Though there are legitimate questions about the relationship between IQ and intelligence, and broad recognition that success depends as much on other virtues like grit, IQ tests in use throughout the world today really do seem to capture something meaningful and durable.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom decades of research have shown that individual IQ scores predict things such as educational achievement and longevity. More broadly, the average IQ score of a country is linked to economic growth and scientific innovation.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

As yet, the united states hasn’t hit this IQ wall — despite what you may be tempted to surmise from the current state of the political debate.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom but don’t rush to celebrate american exceptionalism: if iqs are dropping in other advanced countries but not here, maybe that means we’re not really an advanced country (too much poverty, too little social support).Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

If we want to prevent america from suffering this fate, we’d better figure out why iqs are dropping elsewhere. But it’s uncharted territory. Until recently, IQ scores only moved in one direction: up.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom and if you're thinking, "isn't the test set up so that 100 is always the average IQ?," that's only true because researchers rescale the tests to correct for improving raw scores. (also, congrats, that’s the kind of critical thinking we don’t want to lose!)

cognitive learning theory in the classroom

These raw scores have been rising on a variety of standard IQ tests for over half a century. That may sound odd if you think of IQ as largely hereditary.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom but current IQ tests are designed to measure core cognitive skills such as short-term memory, problem-solving speed and visual processing, and rising scores show that these cognitive capabilities can actually be sharpened by environmental factors such as higher-quality schools and more demanding workplaces.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

Details vary from study to study and from place to place given the available data. IQ shortfalls in norway and denmark appear in longstanding tests of military conscripts, whereas information about france is based on a smaller sample and a different test.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom but the broad pattern has become clearer: beginning around the turn of the 21st century, many of the most economically advanced nations began experiencing some kind of decline in IQ.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

One potential explanation was quasi-eugenic. As in the movie “idiocracy,” it was suggested that average intelligence is being pulled down because lower-IQ families are having more children ("dysgenic fertility" is the technical term).Cognitive learning theory in the classroom alternatively, widening immigration might be bringing less-intelligent newcomers to societies with otherwise higher iqs.

However, a 2018 study of norway has punctured these theories by showing that iqs are dropping not just across societies but within families.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom in other words, the issue is not that educated norwegians are increasingly outnumbered by lower-IQ immigrants or the children of less-educated citizens.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom even children born to high-IQ parents are slipping down the IQ ladder.

And while we might be able to compensate with skills besides intelligence, like determination or passion, in a world where IQ scores continue to fall — and where the drop expands to places like the united states — there’s also a bleaker scenario: a global intelligence crisis that undermines humanity's problem-solving capacity and leaves us ill-equipped to tackle the complex challenges posed by AI, global warming and developments we have yet to imagine.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom