Excellence and the highest levels of performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games have always been an object of fascination to both scientists and lay people. Only during the last 20 years have scientists studied these levels of performance in the laboratory in order to identify their mediating mechanisms. Contrary to the common belief that innate talents are the critical factors for exceptional performance, investigators have found that acquired skills, knowledge, and physiological adaptations in response to intense practice are the primary mechanisms, mediating the highest levels of performance.
This is the first and only book to examine "how" elite performers effect their exceptional accomplishments. The world's leading researchers on expert performance and creative achievement review theories and recent findings from many different domains of expertise on how experts optimize improvement in their performance and eventually attain excellence. Elite performers are shown to have engaged in deliberate-practice activities specifically designed to improve their performance from an early age. By age 20 they have often accumulated over 10,000 hours of practice The essential elements of deliberate practice, such as specific goals to improve performance, successive refinement through repetition, feedback and instruction, are explicated for different domains. Although the content of practice tasks will necessarily differ from domain to domain, investigators have found invariant characteristics for the optimal duration of practice sessions, maximal amounts of daily practice, the length of intense preparation (around 10 years), and ages of peak performance. Some of the book's chapters extend the review to the acquisition of everyday-life skills such as reading, to the performance of teams of experts, and to the development of creative achievement, geniuses, and artistic child prodigies. The book concludes with commentaries by several outstanding scientists in psychology, education, and history of science who discuss the generalizability of presented ideas and raise issues for future issues.
EXTRA COPY...It could be said that striving for excellence is what characterizes humanity, or perhaps what characterizes humanity at its best. Why do so few individuals ever reach the highest levels when so many start out on the Road to Excellence? In this book, the world's foremost researchers of expert performance in domains as diverse as sports, medicine, chess, and the arts explore the similarities and differences in the extended and strenuous Road to Excellence taken by the successful individuals in each domain. Their findings will intrigue and inspire readers who are themselves driven to achieve or who simply want to better understand the processes involved.

In this book Jonathan St B T Evans has selected a number of key publications which have strongly influenced the psychology of reasoning from the 1970s to the present day.It will be essential reading for researchers in the psychology of reasoning, and a wider audience of advanced students with an interest in reasoning and/or dual process theory. Preface 1. Wason selection task 2. Syllogisms 3. Conditionals 4. Heuristic-analytic and hypothetical thinking theory 5. Rationality 6. The paradigm shift in the psychology of reasoning 7. Dual processes, systems and minds

Moral Inferences is the first volume to thoroughly explore the relationship between morality and reasoning. Drawing on the expertise of world-leading researchers, this text provides ground-breaking insight into the importance of studying these distinct fields together. The volume integrates the latest research into morality with current theories in reasoning to consider the prominent role reasoning plays in everyday moral judgements. Featuring contributions on topics such as moral arguments, causal models, and dual process theory, this text provides a new perspectives on previous studies, encouraging researchers to adopt a more integrated approach in the future. Moral Inferences will be essential reading for students and researchers of moral psychology, specifically those interested in reasoning, rationality and decision-making.

Moral Inferences is the first volume to thoroughly explore the relationship between morality and reasoning. Drawing on the expertise of world-leading researchers, this text provides ground-breaking insight into the importance of studying these distinct fields together. The volume integrates the latest research into morality with current theories in reasoning to consider the prominent role reasoning plays in everyday moral judgements. Featuring contributions on topics such as moral arguments, causal models, and dual process theory, this text provides a new perspectives on previous studies, encouraging researchers to adopt a more integrated approach in the future. Moral Inferences will be essential reading for students and researchers of moral psychology, specifically those interested in reasoning, rationality and decision-making.

Originally published in 1975, this volume contains original reports of new models and data in the areas of propositional reasoning, syllogistic reasoning, and transitive inference in children and adults of the time. A wide range of theoretical viewpoints is represented, and an effort is made to integrate the models and empirical findings, as well as place them in a common perspective and elucidate the general issues and questions relevant to these various approaches. The study of logical reasoning was undergoing rapid expansion at the time and this volume brings together the latest thinking in the area, in such a way that the relation between Piagetian and non-Piagetian traditions are examined, as well as the connection between the study of reasoning and the area of linguistic inquiry. The discussions of metatheoretical issues, such as the notion of logical competence and separability of representation and logical processing, as regards the various models presented herein, made this volume required reading for all those interested in reasoning in children and adults at the time.

