Winter 2006, Volume 3 Number 4

1. A Star is Made by Stephen J. Dubner & Steven D. Levitt  "Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer, golf, surgery, piano playing, Scrabble, writing, chess, software design, stock picking and darts. They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers.  Their work, compiled in the Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, a 900-page academic book ... makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers -- whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming -- are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true." To see the rest, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/magazine/07wwln_freak.html?ex=1304654400&en=2cf57fe91bdd490f&ei=5090&partner=

2. Deliberate Practice, Motivation and Hard Work: How to Make Expert Minds by Clifford Morris  A review of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance by K. Anders Ericsson, Neil Charness, Paul J. Feltovich and Robert R. Hoffman  (Eds.)  "This is the first handbook where the world's foremost 'experts on expertise' review our scientific knowledge on expertise and expert performance and how experts may differ from non-experts in terms of their development, training, reasoning, knowledge, social support, and innate talent. Methods are described for the study of experts' knowledge and their performance of representative tasks from their domain of expertise. The development of expertise is also studied by retrospective interviews and the daily lives of experts are studied with diaries. In 15 major domains of expertise, the leading researchers summarize our knowledge on the structure and acquisition of expert skill and knowledge and discuss future prospects. General issues that cut across most domains are reviewed in chapters on various aspects of expertise such as general and practical intelligence, differences in brain activity, self-regulated learning, deliberate practice, aging, knowledge management, and creativity." (Source: Inside front cover). To see an image of the front cover et al, go to http://www.igs.net/~cmorris/br_tchoeaep.htm

3. The Expert Mind by Philip E. Ross  "The preponderance of psychological evidence indicates that experts are made, not born. What is more, the demonstrated ability to turn a child quickly into an expert--in chess, music and a host of other subjects--sets a clear challenge before the schools. Can educators find ways to encourage students to engage in the kind of effortful study that will improve their reading and math skills? Roland G. Fryer, Jr., an economist at Harvard University, has experimented with offering monetary rewards to motivate students in underperforming schools in New York City and Dallas. In one ongoing program in New York, for example, teachers test the students every three weeks and award small amounts--on the order of $10 or $20--to those who score well. The early results have been promising. Instead of perpetually pondering the question, "Why can't Johnny read?" perhaps educators should ask, "Why should there be anything in the world he can't learn to do?"  To see the text, go to http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00010347-101C-14C1-8F9E83414B7F4945

 

Fall 2006, Volume 3, Number 3

1. The Mismeaure of Man Revised and Expanded Edition by Stephen Jay Gould  In 1981, Stephen Jay Gould wrote The Mismeasure of Man, written to argue against serious social and political suggestions earlier scribed by Arthur R. Jensen in his 1969 article How much can we boost IQ and scholastic achievement? In 1996, Gould produced a revised version of the same book as a response to Richard Herrnstein & Charles Murray's 1994 book The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. To see the rest, go to http://www.igs.net/~cmorris/book-review-the-mismeasure-of-man.htm

2. Remembering the Father of Neuropsychology by Clifford Morris  A book review of The Autobiography of Alexander Luria: A Dialogue with The Making of Mind by Michael Cole, Levitin, Karl, & Alexander Luria  (Eds.)  The Autobiography of Alexander Luria A Dialogue with The Making of Mind is dedicated to Alexander Romanovich Luria, a prominent Russian scientists of the 20th century. For some forty years, Luria conducted research with great success on the functions of the brain such as analyzed the changes in function as a result of local brain lesions, attention, learning and forgetting and perception. As his academic life spanned a sizeable section of the last 100 years, this revised autobiography gives the reader a glimpse into the development of neurology and psychology in Russia. This new version will be of  interest to an ever expanding number of Luria followers. To see the rest, go to http://www.igs.net/~cmorris/review_the_making_of_mind.htm

3. Brains, Minds and Intelligences by Clifford Morris  A review of The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning by Keith Holyoak and Robert Morrison  (Eds.)  In The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning, co-editors Keith Holyoak and Robert Morrison have done a first-rate job of providing the reader with seven informative, well researched and thought provoking themes: The Nature of Human Concepts, Reasoning, Judgment and Decision Making, Problem Solving and Complex Learning, Cognitive and Neural Constraints on Human Thought, Ontology, Phylogeny, Language and Culture, and Thinking in Practice. The Handbook is well integrated for an edited volume. Each theme includes between three to six chapters with every chapter following a comparable organization: an introduction of the topic, a review of the research literature and a Conclusions and Future Directions section. All chapters have something unique to say and yet relates back to the main theme of the Handbook -- comprehending the higher cognitive processes involved when thinking and reasoning. To see the full review, go to http://www.igs.net/~cmorris/br_tchotar.htm

