On Intelligence: A Biological Treatise on Intellectual Development, Expanded Edition

by Stephen J. Ceci

Overview

Ceci argues that traditional conceptions of intelligence ignore the role of society in shaping intelligence and underestimate the intelligence of non-Western societies. He puts forth a "bio-ecological" framework of individual differences in intellectual development that is intended to address some of the major deficiencies of extant theories of intelligence. The focus is on alternative interpretations of phenomena that emerge when implicit assumptions of intelligence researchers are challenged.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674634565
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/01/1996
Edition description:	Enlarged Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Stephen J. Ceci is Helen L. Carr Professor of Psychology at Cornell University.

Table of Contents

Preface, 1996

Preface to the Original Edition

Acknowledgments

PART 1: SOCIAL CONTEXT AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Why a Treatise on Intelligence?

Five Easy Facts

Old Wine in New Bottles?

Traditional Psychological Theories of Intelligence

About the Rest of This Book

2. Toward an Inductive Theory of Intellectual Complexity

Toward a Developmental Framework

Terminological Considerations

Elaborated Knowledge Structures Versus Cognitive Processes

Knowledge Versus Intelligence

3. Mismatches Between Intelligent Peformance and IQ

Cultural Anthropology

Grocery Shopping

Dairy Workers

!Kung San Hunters

Experimental Psychology

Cupcake Baking

Capturing Butterflies

City Manager

A Day at the Races

4. A Social-Organizational Analysis of Intellectual Development

Social Class and IQ

Motivational Values Inculcated Through Parenting

SAT Scores and Academic Achievement

Income and SATs: One Interpretation

Income and SATs: An Alternate Interpretation

The Terman Study of Genius

The Validity of IQ

Convergence from Recent Life Course Analyses

Thirtysomething: To Be Born Rich or Smart

5. The Impact of Schooling on Intelligence

Correlation Between IQ and Years in School

Influence of Summer Vacation on IQ

Continuous Impact of Schooling on IQ

Impact of Delayed Schooling on IQ

School Achievement versus Aptitude

Influence of Early Termination of Schooling on IQ

Influence of Northern Schooling on Black IQ

Influence of Early School Entry on Cognitive Development

Influence of Intergenerational Changes in Schooling

Quality of Schooling

Schooling and Information Processing

Perceptual Abilities

Concept Formation

Memory

Other Cognitive Skills

Taking Stock

PART 2: THE BIOECOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

6. The Role of Context in Shaping Multiple Intelligences

Contextualism and Intelligence

Cognitive Molecules Out of Context

Culture's Role

A Bioecological Theoretical Framework

Introducing the Bioecological View

Multiple Cognitive Potentials

Pitting g Against a Multiple Potential Perspective

Central Processing Capacity

The Problem with Factors

Contexts of Crystallization

Motives as Crystallizing Agents

Environmental Challenges

Knowledge versus Intelligence

Some Illustrative Anecdotes

Knowledge and Process in Symbiosis

7. A Model of Cognitive Complexity

Evaluating the Bioecological Framework vis—à—vis Classic Forms of Evidence: The Case of Heritability

Genetics

Methods of Estimating h2

The Stability, Nature, and Meaning of h2

The Assumption of Additivity

Differences Between Correlations and Means

Confounding Genetic and Ecological Sources of Shared Variance

8. The Fallacy: Biology = IQ = Intelligence = Singularity of Mind
= Real—World Success

Cross—Task Commonality

The Role of Task Complexity

g and job Success

Positive Manifold

Same—Different Judgments

The Role of Practice

Age of Aquisition and Memory

9. How Abstract Is Intelligence?

The Relationship Between Intelligence and Abstraction

Transfer Within and Across Domains

Abstractness Defined

The Role of Knowledge in Abstraction

Race and Abstraction: The Jensen Study

Generality

The Effect of Training on Transfer

Transfer and Cross-Task Correlations

The Problem of Problem Isomorphs

10. Taking Stock of the Options

Contrasting the Bioecological Framework with Existing Theories

Contextualist Theories

Information Processing Theory

Structural Theories: Piaget's Theory and Case's Theory

Case's Theory of Intellectual Development

Knowledge-based Theories of Intellectual Development

Theories of Multiple Intelligences

Sternberg1s Triarchic Theory

Modularity Theories

Caveat Lector

Epilogue

Endnotes

References

Subject Index

Editorial Reviews

A very ambitious book...Ceci himself eschews the word intelligence, preferring the term cognitively complex behavior...The efficiency of Ceci's cognitive processing of all this knowledge is unmatched. Certainly, if we equate intelligence with cognitively complex behavior, whatever Ceci's own feeling about the term, [this book] is probably the most intelligent book on the topic.

Applied Cognitive Psychology Journal - Carmi Schooler

An exciting book as well as an important one...It strikes a fatal blow to the idea that a construct of general intelligence can play an important role in our efforts to understand why people differ in their intellectual abilities.

British Journal of Educational Psychology - Michael J. A. Howe

Densely packed with important information and fascinating insights.

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly - Richard K. Wagner

Densely packed with important information and fascinating insights.
— Richard K. Wagner

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly

A very ambitious book...Ceci himself eschews the word intelligence, preferring the term cognitively complex behavior...The efficiency of Ceci's cognitive processing of all this knowledge is unmatched. Certainly, if we equate intelligence with cognitively complex behavior, whatever Ceci's own feeling about the term, [this book] is probably the most intelligent book on the topic.
— Carmi Schooler

Applied Cognitive Psychology Journal

An exciting book as well as an important one...It strikes a fatal blow to the idea that a construct of general intelligence can play an important role in our efforts to understand why people differ in their intellectual abilities.
— Michael J. A. Howe

British Journal of Educational Psychology