulary among adults. Back in the 1950s, children generally imitated their parents and adopted their vocabulary. This was no longer the case in the 2000s, when teenagers often developed their own subculture and as such were less likely to use adult-level vocabulary on their essays.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gambino|first=Megan|date=3 December 2012|title=Are You Smarter Than Your Grandfather? Probably Not.|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/are-you-smarter-than-your-grandfather-probably-not-150402883/|access-date=22 October 2020|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

In a 2009 report, Flynn analyzed the results of the [[Raven's Progressive Matrices]] test for British fourteen-year-olds from 1980 to 2008. He discovered that their average IQ had dropped by more than two points during that time period. Among those in the higher half of the intelligence distribution, the decline was even more significant, six points. This is a clear case of the reversal of the [[Flynn effect]], the apparent rise in IQ scores observed during the twentieth century. Flynn suspected that this was due to changes in British youth culture. He further noted that in the past, IQ gains had been correlated with socioeconomic class, but this was no longer true.<ref name="RPM UK">{{Cite news|last=Gray|first=Richard|date=7 February 2009|title=British teenagers have lower IQs than their counterparts did 30 years ago|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4548943/British-teenagers-have-lower-IQs-than-their-counterparts-did-30-years-ago.html|url-status=live|access-date=19 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109041719/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4548943/British-teenagers-have-lower-IQs-than-their-counterparts-did-30-years-ago.html|archive-date=9 November 2020}}</ref>

Psychologists Jean Twenge, W. Keith Campbell, and Ryne A. Sherman analyzed vocabulary test scores on the U.S. [[General Social Survey]] (<math>n = 29,912</math>) and found that after correcting for education, the use of sophisticated vocabulary has declined between the mid-1970s and the mid-2010s across all levels of education, from below high school to graduate school.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Twenge|first1=Jean|last2=Campbell|first2=W. Keith|last3=Sherman|first3=Ryne A.|date=2019|title=Declines in vocabulary among American adults within levels of educational attainment, 1974–2016|url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2019.101377|journal=Intelligence|volume=76|issue=101377|page=101377|doi=10.1016/j.intell.2019.101377|s2cid=200037032}}</ref>