 

Summer 2006, Volume 3, Number 2

Spring, 2006, Volume 3, Number 1

Spring 2005, Volume 2, Number 1

1. The Limited Plasticity Of Human Intelligence by Arthur Jensen  This article was initially published in The Eugenics Bulletin, in the Fall of 1982. "As societies become increasingly technological, the demand for superior intelligence begins to exceed the supply and the demand for sheer physical labor begins to decline.  Increased leisure, early retirement and a lengthened life-span all raise the premium on intelligence for the social and moral well-being of society.  With the eradication of malnutrition and infectious childhood diseases, and as universal public education and the amenities of our technological civilization become more widespread, the improvement of human intelligence, if it is to come about at all, will depend increasingly upon eugenic means."  To see the text, go to http://www.igs.net/~cmorris/limited-plasticity-of-human-intelligence-a-r-jensen.html

2. Mainstream Science on Intelligence A public statement first published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, December 13, 1994 was signed by 52 internationally known scholars.  "The statement was active on the information highway early in 1995, following several rather heated and negative responses to Herrnstein and Murray's book The Bell Curve. Since the publication of The Bell Curve, many commentators have offered opinions about human intelligence that misstate current scientific evidence. Some conclusions dismissed in the media as discredited are actually firmly supported. This statement outlines conclusions regarded as mainstream among researchers on intelligence, in particular, on the nature, origins, and practical consequences of individual and group differences in intelligence. Its aim is to promote more reasoned discussion of the vexing phenomenon that the research has revealed in recent decades. The following conclusions are fully described in the major textbooks, professional journals and encyclopedias in intelligence."  To see the text, go to http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/wsj_main.html

 

Winter 2004, Volume 1, Number 4

1. New Methods for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals by Alfred Binet  This (1905) article was initially published in L'Année Psychologique "Before explaining these methods let us recall exactly the conditions of the problem which we are attempting to solve. Our purpose is to be able to measure the intellectual capacity of a child who is brought to us in order to know whether he is normal or retarded. We should therefore, study his condition at the time and that only. We have nothing to do either with his past history or with his future; consequently we shall neglect his etiology, and we shall make no attempt to distinguish between acquired and congenital idiocy; for a stronger reason we shall set aside all consideration of pathological anatomy which might explain his intellectual deficiency. So much for his past. As to that which concerns his future, we shall exercise the same abstinence; we do not attempt to establish or prepare a prognosis and we leave unanswered the question of whether this retardation is curable, or even improvable. We shall limit ourselves to ascertaining the truth in regard to his present mental state." To see the text, go to http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Binet/binet1.htm

2. Race, Intelligence and the Brain: The errors and Omissions of The Revised Edition of S. J. Gould's The Mismeasure of Man by Philippe Rushton  The following book review by Philippe Rushton was originally published in Personality and Individual Differences, October 3, 1996.  "The first edition of The Mismeasure of Man appeared in 1981 and was quickly praised in the popular press as a definitive refutation of 100 years of scientific work on race, brain-size and intelligence. It sold 125,000 copies, was translated into 10 languages, and became required reading for undergraduate and even graduate classes in anthropology, psychology, and sociology. The second edition is not truly revised, but rather only expanded, as the author claims the book needed no updating as any new research would only be plagued with the same philosophical errors revealed in the first edition. Thus it continues a political polemic, whose author engages in character assassination of long deceased scientists whose work he misrepresents despite published refutations, while studiously withholding from his readers fifteen years of new research that contradicts every major scientific argument he puts forth. To see the text, go to http://www.eugenics.net/papers/rushton.html

 

