What is Intelligence?: Beyond the Flynn Effect
by James R. Flynn
published
August 27th 2007
by Cambridge University Press
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binding
Hardcover, 226 pages
isbn
0521880076
(isbn13: 9780521880077)
description
Professor James Flynn is one of the most creative and influential psychologists in the field of intelligence. The 'Flynn Effect' refers to the massive...more
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Read in January, 2008
"The Flynn effect" is the steady rise in IQ scores around the world, which Flynn attributes to the dissemination of abstract over concrete thinking in modern times; unlike our ancestors, we see the world through scientific spectacles. This rise in scores can have devastating consequences, in particular for death-row inmates whose fates rest on a determination of mental retardation.
I first became interested in the Flynn effect after reading a Malcolm Gladwell article on IQ in the N...more
I first became interested in the Flynn effect after reading a Malcolm Gladwell article on IQ in the N...more
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For years many scholars have thought that genes accounted for the vast majority of one's intelligence, with environmental factors (e.g., schooling, home life, social trends, etc.) exerting a minimal influence. In this book Flynn argues that environmental factors account for a great deal of one's intelligence. If this weren't the case, the 14 year-olds of 19o0 would be considered mentally retarded when compared to the 14 year-olds of today (i.e., when today's 14 year-olds take an IQ test that the...more
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Read in January, 2008
In PSY 3xx: Tests and Measurements back in my undergraduate student days, the issue of what is IQ and its relationship with intelligence was of paramount importance. The Bell Curve quite upset me years before taking this class. Flynn makes some compelling hypotheses about what is intelligence and improvements towards measuring it.
These ideas are primarily based on Flynn's own research. Most of the references are to previous publications of Flynn's work. Otherwise, the explanations clearly e...more
These ideas are primarily based on Flynn's own research. Most of the references are to previous publications of Flynn's work. Otherwise, the explanations clearly e...more
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Read in April, 2008
Describes very improtant development in intelligence but his prose and some of his word usage "ghetto black children" obscured a very important point on IQ which is the key improtnace of cultural factors in IQ as well as genetics. Attacks the genetic determinism of the Bell Curve and followers of that ilk. Read the article in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell for a clearer take on ths issue.
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Will probably be along the lines of my psychology-to-reads; that most of what we think we are thinking - is crap; especially about ourselves as selves.
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