I always thought of the Flynn effect as applying across generations. I think it's an interesting idea that culture is changing and information exposure increasing quickly enough that a person would see a noticeable change within their own lifetime, vs. age peers from their more mature age but an earlier time period.
That's interesting and I guess that I hadn't thought of it
that way lol! The reason I'm saying that one person, within his lifetime, would see changes due to the Flynn Effect using an outdated test is b/c, when they renorm tests, the norming pool often sees a drop in scores with the newer version of the test. For instance, the GDC's own
website says that,
In the normative sample for the WISC-IV, the gifted group (which had scored at least 130 previously) earned a Full Scale IQ score of 123.5 on the WISC-IV. Their Verbal Comprehension score was 124.7 and Perceptual Reasoning score was 120.4
Given the probable drop in PRI and VCI on the WISC-IV for this group, it isn't just the addition of more tests in the areas that are poorer indicators of giftedness (PSI, WMI) that depressed the scores of these kids who were 130+ before. I take that as the Flynn Effect at work.
In a psychological testing & assessment course I took a few years back at our local university, when we were on the subject of IQ scores, the book and the professor also both stated that, toward the end of an IQ test's lifespan, one would achieve higher scores. So, the prof's suggestion was that, if one was looking for the highest scores one could get, one should take an IQ test that was about to be renormed (such as the WISC-IV or the WPPSI-III would be right now). Once they are renormed, the same child is likely to get a lower score on the new test.
So, for instance, if I tested one of the my kids right now on the WISC-IV or waited until next year and tested her on the WISC-V, presumably she'd be of about the same ability one year apart, but she'd get a higher # this year using the older test. This article deals with the other end of the bell curve, but discusses the same thing:
http://behaviorhealth.org/measures_taken_to_compensate_for%20iq.htmAccording to the researchers, children in the same classroom with the same cognitive ability could be diagnosed differently simply because different test norms were used for each child. Students in the borderline and mild mental retardation range lost an average of 5.6 IQ points when retested on a renormed test and were more likely to be classified mentally retarded compared with peers retested on the same test, according to the study.