Originally published in 1965, this title is a series of exploratory essays on approaches to thinking. The central topic is the relation of processes of an associative kind (sometimes irrational, in so far as they are not enmeshed with a world of shared experience) to those involving some degree of reference to a common world and hence forming the basis of constructive, critical and logical thought. This theme ran through a good deal of psychological controversy at the time. It is a very old theme that had been dealt with many times and in many ways in the course of its history. One might have chosen to discuss approaches to it other than those considered in the present volume. These, however, were selected for their bearing on one another, and because they formed an interesting part of the background to contemporary psychological theory of the time.

The last two years have witnessed deterioration in the global security situation characterised by increasing tensions among major powers. The threat perceptions of the US, China and Russia vis-a-vis each other have sharpened. There is stiff competition among them to dominate the strategic space in different parts of the world. This has led them to formulate national security strategies which are more assertive, aggressive and competitive. There is lack of consensus in resolution of conflicts in Afghanistan and Syria. There is no concerted effort in meeting the challenge of the Islamic State. It is in this fractured security environment that India has been making special efforts to project itself as a leading power commensurate with its economic and military potential. This fifteenth volume of India's National Security Annual Review undertakes an incisive analysis of India's endeavours to maximise its gains with respect to its strategic partners. The volume also focuses on the new dynamism that India has injected in its relations with countries in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific. India's threat perceptions in its extended security zone, critical aspects of its strategic preparedness and complex issues regarding its internal security have been thoroughly examined. With contributions from experts from the fields of diplomacy, academia and civil and military services, the book will be one of the most dependable sources of analyses for scholars of international relations, foreign policy, defence and strategic studies, and political science, and practitioners alike.

How can the intelligence of monkeys and apes, and the huge brain expansion which marked human evolution be explained? In 1988, Machiavellian Intelligence was the first book to assemble the early evidence suggesting a new answer: that the evolution of intellect was primarily driven by selection for manipulative, social expertise within groups where the most challenging problem faced by individuals was dealing with their companions. Since then a wealth of new information and ideas has accumulated. This new book will bring readers up to date with the most important developments, extending the scope of the original ideas and evaluating them empirically from different perspectives. It is essential reading for reseachers and students in many different branches of evolution and behavioural sciences, primatology, and philosophy.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Man Who Couldn't Stop.

'Witty, sharp and enlightening . . . This book will make you smarter' Adam Rutherford.

What if you have more intelligence than you realize? What if there is a genius inside you, just waiting to be released? And what if the route to better brain power is not hard work or thousands of hours of practice but to simply swallow a pill?

In The Genius Within, bestselling author David Adam explores the ground-breaking neuroscience of cognitive enhancement that is changing the way the brain and the mind works – to make it better, sharper, more focused and, yes, more intelligent. Sharing his own experiments with revolutionary smart drugs and electrical brain stimulation, he delves into the sinister history of intelligence tests, meets savants and brain hackers and reveals how he boosted his own IQ to cheat his way into Mensa.

Going to the heart of how we consider, measure and judge mental ability, The Genius Within asks difficult questions about the science that could rank and define us, and inevitably shape our future.

Born in Vienna in 1864, Bernard Hollander was a London-based psychiatrist in the early twentieth century. He is best known for being one of the main proponents of the interest in phrenology at that time. This title originally published in 1931 looks at the different regions of the brain and their various functions in relation to intelligence. From the preface: "The records of cases collected by the author, including some of his own, point to there being at least three main regions of totally different functions.... Of these three regions, the frontal is by far the largest in man and the most important, being the region for the manifestation of the highest intellectual abilities." Back in print this is a chance to read all about the study of the brain, mind and external signs of intelligence from the early twentieth century.

What does it mean to be rational - to reason well and effectively? How does rationality, broadly conceived, relate to the knowledge one acquires, the beliefs one forms, the explanations one constructs or appropriates, the judgments and decisions one makes, the values one adopts? What is the character of human reasoning and, in particular, does it tend to be rational? Much has been written about human rationality - or lack thereof. In recent years, some writers have focused attention on the numerous ways in which people appear not to be rational, at least if being rational is taken to mean always thinking or behaving in accordance with some normative standard. Others have argued that, if human reasoning is as flawed as this work suggests, it is a wonder that we, as a species, are around to notice the fact. This book examines much of the experimental research on reasoning as it relates to a variety of conceptions of rationality, not limited to conformity of thought and behavior or to the dictates of one or another normative system. The discussion focuses on specific topics that represent essential aspects of any adequately inclusive conception of rationality: intelligence and knowledge; beliefs; goals, values and affect; explanations; judgment and choice; understanding and wisdom.

Since the mid-80s several laboratories around the world have been developing techniques for the operational use of tests derived from item-generation. According to the experts, the major thrust of test development in the next decade will be the harnessing of item generation technology to the production of computer developed tests. This is expected to revolutionize the way in which tests are constructed and delivered. This book is a compilation of the papers presented at a symposium held at ETS in Princeton, attended by the world's foremost experts in item-generation theory and practice. Its goal is to present the major applications of cognitive principles in the construction of ability, aptitude, and achievement tests. It is an intellectual contribution to test development that is unique, with great potential for changing the ways tests are generated. The intended market includes professional educators and psychologists interested in test generation.

