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A new study from researchers in Europe claims that the average IQ in Western nations dropped by a staggering 14.1 points over the past century.
据欧洲研究人员的一项最新研究显示，在过去一个世纪里，西方国家的平均智商下降了14.1分。
"We tested the hypothesis that the Victorians were cleverer than modern populations using high-quality instruments, namely measures of simple visual reaction time in a meta-analytic study," the researchers wrote in the study, which was published online in the journal Intelligence.
该项研究在期刊《Intelligence》上在线发表，研究人员写道：“我们对维多利亚时代的人比现代人更聪明这一假设进行了检验，使用的是一种高水平的研究工具--即简单视觉反应时间meta分析。”
"Simple reaction time measures correlate substantially with measures of general intelligence and are considered elementary measures of cognition."
“简单视觉反映时间的长短与一般智力测量有极大关系，被认为是测试认知的基本方法。”
The results might surprise some. Especially if the researchers were simply measuring visual response times.
而这项研究的结果却有些出人意料。尤其是如果研究人员只是简单地测量视觉反映时间的话。
After all, in a digital world constantly competing for our attention, it would seem people generally respond more quickly to visual stimuli. However, the results appear to indicate something different.
毕竟，在一个不断考验我们注意力的数字时代，人们似乎对视觉刺激的反应应该更快一些才对。但是，研究的结果却与这一设想不同。
The Victorian era ran roughly from 1837 to 1901, coinciding with the reign of England's Queen Victoria.
维多利亚时代大致在1837年到1901年之间，正好与英国维多利亚女王统治的时代相吻合。
Some have credited the Reform Act of 1832 with sparking an era of previously unprecedented peace and prosperity in the U.K.
一些人认为当时的《1832年改革法案》开启了英国前所未有的和平与繁荣时代。
The results were measured using data from 1889 to 2004 and were analyzed by Michael A. Woodley of Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, Jan te Nijenhuis of the University of Amsterdam and Raegan Murphy of the University College Cork in Ireland.
而此次研究使用的是从1889年到2004年的数据，由来自布鲁塞尔自由大学的迈克尔·伍德利、来自阿姆斯特丹大学的简以及爱尔兰科克大学的莱根·墨菲共同研究分析。
So why has there been such a steady drop? As UPI notes, previous research studies have found that women of higher intelligence tend to have fewer children on average, meaning that population growth may be driven by those with a lower IQ.
那么为什么西方人的智力水平会下降呢？正如合众国际社所指出的那样，之前的研究表明高智商的女性往往平均倾向于有更少的孩子，这就意味着人口增长的主体是那些智商较低人的后代。
And over time, the abundance of less intelligent offspring would affect the overall IQ average.
随着时间的推移，大量智力低下者的后代就会影响整体智商水平。
On average, the general intelligence of those populations measured dropped by 1.23 points per decade.
平均来看，人口整体智商水平每十年就会下降1.23分。
