No Flynn Effect in Jordan 2012-2021

There is growing evidence that the Flynn Effect, the secular rise in IQ scores that was observed across the twentieth century, has reached a plateau and has even gone into reverse in many Western countries. However, several recent studies report an ongoing Flynn Effect in developing countries, especially in those in the Arab world. Here we compare two samples from 2012 (<I>N</I> = 350) and 2021 (<I>N</I> = 1,491) of children in the Kingdom of Jordan. The children were 4, 5 and 6 years old and were randomly selected from kindergartens in the north, central and south of Jordan. They were administered the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), a test which is designed for this age group. Factor analyses exhibited very similar factors loadings across samples and subtests, indicating high construct validity. Comparing effect sizes for the difference between the samples in both total and subtest scores, we find no evidence of any change in intelligence between the two samples. We explore the possible reasons for this apparent cessation of the Flynn Effect in Jordan among which may be the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the 2021 sample. We conclude that there is little reason to think that this would have interfered with how representative the sample was.