ABSTRACT
Some people speak with angry contempt of ‘so-called intelligence tests’; having satisfied themselves of the absurdity of claims which psychologists no longer make for them, they dismiss the entire subject from their minds. There is good evidence that inexperience in the use of words does play some part in the negative correlation between scores in intelligence tests and family size. The children of each successive generation will therefore be recruited mainly from parents of mediocre intelligence, but they will always include among them the very bright and the very dull. The decline of intelligence may be a purely temporary phenomenon – a short-lived episode marking the slow transition from free reproduction accompanied by high mortality to restricted reproduction accompanied by low mortality. The children of each successive generation will therefore be recruited mainly from parents of mediocre intelligence, but they will always include among them the very bright and the very dull.
