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mk  ·  4646 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Are people getting dumber?
Ouch, that Ritch Duncan is sort of a water-down Dave Barry.

It seems to me that people's intelligence, or lack thereof, is most apparent when they switch into an unfamiliar context. Many can look very competent within their element, but when you ask them to operate in an unfamiliar environment, that's when deficiencies become apparent. IMHO IQ tests fail in that they themselves are a specific type of environment. Given the rise in literacy and use of technology, it only makes sense that more people would perform better on that type of task today. However, if IQ were a measure of performance of a number of very unfamiliar tasks, my guess is we wouldn't see much of a change.