Numerous functions cognitive skills and behaviors are associated with intelligence yet
decades of research has yielded little consensus on its definition. Emerging from often
conflicting studies is the provocative idea that intelligence evolved as an adaptation humans
needed to keep up with - and survive in - challenging new environments. The Handbook of
Intelligence addresses a broad range of issues relating to our cognitive and linguistic past.
It is the first full-length volume to place intelligence in an evolutionary cultural framework
tracing the development of the human mind exploring differences between humans and other
primates and addressing human thinking and reasoning about its own intelligence and its uses.
The works of pioneering thinkers - from Plato to Darwin Binet to Piaget Luria to Weachsler -
are referenced to illustrate major events in the evolution of theories of intelligence leading
to the current era of multiple intelligences and special education programs. In addition it
examines evolutionary concepts in areas as diverse as creativity culture neurocognition
emotional intelligence and assessment. Featured topics include: The evolution of the human
brain from matter to mind Social competition and the evolution of fluid intelligence Multiple
intelligences in the new age of thinking Intelligence as a malleable construct From traditional
IQ to second-generation intelligence tests The evolution of intelligence including
implications for educational programming and policy. The Handbook of Intelligence is an
essential resource for researchers graduate students clinicians and professionals in
developmental psychology assessment testing and evaluation language philosophy personality
and social psychology sociology and developmental biology.
