What Is Intelligence?: Beyond the Flynn Effect
Cambridge University Press, 10/4/2007
EAN 9780521880077, ISBN10: 0521880076
Hardcover, 274 pages, 23.6 x 16.5 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
The 'Flynn effect' refers to the massive increase in IQ test scores over the course of the twentieth century. Does it mean that each generation is more intelligent than the last? Does it suggest how each of us can enhance our own intelligence? Professor Flynn is finally ready to give his own views. He asks what intelligence really is and gives a surprising and illuminating answer. This expanded paperback edition includes three important new essays. The first contrasts the art of writing cognitive history with the science of measuring intelligence and reports data. The second outlines how we might get a complete theory of intelligence, and the third details Flynn's reservations about Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. A fascinating book that bridges the gulf separating our minds from those of our ancestors a century ago, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of human intelligence.
Preface to the expanded paperback edition
1. A bombshell in a letter box
2. Beyond the Flynn effect
3. Towards a new theory of intelligence
4. Testing the Dickens/Flynn model
5. Why did it take so long?
6. IQ gains can kill
7. What if the gains are over?
8. Knowing our ancestors
9. The art of writing cognitive history
10. About GUT
the grand unification theory of intelligence
11. Howard Gardner and the use of words
Appendix I. Tables
Appendix II. Declaration in a capital case.
'A masterful book that will influence thinking about intelligence for many years to come.' Robert J. Sternberg, PsycCRITIQUES