Feature

Intelligence Examined at Center Lecture

James R. Flynn, professor emeritus at the University of Otago, New Zealand, challenged the fundamental assumptions about the nature of intelligence at the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy's first Annual Lecture on Science, Technology & Society.

Flynn, a University of Chicago alumnus (AB'52, AM'55, PhD'58), is credited with documenting massive IQ gains from one generation to another, known as the Flynn Effect. In this interactive and dynamic session, which drew a crowd from across the University and from other schools in Chicago, Flynn argued that the IQ gains since the 1900s can be explained in part by the change to an industrial society and the increasing cultural pressure towards abstract, scientific thought. He said that the intelligence gains are mostly concentrated in spatial and abstract reasoning, which can be attributed to environmental and social factors-such as the growing use of technology-rather than genetic factors.

This annual lecture series is intended to help deepen the understanding of the risks and improvements to human existence brought about by human inventiveness. The Center will announce next year's speaker in the spring.