This thought provoking volume critically examines the terms 'race' and 'IQ' and their application in scientific discourse. The essayists draw on fields ranging from biology and genetics to psychology, anthropology, and education. Emerging from the essays is a deep skepticism about the scientific validity of intelligence tests, owing to the fact that scientists still cannot distinguish between genetic and environmental contributions to the development of the human mind. Five new essays have been included that specificially address the claims made in the recent, highly controversial book, The Bell Curve.

Michael Howe addresses the commonly held belief that genius is born not made. Controversially he suggests that genius is not a mysterious and mystical gift but the product of a combination of environment, personality and sheer hard work. The exceptional talents of those we call geniuses are the result of a unique set of circumstances and opportunities, but in every case they are pursued and exploited with a characteristic drive, determination and focus which the rest of us rarely show. Howe develops these ideas through a series of case studies focusing on famous figures such as Charles Darwin, George Eliot, George Stevenson, the Bronte sisters, Michael Faraday and Albert Einstein.

Simon Blackburn puts forward a compelling original philosophy of human motivation and morality. He maintains that we cannot get clear about ethics until we get clear about human nature. So these are the sorts of questions he addresses: Why do we behave as we do? Can we improve? Is our ethics at war with our passions, or is it an upshot of those passions? Blackburn seeks the answers in an exploration of guilt, shame, disgust, and other moral emotions; he draws also on game theory and cognitive science in his account of the structures of human motivation. Ruling Passions sets ethics in the context of human nature: it offers a solution to the puzzle of how ethics can maintain its authority even though it is rooted in the very emotions and motivations that it exists to control.

Not since the landmark publication of Handbook of Human Intelligence in 1982 has the field of intelligence been more alive than it is today. Spurred by the new developments in a rapidly expanding field, Robert Sternberg has brought together a stellar list of contributors to provide a comprehensive, broad and deeply thematic review of intelligence that will be accessible to both scholar and student. Handbook of Intelligence is greatly expanded to cover areas such as animal and artificial intelligence, as well as human intelligence, fully reflecting important theoretical progress made since the early 1980s.

Have you ever wondered why psychologists still can't agree on what intelligence is? Or felt dismayed by debates around individual differences? Criticising the pitfalls of IQ testing, this book explains the true nature of intelligent systems, and their evolution from cells to brains to culture and human minds. Understanding Intelligence debunks many of the myths and misunderstandings surrounding intelligence. It takes a new look at the nature of the environment and the development of 'talent' and achievement. This brings fresh and radical implications for promoting intelligence and creativity, and prompts readers to reconsider their own possibilities and aspirations. Providing a broad context to the subject, the author also unmasks the ideological distortions of intelligence in racism and eugenics, and the suppressed expectations across social classes and genders. This book is a must-read for anyone curious about our own intelligence.

Acclaim for Are We Unique?
""In his masterful book, Trefil shares with readers some of the most recent research in neurology, evolution, primate research, computer science, and philosophy. Trefil's prose is lively and engaging."" --Boston Globe
""Trefil's race through the science that could explain the brain is highly readable."" --Sunday Times of London
""In a provocative essay, Trefil argues that the science of artificial intelligence is progressing rapidly. Machines, he theorizes, will one day develop a new kind of intelligence and self-awareness. So, maybe the real question is: Are we ready?"" --San Diego Union-Tribune
""A highly readable and engaging treatment of a fascinating question. Trefil makes a case for human uniqueness while at the same time celebrating the achievements of creations ranging from lobsters to neural nets. A provocative and enjoyable book."" --Daniel L. Schacter Professor and Chair of Psychology, Harvard University author of Searching for Memory

This book aims to explain the intelligence of monkeys and apes, and the huge brain expansion that marked human evolution. 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 behavioral sciences, primatology and philosophy.

A complete guide to key intelligence and achievement tests and their effective use

The tools used in the assessment process have changed dramatically in recent years. School and clinical psychologists need a comprehensive yet focused resource to which they can turn to learn the basics of key intelligence and achievement tests and how to use them in their assessments of children and adults. With its practical and straightforward presentation, "Practitioner's Guide to Assessing Intelligence and Achievement" provides that resource.

