VITALITY Cincinnati

IQ scores are dropping

You may or may not value the legitimacy and importance of intelligence quotient testing for the general population. Regardless of where you stand on that, learning that test scores in 3 out of 4 “cognitive domains” consistently went down between the years of 2006 to 2018 is bound to give pause to most. We will get to which cognitive domains those were, but first, a little history. 

A 1984 study found that intelligence test scores had steadily increased since the early 1930s. The scores seemed to be increasing faster than could be explained by evolution. The reason for the increase was and still is debatable – some possibilities were modern school systems, better nutrition, and smaller families that allowed for more personal attention given to children. 

Fast forward to current day: A recent study conducted by Northwestern University found that this is the first time there has been a consistent drop for these 3 testing categories:

  • Logic and vocabulary (known as verbal reasoning)
  • Visual problem solving and analogies (known as matrix reasoning)
  • Computational and mathematical abilities (known as letter and number series)

What to make of this? Worsening school systems, social media, negative environmental factors, poor nutrition standards?

Regardless of the cause, what we are left with is some amount of proof that things are changing in our society. 

At VITALITY, we believe that reading is one way to put a positive deposit into this declining slope.  We invite you to join us for our new readers club.  VITALITY Readers is bringing people together to grow reading and spread LOVE in the world.  Click here for info:  https://vitalitybuzz.org/rewards-club/

Our first Feldenkrais Crawl event at Silk Road was packed! Hope you can join us Sunday at 4pm at Tango del Barrio (6110 Hamilton Ave) for our next free class. Dancers and non-dancers welcome! Join us: https://futurelifenow.com/op/cincinnati-feldenkrais-crawl/