IQ and Human Intelligence

by N.J. Mackintosh

The study and measurement of human intelligence is one of the most controversial subjects in psychology. For much of its history, the focus has been on differences between people, what it means for one individual to be more intelligent than the other, and how such differences might have
arisen. With the emphasis on these issues, the efforts to understand the general nature of intelligence have been obscured.
The author provides clear, comprehensive, and extremely readable introduction to this difficult subject. In addition to a discussion of the traditional topics raised by IQ tests, this book attempts to bring the theory and data of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience to bear on some of
these other, equally important scientific questions.

Genres: Psychology, Science, Nonfiction, Neuroscience, Education, Textbooks

419 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Darnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very readable for a textbook. For the most part, it seems scrupulously interested in data, which means that it often ends sections with "We're not sure" conclusions. Even though the book is fairly old, it seems like our understanding hasn't advanced much since then.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this history of IQ tests and review of what is actually known about human intelligence very interesting. The book is a text for psychology majors.
What is most surprising is that after 100+ years of work by psychologists and psychometricians, very little is really known. There is a great deal of controversy around the subject and a lot of political correctness over some things that are known.
The main issue is nature versus nurture. To what extent are differences in intelligence due to genes and what part due to who individuals are raised and taught.
A big problem here is that there are no known features of the brain that correlate with intelligence, so the answer to the question remains murky. The balance of the results suggest that genes are most important, but environment is also quite important.
It is known from hundreds of studies with very large samples that African-Americans have average IQ's 15 points below that of U.S. Caucasians. This is a huge difference and the reason is unknown.

[mansi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite structured given the paucity of textbooks on intelligence. I still wish there was a book like Beck's for the intelligence domain as well. But this was a good read nevertheless, although after a while it was hard to get through.

[Adam Kessel · Rating 2 out of 5]

First part of the book, describing different elements of IQ tests and relations to cognitive functions was fair. But the authors treatment of behavioral genetics, group differences and environmental influences is not driven by facts and research, but own opinions (politically correct) and speculation.

I recommend "Human Intelligence" (Hunt, 2010) instead.