Coedited by two well-known and respected scholars and researchers, Jack Naglieri and Sam Goldstein, the content in this timely book combines traditional and new conceptualizations of intelligence as well as ways to measure achievement. Truly readable and user-friendly, this book provides professionals with a single source from which to examine ability and achievement tests along the same general criteria.

Each chapter is written by a leading scholar and test developer and is consistently structured for easy comparison of each test that is examined. Coverage includes:

The theory underlying each test

Description of each test

Tips for administering and scoring each test

Standardization, norms, and reliability of each scale

Practical guidance for the use of each test

Correspondence of each test to IDEA

A practical tool designed to aid clinical psychologists in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the various tests presented, "Practitioner's Guide to Assessing Intelligence and Achievement" provides students and practitioners with the information they need for their practice and testing efforts to be consistent with recent updates in the field and how those assessment instruments relate to changes in the laws that influence test use.

There is a growing view that intelligence evolved as a product of social interdependence. The unique development of human intelligence was probably linked to the use of spoken language, but language itself evolved in the context of social interaction, and in its development it has shaped - and been shaped by - social institutions. Taking as their starting-point the social production of intelligence and of language, scholars across a range of disciplines are beginning to rethink fundamental questions about human evolution, language and social institutions. This volume brings together anthropologists, linguists, primatologists and psychologists, all working on this new frontier of research.

In Autism Is the Future, Marlo Thurman reveals how cognitive differences are the constructing pieces in understanding those with Autism. Through her findings, she shows how those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) constantly challenge assumptions about intelligence and measuring intelligence. Thurman proposes that sensory and cognitive development have evolved together into a very different form of intelligence in those with ASD, and it should be viewed not as a disability but instead as a difference to be celebrated and followed.

Puzzle fans have bought more than 650,000 copies of the Mensa Genius Quiz series--the only books that let readers "match wits with Mensa," comparing how well they do against members of the famous high-IQ society. Here, in a giant omnibus edition, are four best-selling titles: "The Mensa Genius Quiz Books 1 & 2," "The Mensa Genius Quiz-A-Day Book," and" The Mensa Genius ABC Book." Here are more than 800 fun mindbenders to exercise every part of your brain--word games, trivia, logic riddles, number challenges, visual puzzles--plus tips on how to improve your thinking skills. All the puzzles have been tested by members of American Mensa, Ltd., and include the percentage of Mensa testers who could solve each one, so that you can score yourself against some of the nation's fittest mental athletes.

Who is the 'Devil'? And what is he due? The Devil is anyone who disagrees with you. And what he is due is the right to speak his mind. He must have this for your own safety's sake because his freedom is inextricably tied to your own. If he can be censored, why shouldn't you be censored? If we put barriers up to silence 'unpleasant' ideas, what's to stop the silencing of any discussion? This book is a full-throated defense of free speech and open inquiry in politics, science, and culture by the New York Times bestselling author and skeptic Michael Shermer. The new collection of essays and articles takes the Devil by the horns by tackling five key themes: free thought and free speech, politics and society, scientific humanism, religion, and the ideas of controversial intellectuals. For our own sake, we must give the Devil his due.

Our extraordinary capacity to reason and solve problems sets us aside from other animals, but our evolved thinking processes also leave us susceptibile to bias and error. The study of thinking and reasoning goes back to Aristotle, and was one of the first topics to be studied when psychology separated from philosophy. In this Very Short Introduction Jonathan Evans explores cognitive psychological approaches to understanding the nature of thinking and reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. He shows how our problem solving capabilities are hugely dependent on also having the imagination to ask the right questions, and the ability to see things from a completely new perspective. Beginning by considering the approaches of the behaviourists and the Gestalt psychologists, he moves on to modern explorations of thinking, including hypothetical thinking, conditionals, deduction, rationality, and intuition. Covering the role of past learning, IQ, and cognitive biases, Evans also discusses the idea that there may be two different ways of thinking, arising from our evolutionary history. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The seventh edition of this field-leading textbook provides an accessible and rigorous presentation of major theories of persuasion and their applications to a variety of real-world contexts. In addition to presenting established theories and models, this text encourages students to develop and apply general conclusions about persuasion in real-world settings. Along the way, students are introduced to the practice of social influence in an array of contexts (e.g., advertising, marketing, politics, interpersonal relationships, social media, groups) and across a variety of topics (e.g., credibility, personality, deception, motivational appeals, visual persuasion). The new edition features expanded treatment of digital and social media; up-to-date research on theory and practice; an increased number of international cases; and new and expanded discussions of topics such as online influencers, disinformation and 'fake news,' deepfakes, message framing, normative influence, stigmatized language, and inoculation theory. This is the ideal textbook for courses on persuasion in communication, psychology, advertising, and marketing programs. Instructors can also use the book's downloadable test bank, instructor's manual, and PowerPoint slides in preparing course material.

