Human Intelligence and Medical Illness Assessing the Flynn Effect

As critics will note, psychometric tests are deeply flawed. An IQ test is simply an effort to assess an aptitude for success in the modern world, and individual scores do a mediocre job of predicting individual successes. Yet, in the analysis that follows, individual IQ test scores are not used;

There’s little doubt that people are growing smarter. This effect is so strong that IQ tests must be renormed periodically to prevent classifying an overabundance of people as geniuses. The question is why is this collective rise in IQ – known as the Flynn effect –occurring? Possible theories to explain the Flynn effect have ranged from better parenting to faster evolution.

Bringing a bold new voice to the debate, Human Intelligence and Medical Illness sets out a simple definition of intelligence that is appropriate for assessing intelligence at the population level. The definition is then used to probe the relationship between population intelligence and public health. This volume uses the latest medical and behavioral science research to argue that declines in serious disease and illness-causing conditions (e.g., lead paint in buildings) correlate strongly with continued cognitive gains in both developed and developing countries. Current political realities explain why the Flynn effect should be approached as a public policy as well as a public health issue.

This provocative volume:

• Reviews the most widely held hypotheses accounting for the Flynn effect.
• Examines the relationship between intelligence and public health.
• Assesses the extent to which public health improvements can potentially account for the Flynn effect.
• Details how treatment of common medical problems may result in a substantial rise in IQ.
• Explores the possibility of continued IQ gains in the United States and worldwide.
• Reframes the Flynn effect in the contexts of public health, early childhood education, and social justice.

With its groundbreaking findings on the causes of cognitive impairment and the possibility of cognitive improvement, Human Intelligence and MedicalIllness is must-reading for researchers, professors, and graduate students in developmental psychology, education, public health, psychiatry, neuroscience, social work, and related fields.

As critics will note, psychometric tests are deeply flawed. Person-to-person differences in performance on a psychometric test are not informative about many things of great interest. An intelligence quotient (IQ) cannot characterize creativity or w- dom or artistic ability or other forms of specialized knowledge. An IQ test is simply an effort to assess an aptitude for success in the modern world, and individual scores do a mediocre job of predicting individual successes. In the early days of psychology, tests of intelligence were cobbled together with little thought as to validity; instead, the socially powerful sought to validate their power and the prominent to rationalize their success. In recent years, we have ob- ated many of the objections to IQ that were so forcefully noted by Stephen Jay Gould in The Mismeasure of Man. Nevertheless, IQ tests are still flawed and those flaws are hereby acknowledged in principle. Yet, in the analysis that follows, individual IQ test scores are not used; rather, average IQ scores are employed. In many cases – though not all – an average IQ is calculated from a truly enormous sample of people. The most common circ- stance for such large-scale IQ testing is an effort to systematically sample all men of a certain age, to assess their suitability for service in the military. Yet, it is useful and prudent to retain some degree of skepticism about the ability of IQ tests to measure individual aptitudes.