Our IQ Can Rise or Fall During Our Teen Years

Reference- www.sciencedaily.com

Summary- Research funnded by the Wellcome Trust showed that our IQ or the standard measurement of our intelligence can decrease or increase during our teen years, these changes to our IQ have to do with the change to the structure of our brains. This research and its findings may have implications for students and the testing and streaming during their school years. In 2004 Cathy Price the lead Professor on the research team tested 33 healthy adolescents between the ages of 12-16, then four years later she tested the same individuals when they were between 15-20. Both times the researchers took structural brain scans of the individuals, they used a magnetic resonance imaging or simply (MRI). After looking at the scans from 2004 and 2008 they found significant changes. Some of the idividuals improved their IQ relative to the people of a similiar age by as much as 20 points. However, in other unfortunate cases peoples IQ scores dropped significantly by atleast 20 points. They studied the MRI scans closely to see why the changes were so significant, but there was no apparent reason. Some indiviadual may have been late or early developers. But they say that it is equally possible that education had a part in changing the IQ and had implications for how students are assessed.

Critique- Well this article really interested me because I'm a teen. To know that the next couple years of my life are critical to my IQ is weird and kinda scary. I'm not saying that during the teen years that it is impossible for my IQ to change, but it definately is not something that I would think about.

Impact- Well this must affect all teens that are students. I am one of those teen students. It's weird to think that till I turn 20 my IQ could be effected by how my brain is developing and how i get taught in school. But I'm not that worried about it because sitting in class you atleast hear or understand at least part of what the teacher is talking about. Except for math, thats a whole different ballpark.