What Is Intelligence?: Beyond the Flynn Effect is a book by psychologist James R. Flynn which outlines his model for an explanation of the eponymous Flynn effect. The book summarizes much of the work of Flynn in this area, as well as that of his colleague William Dickens of the Brookings Institution.

The four "paradoxes" of the Flynn effect

The book begins with a description of what has generally become known as "the Flynn effect": the steady rise from one generation to the next in average scores on IQ tests over time. Flynn notes that this effect apparently contradicts some fundamental beliefs about IQ long held by human intelligence researchers, and categorizes these contradictions into four seeming "paradoxes": Much of the remainder of the book is then devoted to proposing possible ways to resolve these inconsistencies, outlining along the way a reconceptualization of "intelligence" and how it might be better measured and studied.

The Dickens/Flynn model

The Dickens/Flynn model, as outlined in the book, attempts to explain the Flynn effect by suggesting that genes and environment have interacted in manner which leads to a multiplying of influence from both on IQ scores. In particular, people now live in a cognitive environment that has changed substantially over the past century. New ways of thinking and new modes of communication and entertainment have changed the way people think across society. At an individual level a similar multiplying effect leads to people with a genetic advantage in intelligence seeking out more cognitively challenging environments – thus exaggerating individual differences in intelligence. In both cases the role of an enhanced cognitive environment plays a role in within-generation and across-generation differences in IQ scores.

Conceptual framework (BIDS)

Flynn offers a framework for further developing theories of intelligence. The framework involves three conceptual levels for understanding intelligence: Flynn goes on to criticize conceptual imperialism as being a particular error in which those various levels are confused with one single level – for example brain or social differences being seen primarily in terms of general-intelligence, a concept from the individual-differences level.

Shorthand abstractions (SHA)

Flynn offers as a mechanism for improved cognitive performance across society, shorthand abstractions (a.k.a. SHAs) A SHA is a word or phrase that describes some complex phenomenon in a way that enables people to more easily think about abstract issues. As examples, Flynn suggested market (in an economic sense), percentage, natural selection and placebo.

Reviews

Charles Murray, the co-author of The Bell Curve (1994), wrote in his comments about this book that appeared on its back cover in publication, "This book is a gold mine of pointers to interesting work, much of which was new to me. All of us who wrestle with the extraordinarily difficult questions about intelligence that Flynn discusses are in his debt."