What are consequential world problems? As "grand societal challenges", one might define them as problems that affect a large number of people, perhaps even the entire planet, including problems such as climate change, distributive justice, world peace, world nutrition, clean air and clean water, access to education, and many more. The…

Lynn (2010) suggests that differences in average intelligence explain many of the differences observed across the Italian regions. This paper puts forward a methodological critique to his study, coupling it with an empirical test showing that Lynn's analysis is not sufficiently robust to support its conclusions. (Contains 2 tables.)

Flynn wrote a book devoted to the Flynn effect, featuring his theoretical explanation of why the intelligence of worldwide populations has apparently increased from generation to generation. The essence of his theorizing is that because of the societal impact of scientific technology, people of today are much more guided by abstract, rather than…

Currently, American schooling, driven by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and standardized tests, emphasizes development of intelligence. Because of this, teachers must heavily emphasize acquisition of foundational information (facts) in lectures, assessments, and of course, time-consuming test preparation, at the expense of intellect, that…

The state of research on intelligence is reviewed in an editorial. The author notes conceptual, measurement, and data analysis problems. Suggestions as to how research on intelligence can be improved are provided. (RD)

Although Piaget's theory remains the most impressive in its field, there are reasons for caution: its tenuous base in good data, overemphasis on failures or successes of logical structure as explanations of behavior, underemphasis on the possibility that much knowledge is socially constructed and transmitted, and the central but dubious tenet of…

Criticizes "The Bell Curve" for its lack of understanding of the philosophical nature of intelligence (and mind). Points out that various philosophical attempts to analyze the concept of intelligence are routinely ignored by empirical workers in the field of IQ testing because such philosophical work makes obvious the lack of connection…

The importance of a country's population as the carrier of its intellectual potential increases greatly in a postindustrial country, where the nation's intelligence, comprised of an aggregate of the intelligence of individuals, becomes the true engine and decisive factor of progress. Any loss of human resources in Russia, without regard to age and…

The author argues for an expanded notion of intellectual giftedness which would take into account a person's ability to deal with nonentrenched (unusual or strange) tasks and concepts. This conception of intelligence is seen to be closer to that of creativity. Measurement problems are cited. (CL)

Two nonentrenched tasks are described, one requiring projection into the future of states of objects, the other requiring complex anological reasoning where multiple terms of analogies can be replaced by alternative answer options. Some speculations are made about the implications of these results for educational theory and practice. (Author/GK)

Information processing research offers a solution to the ambiguity of many concepts in cognitive psychology. The author's definition of intelligence and the structure-of-intellect model offer a systematic collection of rigorously and operationally defined concepts. New evidence for discriminability of the model categories and views of memory and…

In a discussion of intellectual giftedness, the author describes the main characteristics that differentiate information processing theories from psychometric theories. Interrelationships between components and factors are considered, and implications of the theory for the training of the gifted are pointed out. (SB)

Argues that Herrnstein and Murray's cognitive stratification is not intrinsically ominous, since context determines its meaning; their "intelligence" data actually measures educational achievement; environmental effects are underestimated; and analyses and social policy recommendations are bound to the U.S. context. Concludes that…

The possibility is considered that research on intelligence is entering or is about to enter a time of crisis. First, it is suggested that the decline of the psychometric paradigm as the primary means for studying intelligence was due in part to the failure of users of the paradigm to meet in a highly successful way four challenges that confronted…

Sifts through confusing intelligence theories, arguing that intelligence is a combination of influences involving power, tactics, and content. Good thinking is an unnatural act demanding evenhanded reasoning, problem finding (versus solving), and knowledge as invention. Discusses thinking frames guiding thought processes and the implications for…