Why IQ Scores Are Dropping

Cheery Friday Greetings from Barb Oakley! 

Why IQ Scores Are Dropping: A New Neuroscientific Explanation for a 50-Year Mystery

What if I told you that well-meaning Western educational reforms and our smartphone habits might actually be making us less intelligent? New research suggests that’s exactly what’s happening. 

Our new chapter, “The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge in an Age of AI,” provides the first solid, neuroscience-based explanation for why IQ scores have been mysteriously declining across Western nations for the past 50 years, even as technology has exploded around us. This research will appear in the upcoming Springer Nature volume The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Economics, Society, Risks and Global Policy, edited by Max Rangeley and Lord Nicholas Fairfax.

Here’s what we discovered: The very educational reforms that promised to make us smarter—particularly the widespread rejection of memorization as “rote learning” and the shift toward “critical thinking skills,” combined with our increasing reliance on external devices—may actually be undermining our cognitive abilities. When we constantly offload thinking to calculators, smartphones, and AI, we’re not just changing where information is stored. We’re bypassing the brain’s natural learning mechanisms that build the neural architecture necessary for genuine understanding and insight.

The chapter traces how this “cognitive offloading” disrupts everything from forming robust mental frameworks to developing intuitive expertise. When students never memorize math facts because “they can always use a calculator,” or when we “just Google it” instead of wrestling with information internally, we may be weakening the very cognitive foundations that enable advanced reasoning. The timing is telling: the cohorts showing declining IQ scores were precisely those educated when memorization was not just abandoned but actively demonized, and digital dependence took hold.

The good news? This isn’t about rejecting technology or returning to mindless drilling. Drawing from these neuroscientific insights, we can learn to use powerful tools as supplements to, rather than replacements for, robust internal knowledge. Understanding this delicate balance between external tools and internal memory will be crucial as we navigate the age of ChatGPT and generative AI.

Read the full paper here: The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge in an Age of AI.

Ready to Reclaim Your Memory? Here’s How to Start

If our chapter made you think twice about how much you’re outsourcing to AI, here’s something to bring it back home—literally, to your own brain. My friend Nelson Dellis is a 6x USA Memory Champion and one of the world’s leading memory experts. He doesn’t just talk about memory techniques—he lives them, performing jaw-dropping feats and teaching others to do the same.

His Everest Memory Masterclass is a practical, engaging course that teaches you how to remember names, numbers, to-dos, and anything else life throws your way. Nelson is both a phenomenal teacher and a trusted guide for anyone wanting to sharpen their mind.

The course opens officially on Monday, but if you join the waitlist now, you’ll get early access this Sunday—plus a few extra bonuses. These spots usually fill up quickly, so if you’ve ever wanted to learn the techniques memory champions actually use, don’t miss this opportunity.

Join the waitlist here: https://www.everestmemory.com/waitlist

Double Feature Friday! Two Sides of the Learning Coin

This week, I had the pleasure of diving into two very different conversations—one that’ll tug your heartstrings and another that might raise your eyebrows (in a good way).

Empathy, Engines, and a Dose of Real Talk

Ever noticed how sometimes being too nice can backfire? This week, I joined Joe Sanok on the Practice of the Practice podcast to chat about one of my favorite awkward topics: pathological altruism—aka when our best intentions accidentally make a mess. 

We talked about how over-empathizing in therapy can actually drag the therapist down, and how learning to take a step back—with sympathy instead of deep emotional mirroring—might just save one’s sanity. Therapists, take note: your ability to be a calm, clear presence is often more powerful than jumping headfirst into someone else’s emotional tornado.

Of course, we also squeezed in a few hits from the “Learning How to Learn” greatest hits album—like why rereading isn’t studying, and how a little retrieval practice goes a long way (yes, flashcards, but make them smart).

If you want to hear the full conversation—including a story about how a well-intentioned school study went sideways—you can listen here. Spoiler alert: sometimes the best way to help… is to pause and ask if you’re actually helping.

School Shorts with Melissa Chan-Green: Learning Differences & Superpowers

In this warm and inspiring chat with Melissa, we explored how the things that make learning hard—like ADHD or dyslexia—can actually turn out to be secret strengths. We talked about how I rewired my own brain at age 26 (math-phobe to engineering prof, anyone?), and why tiny habits like 20-minute daily practice can change lives. Parents and teachers, this one’s a hug in podcast form—with bonus tips on battling procrastination and helping kids thrive.

• Spotify

• Apple podcasts

• YouTube

That’s all for now. Have a happy (rationally empathetic) week in learning!

Barb Oakley

• Uncommon Sense Teaching—the book and Coursera Specialization!
• Mindshift—the book and MOOC
• Learn Like a Pro—the book and MOOC
• The LHTL recommended text, A Mind for Numbers
• For kids and parents: Learning How to Learn—the book and MOOC. Pro tip—watch the videos and read the book together with your child. Learning how to learn at an early age will change their life!