4 ms·

Why not?

addisonl 4y ago
The average intelligence has been raising over time but the average IQ has not since, as the other reply said, it is nailed to 100.
JohnFen 4y ago
Because the scale itself shifts over time. For the sake of argument, let's say that IQ really does measure "intelligence". By the definition of the IQ scale, 100 is always whatever the average intelligence is. So the average intelligence of people in the 1960s was 100. Let's say people have become dumber (or smarter, doesn't matter) in the time since then -- the average IQ of people now is still 100. How much absolute intelligence "100" represents now is not the same as how much intelligence "100" represented then. IQ is about measuring differences in populations at a moment in time. It is not suitable for (or intended to) measure differences over time.
- Atheros 4y ago
  You didn't answer my question. Above, you said that IQ tests cannot compare intelligence differences over time and I asked why. The fact that the average is always normalized to 100 doesn't make your statement true. Researchers can simply not normalize it to see the difference over time.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    I did answer your question. There's a good reason that IQ works the way it does -- it's because IQ tests are affected by lots of things other than intelligence, and those things are not constant over time. How well you do on an IQ test is affected by societal factors, for instance. This goes back to why I said that IQ tests are a poor proxy for intelligence at best. IQ test do not measure intelligence (there's not even any consensus on what "intelligence" actually is, and if you don't know what it is, it's pretty hard to measure). IQ tests measure competency in things that roughly orbit intelligence, but are also influenced by your cultural upbringing, your socioeconomic status, and even strange things like what type of thinking (not how good it is) your brain happens to engage in. The one thing that IQ seems to correlate well to is how well you'll do in college. But even there, the correlation is pretty loose.

Why not?

The average intelligence has been raising over time but the average IQ has not since, as the other reply said, it is nailed to 100.

JohnFen 4y ago

Because the scale itself shifts over time. For the sake of argument, let's say that IQ really does measure "intelligence". By the definition of the IQ scale, 100 is always whatever the average intelligence is. So the average intelligence of people in the 1960s was 100. Let's say people have become dumber (or smarter, doesn't matter) in the time since then -- the average IQ of people now is still 100. How much absolute intelligence "100" represents now is not the same as how much intelligence "100" represented then. IQ is about measuring differences in populations at a moment in time. It is not suitable for (or intended to) measure differences over time.

Atheros 4y ago
You didn't answer my question. Above, you said that IQ tests cannot compare intelligence differences over time and I asked why. The fact that the average is always normalized to 100 doesn't make your statement true. Researchers can simply not normalize it to see the difference over time.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  I did answer your question. There's a good reason that IQ works the way it does -- it's because IQ tests are affected by lots of things other than intelligence, and those things are not constant over time. How well you do on an IQ test is affected by societal factors, for instance. This goes back to why I said that IQ tests are a poor proxy for intelligence at best. IQ test do not measure intelligence (there's not even any consensus on what "intelligence" actually is, and if you don't know what it is, it's pretty hard to measure). IQ tests measure competency in things that roughly orbit intelligence, but are also influenced by your cultural upbringing, your socioeconomic status, and even strange things like what type of thinking (not how good it is) your brain happens to engage in. The one thing that IQ seems to correlate well to is how well you'll do in college. But even there, the correlation is pretty loose.