People Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests

[brett_jv]

61. Pretty sure most scientists are fairly familiar w/basic statistical concepts ...

Such as sampling bias. And most of 'em understand the importance of 'baselines' when it comes to studies of this nature

Might I suggest that, in fact, there's at least some possibility that the people who conducted this particular study ... actually might've taken into account these things you've listed above? 'Establishing baselines', and 'avoiding sampling bias' are, after all, fairly basic concepts when it comes to scientific study.

As an aside, no offense, but an element of your 'argument' here actually reminds me quite a bit of those I see coming from Climate Change deniers. They tend to go off on things like 'water vapor' and 'historical climate changes' in a way that suggests that only THEY know about these things, suggesting that 'the scientists' are totally in the dark w/regards to the most basic of principles of the field (that they are experts in), and therefore are totally misinterpreting the data.

I tend to dismiss them when I see the Deniers arguing along these lines. Especially given that it's these SAME scientists that told them about H20 vapor acting as an insulator, AND that told them about the climate changes that took place in the past ... yet somehow the deniers think they've 'outsmarted' the scientists who told 'em about these things in the first place.

The idea of using reaction times to assess intelligence, however ... I agree that one is pretty damn shady, and I'd certainly HOPE that this analysis is based on tests that are a BIT more, uh, concrete than that.