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Yes, enlistees are smarter… Almost everywhere I turn I hear bad news and horror stories about youth and education. Based on that I was quite surprised by this paragraph in a DOD press release:
These reference group scores are called norms. The current ASVAB norms were developed in 1980, and no longer accurately reflect the aptitude of today’s youth. Over the past 20 years, aptitude levels in the United States have increased. Scores on educational achievement tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are up; high school and college attendance rates have increased; youth demographics have shifted; and the country has experienced an explosion in technology development and application. Consequently, the 1980 norms are no longer representative of American youth.
It must be the computer games.
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Yes, it probably is the computer games. The ironic part about being parked in front of a PC is that it means you aren’t parked in front of a TV — TV viewership among young males is plummeting, at least here.
I scored in the 99th percentile on the ASVAB, btw, and knew many other enlisted men who were also in the high 90’s.
A note of caution about indexes like these: the DoD has learned a thing or two from the womens’ fashion industry.
I took the ASVAB years ago. It’s a short test – not very challenging. I exceeded the maximum score. The barely functioning stoner at the next computer station didn’t do that badly even though he seemed to be simple enough to screw up a very simple job, say, in a field kitchen or an a nighttime perimeter patrol.
It’s meant to stroke ones’ ego slightly. Military induction and training can be quite hard for young people away from home for the first time, but for all the rough spots they try to give them the sense that they’re actually acomplishing something. The sea change came when they started to do this when they don’t accomplish all that much – on the hope that they don’t give up on the service quickly.
This article supports the computer-game hypothesis.
I don’t know what to think of this. I’d love to give credit to video games, but I worry that it might not be that kids are doing better as much as the test are easier. We’ve had such tests as the SAT be totally revamped resulting in grade inflation. College Education is being increasingly financed by the government. And, in states like Georgia, their are state sponsored scholarships that are dependent on grades. However, due to the letigious nature of some parents and the guilt of “leaving a child behind” those states have witnessed massive grade inflation, so more kids get the scholarships. I’m just not sure I trust the results as happy as I would be to say “USA Rocks!!”.
Russ: You didn’t read the article. The test has not changed since 1980 but the test scores have gotten higher on average. They are about to make the tests harder to lower the average score.
hylas: Interesting paper. And worth taking seriously. Ulric Neisser is a well known scientist in the cognitive psychology field and could be considered one of the inventors of the neural network (he did early work on how people might recognize characters). I studied some of his papers in grad school.
Strange. Last I took the ASVAB (1998), I made the top score too. What was scary to me was that there were people there who were scoring LOW. Really low. One guy sticks out in my mind in particular. The Corps would not take a person who scored less than a 20% at that time, I do not know the situation now. There was one kid who claimed he had been to MEPs no less than five times because he could not reach the minimum score. “Last time I was here I got a 16…maybe I’ll get high enough this time.” He didn’t.
Another interesting antic. I was at a Navy base taking the test. Finished in roughly 20 minutes. Went to the counter and the guy thinks I crapped out on it, then sees it and says “So you’re going nuke right?”
“No.”
“But at least Navy?”
“No.”
“Air Force?”
“No.”
“Army?”
“No.”
“You’re one stupid son of a … nevermind, here take it.”
There are other potential explanations or partial that the DoD’s announcement doesn’t exclude.
For example:
1. Recruits are not getting brighter, but they are getting better at that sort of test because of environmental changes that provide more training in the sort of thing it requires. TV could be positive here. It might as easily be change in the content of TV programs, as computer games. It might be the now universal availability of TV even at the lowest levels in society. It could even be changes in schools.
2. Recruits _are_ getting brighter, not because the population is, but because they are pre-selecting themselves. The thick kids at the bottom of the social heap are no longer choosing to go into the army but doing something that appears to them more immediately rewarding such as joining a gang.
Computer games?
Ha.
I’d like this lot of “improved” kids to take a year-end high school exam from, say, 1900 at the tenth grade (approx. O level-age).
I bet most if not all would fail.
*shudders from his memory of his O and A levels in modern times*
Are you trying to destroy their self esteem?!?
The Wobbly Guy
Hey!
I really like the idea of stupid people in crimnal gangs, rather than in the armed forces.
Warms my heart!
I just took the test not to long ago at high school. Yesterday someone from the Illinois national guard called me and said that i scored a 93 on the ASVAB. Then i asked out of how much? He said 99. I dont know if it was a misunderstanding or not, but on the internet i cant find anything that says the test is out of 99. so how good is a score of 93. He told me it was damn good but maybe he’s just trying to get me to join him, cause i am actually thinking of the ‘RINES