M. Ángeles Quiroga: "Cambios ambientales y mejoras intelectuales"

M. Ángeles Quiroga, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. España. The Flynn effect describes global intellectual-achievement improvements from the beginning of the XXth century until nowadays. These improvements show a different pattern for each one of the general abilities included under the term general mental ability (GMA). There is an average improvement of three IQ points (way of measuring the GMA) each decade. These data have been replicated in different countries with interesting differences among them. This talk will situate these improvements in the broader context of environmental improvements that have been taking place during the last 100 years, more or less synchronically to those referred as Flynn effect. From the beginning of the XXth century, some important changes have occurred on environmental dimensions (educational: possibilities to attend to primary and secondary school, and to the university; working: jobs’ requirements; familial: lower number of children per family; and even at leisure time) and bioenvironmental (height; brain size). R. Fernández-Ballesteros and M. De Juan Espinosa reviewed these data in 2001. In this talk we will review the changes in those environmental and bioenvironmental dimensions until nowadays and we will analyze whether the described pattern persists or has changed.