It just means that the intelligence gap was smaller, potentially much, much smaller, when humans first started developing a serious edge relative to apes. It’s not evidence for accumulation per se, but it’s evidence against us just being so much smarter from the get go, and renormalizing has it function very much like evidence for accumulation.
I’m just trying to make sure I understand—I remember being confused about the Flynn effect and about what Katja asked above.
How does the Flynn effect affect our belief in the hypothesis of accumulation?
It just means that the intelligence gap was smaller, potentially much, much smaller, when humans first started developing a serious edge relative to apes. It’s not evidence for accumulation per se, but it’s evidence against us just being so much smarter from the get go, and renormalizing has it function very much like evidence for accumulation.