Why IQ Test Scores Are Slightly Decreasing: Possible System-Based Explanation for the Reversed Flynn Effect

Authors

Griselda Acosta, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Eric Smith, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

7-2019

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-19-61

Abstract

Researchers who monitor the average intelligence of human population have reasonably recently made an unexpected observation: that after many decades in which this level was constantly growing (this is known as the Flynn effect), at present, this level has started decreasing again. In this paper, we show that this reversed Flynn effect can be, in principle, explained in general system-based terms: namely, it is similar to the fact that a control system usually overshoots before stabilizing at the desired level. A similar idea may explain another unexpected observation -- that the Universe's expansion rate, which was supposed to be decreasing, is actually increasing.