No subject

The best way to understand why I.Q.s rise, Flynn argues, is to look at one =
of the most widely used I.Q. tests, the so-called WISC (for Wechsler =
Intelligence Scale for Children). The WISC is composed of ten subtests, =
each of which measures a different aspect of I.Q. Flynn points out that =
scores in some of the categories=E2=80=94those measuring general knowledge,=
 say, or vocabulary or the ability to do basic arithmetic=E2=80=94have =
risen only modestly over time. The big gains on the WISC are largely in =
the category known as =E2=80=9Csimilarities,=E2=80=9D where you get =
questions such as =E2=80=9CIn what way are =E2=80=98dogs=E2=80=99 and =
=E2=80=98rabbits=E2=80=99 alike?=E2=80=9D Today, we tend to give what, for =
the purposes of I.Q. tests, is the right answer: dogs and rabbits are both =
mammals. A nineteenth-century American would have said that =E2=80=9Cyou =
use dogs to hunt rabbits.=E2=80=9D

^^^^^
CB: In Britain and other countries, the I.Q. take on similarities between =
dogs and rabbits could become more widely held in the population at =
large.=20

^^^^^

"This is a critical distinction. When the children of Southern Italian =
immigrants were given I.Q. tests in the early part of the past century, =
for example, they recorded median scores in the high seventies and low =
eighties, a full standard deviation below their American and Western =
European counterparts. Southern Italians did as poorly on I.Q. tests as =
Hispanics and blacks did. As you can imagine, there was much concerned =
talk at the time about the genetic inferiority of Italian stock, of the =
inadvisability of letting so many second-class immigrants into the United =
States, and of the squalor that seemed endemic to Italian urban neighborhoo=
ds. Sound familiar? These days, when talk turns to the supposed genetic =
differences in the intelligence of certain races, Southern Italians have =
disappeared from the discussion. =E2=80=9CDid their genes begin to mutate =
somewhere in the 1930s?=E2=80=9D the psychologists Seymour Sarason and =
John Doris ask, in their account of the Italian experience. =E2=80=9COr is =
it possible that somewhere in the 1920s, if not earlier, the sociocultural =
history of Italo-Americans took a turn from the blacks and the Spanish =
Americans which permitted their assimilation into the general undifferentia=
ted mass of Americans?=E2=80=9D

^^^^
CB: Undifferentiated mass of _white_  Americans ...