The complete guide to mastering the art of effective body language Body Language For Dummies is your ideal guide to understanding other people, and helping them understand you. Body language is a critical component of good communication, and often conveys a bigger message than the words you say. This book teaches you how to interpret what people really mean by observing their posture, gestures, eye movements, and more, and holds up a mirror to give you a clear idea of how you're being interpreted yourself. This updated third edition includes new coverage of virtual meetings, multicultural outsourcing environments, devices, and boardroom behaviours for women, as well as insight into Harvard professor Amy Cuddy's research into how body language affects testosterone and cortisol, as published in the Harvard Business Review. Body language is a fascinating topic that reveals how the human mind works. Image and presentation are crucial to successful communication, both in business and in your personal life. This book is your guide to decoding body language, and adjusting your own habits to improve your interactions with others. * Become a better communicator without saying a word * Make a better first (and second, and third...) impression * Learn what other people's signals really mean * Transform your personal and professional relationships Realising what kind of impression you give is a valuable thing, and learning how to make a more positive impact is an incredibly useful skill. Whether you want to improve your prospects in job seeking, dating, or climbing the corporate ladder, Body Language For Dummies helps you translate the unspoken and get your message across.

This edited volume addresses the main lessons and legacies of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis from a global perspective. Despite the discoveries of recent research, there is still much more to be revealed about the handling of nuclear weapons before and during the Cuban Missile Crisis (CMC). Featuring contributions from a number of eminent international scholars of nuclear history, intelligence, espionage, political science and Cold War studies, An International History of the Cuban Missile Crisis reviews and reflects on one of the critical moments of the Cold War, focussing on three key areas. First, the volume highlights the importance of memory as an essential foundation of historical understanding and demonstrates how events that rely only on historical records can provide misleading accounts. This focus on memory extends the scope of the existing literature by exploring hitherto neglected aspects of the CMC, including an analysis of the operational aspects of Bomber Command activity, explored through recollections of the aircrews that challenge accounts based on official records. The editors then go on to explore aspects of intelligence whose achievements and failings have increasingly been recognised to be of central importance to the origins, dynamics and outcomes of the missile crisis. Studies of hitherto neglected organisations such as the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the British Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) both extend our understanding of British and American intelligence machinery in this period and enrich our understanding of key episodes and assessments in the missile crisis. Finally, the book explores the risk of nuclear war and looks at how close we came to nuclear conflict. The risk of inadvertent use of nuclear weapons is evaluated and a new proposed framework for the analysis of nuclear risk put forward. This volume will be of much interest to students of intelligence studies, international history, foreign policy, security studies and IR in general.

Diagnostic Expertise in Organizational Environments provides a state-of-the-art foundation for a new paradigm in expertise research and practice. Skilled diagnosis is essential for accurate and efficient performance across a range of organizational contexts, including aviation, finance, rail, forensic investigation, firefighting, and medicine. However, it is also a complex process, subject to the abilities and experience of individual operators, the culture and practices of organizations, the relationships between operators, and the availability and usefulness of technology. As a consequence, diagnostic skills can be difficult to learn, maintain, and evaluate. This volume is a comprehensive approach that examines diagnostic expertise at the level of the individual practitioner, in the social context, and at the organizational level. The chapter authors comprise both academics and highly skilled practitioners so that there is a clear transition from understanding the problem of diagnostic skills to the implementation of solutions, either through redesign, training, and/or selection. It will appeal to those academics and practitioners interested and involved in this field and also prove useful to students of psychology, cognitive science education and/or computer interaction.

Based on recently declassified documents, this book provides the first examination of the Truman Administration's decision to employ covert operations in the Cold War. Although covert operations were an integral part of America's arsenal during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the majority of these operations were ill conceived, unrealistic and ultimately doomed to failure. In this volume, the author looks at three central questions: Why were these types of operations adopted? Why were they conducted in such a haphazard manner? And, why, once it became clear that they were not working, did the administration fail to abandon them? The book argues that the Truman Administration was unable to reconcile policy, strategy and operations successfully, and to agree on a consistent course of action for waging the Cold War. This ensured that they wasted time and effort, money and manpower on covert operations designed to challenge Soviet hegemony, which had little or no real chance of success. US Covert Operations and Cold War Strategy will be of great interest to students of US foreign policy, Cold War history, intelligence and international history in general.

