Despite the slide in the quality of cultural products overally--from Shakespeare to Fifty Shades of Grey--there has been a perceptible rise in human IQ according to James R. Flynn's book Are We Getting Smarter?
Here are some stats:
The average American I.Q. has been rising steadily by 3 points a decade. Spaniards gained 19 points over 28 years, and the Dutch 20 points over 30 years. Kenyan children gained nearly 1 point a year.
Some interesting observations:
The brains of the best and most experienced London taxi drivers have enlarged hippocampi, which is the brain area used for navigating three-dimensional space [...] modern life gives our brains greater exercise than when we were mostly living on isolated farms.
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