Fall 2004, Volume 1, Number 3

1. Francis Galton's Classification of Men According to their Natural Gifts Excerpts from F. Galton Hereditary Genius  (Macmillan, 2nd ed, 1892) Chapter 3.  "I have no patience with the hypothesis occasionally expressed, and often implied, especially in tales written to teach children to be good, that babies are born pretty much alike, and that the sole agencies in creating differences between boy and boy, and man and man, are steady application and moral effort. It is in the most unqualified manner that I object to pretensions of natural equality. The experiences of the nursery, the school, the University, and of professional careers, are a chain of proofs to the contrary. I acknowledge freely the great power of education and social influences in developing the active powers of the mind, just as I acknowledge the effect of use in developing the muscles of a blacksmith's arm, and no further. Let the blacksmith labor as he will, he will find there are certain feats beyond his power that are well within the strength of a man of Herculean make, even although the latter may have led a sedentary life. Some years ago, the Highlanders held a grand gathering in Holland Park, where they challenged all England to compete with them in their games of strength. The challenge was accepted, and the well-trained men of the hills were beaten in the foot-race by a youth who was stated to be a pure Cockney, the clerk of a London banker."  To see the rest, go to http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~reingold/courses/intelligence/cache/galton.html

2. J. McK. Cattell's V.-Mental Tests and Measurement  Francis Galton (1865)  Hereditary Talent and Character  Originally published in Mind, 15, 373-381.  "Psychology cannot attain the certainty and exactness of the physical sciences, unless it rests on a foundation of experiment and measurement. A step in this direction could be made by applying a series of mental tests and measurements to a large number of individuals. The results would be of considerable scientific value in discovering the constancy of mental processes, their interdependence, and their variation under different circumstances. Individuals, besides, would find their tests interesting, and, perhaps, useful in regard to training, mode of life or indication of disease. The scientific and practical value of such tests would be much increased should a uniform system be adopted, so that determinations made at different times and places could be compared and combined. With a view to obtaining agreement among those interested, I venture to suggest the following series of tests and measurements, together with methods of making them.  The first series of ten tests is made in the Psychological Laboratory, of the University of Pennsylvania on all who present themselves, and the complete series on students of Experimental Psychology. The results will be published when sufficient data have been collected." To see the text, go to http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Cattell/mental.htm

3. Francis Galton (1865) Hereditary Talent and Character by Francis Galton  Originally published in Macmillan's Magazine, 12, 157-166, 318-327.  "A remarkable misapprehension appears to be current as to the fact of the transmission of talent by inheritance. It is commonly asserted that the children of eminent men are stupid; that, where great power of intellect seems to have been inherited, it has descended through the mother's side; and that one son commonly runs away with the talent of a whole family. My own inquiries have led me to a diametrically opposite conclusion. I find that talent is transmitted by inheritance in a very remarkable degree; that the mother has by no means the monopoly of its transmission; and that whole families of persons of talent are more common than those in which one member only is possessed of it. I justify my conclusions by the statistics I now proceed to adduce, which I believe are amply sufficient to command conviction. They are only a part of much material I have collected, for a future volume on this subject; all of which points in the same direction. I should be very grateful to any of my readers for information that may help me in my further inquiries."  To see the text, go to http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Galton/talent.htm

 

Summer 2004, Volume 1, Number 2

1. New and Emerging Theories of Intelligence  You can't pick up a magazine today without seeing some type of an article regarding intelligence or intelligences. The study of human intelligence has proved to be a continuously evolving, dynamic field, with the breadth of the field expanding rapidly over the past 25 -- 30 years.  Many theorists argue that our view of human intelligence is far too narrow, leading the way to an expanded view of what intelligence is and what constitutes an intelligence. To see the site, go to http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/index.shtml

2. The Uses of Intelligence Tests by Lewis M. Terman  This commentary was initially published, in 1916, as Chapter 1 in The measurement of intelligence  "Numerous studies of the age-grade progress of school children have afforded convincing evidence of the magnitude and seriousness of the retardation problem. Statistics collected in hundreds of cities in the United States show that between a third and a half of the school children fail to progress through the grades at the expected rate; that from 10 to 15 per cent are retarded two years or more; and that from 5 to 8 per cent are retarded at least three years. More than 10 per cent of the $400,000,000 annually expended in the United States for school instruction is devoted to re-teaching children what they have already been taught but have failed to learn." To see the text, go to http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Terman/terman1.htm

3. Coloring Outside the Lines: Applying Multiple Intelligences and Creativity in Learning by Rene Diaz-Lefebvre  This book begins with the poignant story of Javier, a student with the capacity to learn, but does not perform well on tests. Using examples from different disciplines, Diaz-Lefebvre leads the reader step-by-step on how to use the Multiple Intelligences and Learning for Understanding model to teach for retention and understanding. The book answers the instructor's perennial concern of motivating students to review assigned readings.  To see the book and video review, go to http://www.igs.net/~cmorris/coloring-outside-the-lines.htm

 

Spring 2004, Volume 1, Number 1