Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Is IQ improved by Video Games?

Wired 13.05: Dome Improvement
This is a great article about increasing IQ scores over the past 50 plus years. It touches briefly on the controversy of measuring IQ at all, then documents the research showing that IQ has indeed improved over time using several different measures. The big question is why is IQ improving. It's unlikely that we are evolving at a pace that matches the IQ increases. However, there is a clear genetic component as evidenced by studies comparing twins, siblings, non-related siblings, raised in the same and in different environments. The author then poses an elegant explanation that merges the whole nature/nurture divide. The argument is that very small genetic advantages lead to new environmental opportunities (showing a slight aptitude for something often leads to encouragement and further training). This hypothesis seems reasonable, but is not supported by any research in this article, and it certainly could be tested further. At this point, the author finally gets to the 'sexy' subtitle, "Stop reading the great authors and start playing Grand Theft Auto." He suggests that today's interactive media (particularly the internet and video games) train people to problem solve. Again, an interesting hypothesis that is not yet supported. Think about it though, it doesn't take much to learn to read a book (after the learning to read part, you just need to know how to open the cover and turn the pages) compared to reading the web (again the reading, but then the opening the browser, connecting to the net, navigating, etc.). Maybe there's more in his book "Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter."

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