Originally published in 1965, this title is a series of exploratory essays on approaches to thinking. The central topic is the relation of processes of an associative kind (sometimes irrational, in so far as they are not enmeshed with a world of shared experience) to those involving some degree of reference to a common world and hence forming the basis of constructive, critical and logical thought. This theme ran through a good deal of psychological controversy at the time. It is a very old theme that had been dealt with many times and in many ways in the course of its history. One might have chosen to discuss approaches to it other than those considered in the present volume. These, however, were selected for their bearing on one another, and because they formed an interesting part of the background to contemporary psychological theory of the time.

Originally published in 1975, this volume contains original reports of new models and data in the areas of propositional reasoning, syllogistic reasoning, and transitive inference in children and adults of the time. A wide range of theoretical viewpoints is represented, and an effort is made to integrate the models and empirical findings, as well as place them in a common perspective and elucidate the general issues and questions relevant to these various approaches. The study of logical reasoning was undergoing rapid expansion at the time and this volume brings together the latest thinking in the area, in such a way that the relation between Piagetian and non-Piagetian traditions are examined, as well as the connection between the study of reasoning and the area of linguistic inquiry. The discussions of metatheoretical issues, such as the notion of logical competence and separability of representation and logical processing, as regards the various models presented herein, made this volume required reading for all those interested in reasoning in children and adults at the time.

This accessible book provides a foundational understanding of the science of deception and lie detection. Focusing on core issues for the field, it discusses classic and current psychological research into lying as well as theoretical approaches to understanding human lie detection. The book explores engaging questions around how people lie, how people make decisions about believing others, and how we can detect deception. Each chapter is clearly structured to support students of all levels by summarising content, presenting key research and systematically evaluating findings. Chapters explore topics including some of the most promising current lie detection techniques, how and why people lie, how lying develops in children, and whether unconscious thinking can boost lie detection accuracy. Providing an overview of key issues in deception, this book will be of great interest to students and lecturers in the field of deception and lie detection, as well as anyone generally interested in this fascinating field of research.

Originally published in 1982, this was an extensive and up-to-date review of research into the psychology of deductive reasoning, Jonathan Evans presents an alternative theoretical framework to the rationalist approach which had dominated much of the published work in this field at the time. The review falls into three sections. The first is concerned with elementary reasoning tasks, in which response latency is the prime measure of interest. The second and third sections are concerned with syllogistic and propositional reasoning respectively, in which interest has focused on the explanation of frequently observed logical errors. In an extended discussion it is argued that reasoning processes are content specific, and give little indication of the operation of any underlying system of logical competence. Finally, a dual process theory of reasoning, with broad implications and connections with other fields of psychology, is elaborated and assessed in the light of recent evidence.

The subject of thinking is the oldest in the whole science of psychology, going back to well before the separation of the disciplines of philosophy and psychology. Originally published in 1983, this collection of up-to-date critical essays about thinking - with particular emphasis on reasoning - is written from the perspective of psychologists who are themselves actively engaged in research into the nature of human thought. The editor's introduction identifies the major issues which have traditionally concerned students of human thought, and provides an historical background. It describes how at first the subject was studied by introspection, and how this method fell into disrepute at the end of last century. A satisfactory alternative has not yet emerged, although much recent work is based on the information-processing model, which sees the brain as a sophisticated computer. Consequently the papers presented in this volume deal with a wide range of issues, and a number of different experimental tasks and paradigms. They cover most current approaches to the theory and methodology of cognitive psychology, including problem solving, the relationship between language and thought, and reasoning.

What is language and what is the nature of the intelligence that can acquire it? This volume, originally published in 1976, describes 10 years of research devoted to these questions. The author describes his programmatic research of decomposing language into atomic constituents, designing and applying training programs for teaching these to chimpanzees, and for teaching chimps major human ontological categories, as well as for interrogative, declarative, and imperative sentence forms. The volume details the progress from teaching apes simple predicates such as same-different, to more complex predicates such as if-then, and the success of the program led to the following questions directly related to intelligence: What made the training program effective? What is the cognitive equipment of the species which enables it to learn language? What does this tell us about human intelligence? The answers were suggested in terms of conceptual structure, representational capacity, memory and the ability to handle second-order relations. The results of this experimentation, which resulted in synonymy in some animals, shed light not only on the nature of language, but the nature of intelligence as well. One of the earliest ape language and intelligence studies, today this classic can be read and enjoyed again in its historical context.

This is Volume XXI of twenty-one of the Individual Differences Psychology series. First published in 1930 this essay looks to understand the conversion of the child as he is into the adult and purports to be a reasoned protest against this practice of disparagement, to challenge the assumptions, and to expose the habits of thought which account for it, and to examine typical recent instances.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.