Ungifted intelligence redefined

[...]... to understand intelligence became stronger In high school I read voraciously on the subject, took every type of IQ test I could find, and meticulously analyzed why some questions were more difficult than others Once I reached college, I embarked on a more formal, scientific journey to understand human intelligence As I learned everything I could about how psychologists measure human intelligence and... Would they be so quick to label their tests as intelligence tests? Would they fight their subjectivity and still come up with the same label, because they still believe that what they are capturing is the essence of human intelligence? Or would they see their tests a bit differently? Maybe they would hold different views about the development and nurturance of intelligence, and focus more research on how... aren’t being fair to the incredibly thoughtful and careful intelligence researchers who have worked very hard to try and discover the true nature of human intelligence They would be the first to admit that they are only talking about averages, or odds if you will They are fully aware outliers exist You certainly aren’t being fair to the applied intelligence researchers, who have done a fine job constructing... being labeled ungifted as well as the tremendous sense of victory and success I felt later when I defied everyone’s expectations of what was possible Through engaging in fascinating research on the subject of human intelligence, I was able to overcome my own obstacles and began to question the system that told me I shouldn’t have succeeded I began to question our entire understanding of human intelligence. .. practice is an ability, after all), including “general intelligence, ” “talent,” and “creativity.” In each case we will get our hands dirty as we try to understand what’s really going on beneath the labels Finally, in the last chapter, with all of the fascinating strands of human intelligence exposed, I will present you with my reconceptualization of human intelligence I believe the new definition best describes... everything I worked so hard to achieve I set out on my journey convinced that it was simply not possible to accurately measure a person’s intelligence But what I found surprised me I became so engrossed in the complex debates and methodologies used to investigate intelligence that I found myself, at times, forgetting my own past Then I would come across studies that clearly contradicted—even invalidated—my... often arbitrary label Even though scientists can reveal real, observable behaviors, the concept of intelligence has no fixed meaning Scientists, indeed all of us, interpret behaviors according to our own beliefs and experiences Therefore, it is worth taking a very close look at the meaning we give the word intelligence, ” for it has an immense impact on millions of lives Throughout this book I do my best... what is this thing, anyway? And why do psychologists call it intelligence? Who gave them the right to define and then own that term? Surely many of them do well on these standardized tests But just because they do well, does that mean that we must all accept that the thing they are measuring—which they are really good at—is the pinnacle of human intelligence? Why do we listen to them? Why do we take everything... Greatness is not born, but takes time to develop, and there are many paths to greatness Keep this big picture in mind as we take a journey through each of the pieces of the intelligence puzzle—beginning with the most traditional metric of intelligence, IQ * Although there is a growing consensus that this assumption is not true See E Charney, “Behavior Genetics and Post Genomics,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences... As developmental psychologist Robert Siegler, notes, “It is ironic that Binet’s contribution should be so strongly associated with reducing intelligence to a single number, the IQ score, when the recurring theme of his research was the remarkable diversity of intelligence. ”2 Binet was light-years ahead of his time His work on prose memory, eyewitness testimony, group pressure toward conformity, intrinsic . (800) 81 0-4 145, ext. 5000, or e-mail special.markets@perseusbooks.com. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 97 8-0 -4 6 5-0 255 4-1 (hbk.) ISBN: 97 8-0 -4 6 5-0 378 9-6 .