IQ and Human Intelligence, Second Edition

✍ Scribed by N.J. Mackintosh

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 457
• Edition: Paperback
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The question 'What is intelligence?' may seem simple to answer, but the study and measurement of human intelligence is one of the most controversial subjects in psychology. For much of its history, the focus has been on differences between people, on what it means for one person to be more intelligent than another, and how such differences might have arisen, obscuring efforts to understand the general nature of intelligence. These are obviously fundamental questions, still widely debated and misunderstood. New definitions of intelligence and new factors affecting intelligence are frequently being described, while psychometric testing is applied in most large industries. IQ and Human Intelligence provides a clear, authoritative overview of the main issues surrounding this fascinating area, including the development of IQ tests, the heritability of intelligence, theories of intelligence, environmental effects on IQ, factor analysis, relationship of cognitive psychology to measuring IQ, and intelligence in the social context. The clear, accessible style and numerous explanatory boxes make this the ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology.

✦ Table of Contents

1. The early development and uses of IQ tests
2. Introduction 1
3. The origins of IQ testing 6
4. Uses, misuses, and abuses of IQ tests 17
5. Conclusion 29
6. Summary 30
7. Further reading 30
8. Psychometric theories of intelligence 31
9. Introduction 3
10. The variety of IQ tests: one intelligence or many? 31
11. The factor analytic approach 44
12. Conclusion 56
13. Summary 58
14. Further reading 58
15. The search for cognitive processes underlying components of IQ: Gs or speed and efficiency of information processing 59
16. Introduction 59
17. General intelligence as mental energy, speed, or efficiency 60
18. Behavioural measures of speed of processing 61
19. Interpretation of the correlations between IQ and speeded tests 69
20. Conclusion 73
21. Summary 74
22. Further reading 75
23. Verbal, spatial, and fluid abilities: Gc, Gv, and Gf 76
24. Introduction 76
25. Crystallized ability (Gc) 76
26. Spatial ability (Gv) 85
27. Fluid ability (Gf) 93
28. Conclusion 105
29. Summary 106
30. Further reading 107
31. Associative learning, working memory, and executive control 108
32. Introduction
33. Secular changes in IQ
34. Between and within-family effects: CE vs. SE
35. Environmental correlates and environmental causes
36. Education and IQ
37. Demography: family size and birth order
38. Parental behaviour and family environment
39. Social class
40. Conclusion
41. Summary
42. Further reading
43. Group differences
44. Introduction
45. National or ethnic differences
46. The black-white test score gap
47. Other ethnic groups
48. Test bias
49. Conclusion
50. Summary
51. Further reading
52. Sex differences
53. Introduction
54. The equality of the sexes: fact or artefact?
55. Are there sex differences in overall IQ (or g)?
56. Sex differences in particular abilities
57. Differences in variability: myth or reality?
58. Analysis of verbal, mathematical, and spatial abilities
59. Explanations
60. Conclusion
61. Summary
62. Further reading
63. Epilogue
64. Introduction
65. Use of tests for selection
66. IQ tests and educational selection
67. The wider importance of IQ
68. Politics and science
69. A statistical appendix
70. Bibliography
71. Author index
72. Subject index

✦ Subjects

psychology, psychometrics, individual differences, intelligence, behavioral genetics, working memory, reaction time, chronometrics, factor analysis, textbook, special intelligence, verbal intelligence, crystallized intelligence, executive control, associative learning, Flynn effect, black-white gap