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> Depends if you think IQ improves over time (which is a big ask) Intelligence development certainly is both heavily dependent on environment and can change fo
by bildung 11y ago
> Depends if you think IQ improves over time (which is a big ask)
Intelligence development certainly is both heavily dependent on environment and can change for a given individual if the environment changes.
A quite well designed study on this topic is the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study that shows that adopted children have an IQ more similar to their social parents than their biological parents. It further showed that earlier adoption (= more exposure to new environment) meant higher correlation.
Whats more important however is the fact that IQ as measured is not a very good indicator for future performance. Motivation, especially achievement motivation has been shown to be at least as important for a successful professional life. And achievement motivation has been shown to improve strongly when grading based on individual performance improvement, e.g. measuring the relative performance gains (see e.g. Rheinberg & Krug, 1999).
- mauricemir 11y agoI meant as a species not an individual basis
- bildung 11y agoIntelligence is only defined for individuals. There is no objective meaning for "intelligence", it's all relative to other individuals. Intelligence tests are designed to produce points on a bell curve, they don't say anything about the form of the curve itself. IQ tests have the same problems as bell curve grading in school, you can't compare results between different cohorts :) But as it can be shown that the environment strongly influences IQ I'd say it is safe to assume that we as a species haven't yet approached the biological ceiling of our cognitive abilities. Once the environment doesn't influence IQ test results anymore, though...