The past few decades have seen an explosion of research on causal reasoning in philosophy, computer science, and statistics, as well as descriptive work in psychology. In Causation with a Human Face, James Woodward integrates these lines of research and argues for an understanding of how each can inform the other: normative ideas can suggest interesting experiments, while descriptive results can suggest important normative concepts. Woodward's overall framework builds on the interventionist treatment of causation that he developed in Making Things Happen. Normative ideas discussed include proposals about the role of invariant or stable relationships in successful causal reasoning and the notion of proportionality. He argues that these normative ideas are reflected in the causal judgments that people actually make as a descriptive matter. Woodward also discusses the common philosophical practice-particularly salient in philosophical accounts of causation-of appealing to "intuitions" or "judgments about cases" in support of philosophical theses. He explores how, properly understood, such appeals are not different in principle from appeals to results from empirical research, and demonstrates how they may serve as a useful source of information about causal cognition.

Throughout history, humanity has regularly followed anti-rational figures and forces: demagogic rulers, perverted deities, exploitative economic systems, and so on. Such leadership and followership have wrought all kinds of oppression and conflict. What if this pattern could be altered? What if society were led by Reason instead? Prompted by Cicero's exhortation to "follow reason as leader as though it were a god", Following Reason: A Theory and Strategy for Rational Leadership explores this intriguing and potentially transformative possibility. Manolopoulos uniquely blends leadership psychology with a deep understanding of philosophical reasoning theory to show how leaders can bravely reimagine and reconstruct society. The book retraces leadership mis-steps in history, and proposes a more "logicentric" theory of leadership, built on compelling philosophical axioms and arguments. Following Reason emphasizes the weight of philosophy and cognition in leadership, and advocates for a diverse network that can create, uphold, and implement a blueprint for a better global society. This wide-ranging and timely book is ideal for leadership, management, and philosophy students at undergraduate and graduate levels.

The Importance of Being Rational systematically defends a novel reasons-based account of rationality. The book's central thesis is that what it is for one to be rational is to correctly respond to the normative reasons one possesses. Errol Lord defends novel views about what it is to possess reasons and what it is to correctly respond to reasons. He shows that these views not only help to support the book's main thesis, they also help to resolve several important problems that are independent of rationality. The account of possession provides novel contributions to debates about what determines what we ought to do, and the account of correctly responding to reasons provides novel contributions to debates about causal theories of reacting for reasons. After defending views about possession and correctly responding, Lord shows that the account of rationality can solve two difficult problems about rationality. The first is the New Evil Demon problem. The book argues that the account has the resources to show that internal duplicates necessarily have the same rational status. The second problem concerns the deontic significance of rationality. Recently it has been doubted whether we ought to be rational. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that the requirements of rationality are the requirements that we ultimately ought to comply with. If this is right, then rationality is of fundamental importance to our deliberative lives.

The new field of experimental philosophy has emerged as the methods of psychological science have been brought to bear on traditional philosophical issues. Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy is the place to go to see outstanding new work in the field. It features papers by philosophers, papers by psychologists, and papers co-authored by people in both disciplines. The series heralds the emergence of a truly interdisciplinary field in which people from different disciplines are working together to address a shared set of questions. This second volume in the series is divided into three sections that explore epistemology, moral and political philosophy, and metaphysics and mind.

The study of human intelligence features many points of consensus, but there are also many different perspectives. In this unique book Robert J. Sternberg invites the nineteen most highly cited psychological scientists in the leading textbooks on human intelligence to share their research programs and findings. Each chapter answers a standardized set of questions on the measurement, investigation, and development of intelligence - and the outcome represents a wide range of substantive and methodological emphases including psychometric, cognitive, expertise-based, developmental, neuropsychological, genetic, cultural, systems, and group-difference approaches. This is an exciting and valuable course book for upper-level students to learn from the originators of the key contemporary ideas in intelligence research about how they think about their work and about the field.