Personally I think the education system is getting better at targetted education
ie training students to pass specific exams, rather than providing them with a general level of education which they're then tested on. If the IQ testing uses the same method of testing, ie testing people on what they've been trained to be able to answer, then it would make perfect sense that IQ scores would be increasing.

I strongly doubt that the human race is actually getting any more intelligent in the past few decades then it has been since we evolved.
( Kroney, Tue 18 Sep 2012, 12:05, 2 replies, latest was 13 years ago)

Depends on what you consider intelligence, which is a hard thing to define.
But from your description that it's not changed since evolution, it makes me think that you think it's physically the number of neurons and connections. That's increased markedly since the agricultural revolution, still increasing now as we understand more about prenatal and postnatal nutrition. Vaccinations against viruses that can affect new borns and pregnant women. Antibiotics for bacteria.
Also you should look into something called neuroplasticity which is the effect of the enviroment on the physical connection of the brain. Basically, the more you're educated and stimulated, the more you work your mind the more connections exist and the faster they fire.
(PsychoChomp, Tue 18 Sep 2012, 12:16, Reply)

I think what I'm getting at is the difference between trained, educational intelligence
and maximum potential intelligence. I can accept that we're better educated, with a better background understanding of the way the world works and are therefore better equipped to reason through and figure out advanced problems than cavemen, but I don't believe that as a species we have evolved to have a higher potential intelligence. If, for example, you took a Bronze Age baby and brought it up to go through our education system I think it would have the same natural ability to learn and end up as educated as any modern human child.
( Kroney, Tue 18 Sep 2012, 12:26, Reply)

So what you're saying is that the modern world is better at getting closer to our potential pinical intelligence
than we were in the past.
How is that different than "the population is getting cleverer"
(PsychoChomp, Tue 18 Sep 2012, 12:31, Reply)

I agree with Chompo

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Tue 18 Sep 2012, 12:33, Reply)

I agree too
*world ends*
( CQ Knows the truth, all of it., Tue 18 Sep 2012, 12:37, Reply)