Discusses the concepts of paradigm shifts, multiple intelligences, and the librarian's role. Notes that whole language, exploratory and discovery learning, and collaborative and cooperative learning depend on the school library media program. Provides resources for students and teachers engaged in the "seven intelligences" approach to…

Two studies involving 89 children were conducted to evaluate the validity of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) with African American students undergoing special education evaluations. Results were highly correlated with previously determined IQs, and the factor structure of the WISC-III was generally supported.…

Reviews the controversy surrounding the work of Cyril Burt on the genetic contribution to mental ability and argues that the disparagement of Burt's results provides one of the most extraordinary cases of counterfeit charges in academic psychology. Suggesting genetic differences in brain size or intellect is politically incorrect. (SLD)

The posthumous condemnation of Cyril Burt destroyed his reputation and undermined his life's work on the genetic nature of differences in intelligence. Whether Burt falsified research findings or not, the real significance of the affair lies in what it teaches about scientific methodology and the fallibility of personal judgments. (SLD)

Etiology of high and low cognitive ability in adulthood was explored through multiple regression analysis of data from 302 pairs of Swedish twins (median age=65.6 years). Both high and low cognitive ability groups demonstrate significant group heritability, with shared rearing environment of relatively low importance. (SLD)

This study of 68 scientifically gifted Korean high school students indicated that males and females are more similar than different on mental health profiles. Both sexes were relatively free of maladjustment, with males scoring higher on self-criticism than females. Self-concept was correlated with intelligence but not with achievement.…

Dynamic assessment is presented as a method of measuring intellectual ability which addresses criticisms of traditional intelligence tests. Dynamic assessment can be used to identify children's learning abilities, determine how and/or what to teach, assess giftedness in minority and poor children, control for individual differences, and explore…

Development of an alternate form of Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices Test is described. Reliability analysis with 449 children of differing racial/ethnic backgrounds showed good reliability and comparable predictive validity. The alternate form is a promising research tool. (SLD)

According to Herrnstein and Murray's "The Bell Curve" (1994), public education cannot alter the economic, social, or political stratification of American society. Intelligence is supposedly being combined and concentrated, and there is no inexpensive, reliable method to raise IQ. Actually, the book justifies the economic status quo and a…

Delineates the current consensus regarding the nature and the development of intellectual ability. Examines when one would expect general abilities to moderate the relationship among domain-specific and other processes. Reviews recent studies in which general abilities were used as independent variables or covariates. Suggests that generally,…

Procedures recommended in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Third Edition) (WISC-III) manual for factorial estimation may be replaced by new methods using the computer and a spreadsheet program. Constants and formulas needed to draft a spreadsheet program for estimating the factors using WISC-III scaled scores are presented. (SLD)

This study of third-grade and fourth-grade children with (n=59) and without (n=57) learning disabilities found that LD students perceived themselves as less competent in the areas of intelligence, academic skills, behavior, and social acceptance. Contrary to expectations, subjects' self-perceptions were not affected by the choice of LD or general…

Includes abstracts of 18 special interest group (SIG) sessions. Highlights include natural language processing, information science and terminology science, classification, knowledge-intensive information systems, information value and ownership issues, economics and theories of information science, information retrieval interfaces, fuzzy thinking…

Calls for careful but unemotional criticism of "The Bell Curve." Notes that: three chapters that deal with the IQ-race relationship have received most critical attention; genetically based racial categories do not exist; disadvantaged minority-group students have achieved success in Catholic schools with high expectations of students;…

This article reports the results of using a three-layer back propagation artificial neural network to predict item difficulty in a reading comprehension test. Three classes of variables were examined: text structure, propositional analysis, and cognitive demand. Results demonstrate that the networks can consistently predict item difficulty. (JL)