Book review of Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined

Just a couple weeks ago I had a discussion with several psychologists and neurologists who seemed to share the opinion that “brain fitness” is a meaningless concept and pursuit. On the one hand, they thought, intelligence is a fixed trait and no intervention has shown so far to reliably increase it. On the other hand, nothing has been shown to prevent the pathology of Alzheimer’s Disease. According to this mindset…why bother? Well, what if such mental framework was wrong or, worse, misleading? Our own efforts at SharpBrains are geared towards bringing a new perspective based on neuropsychology, cognitive and affective neuroscience, and actual current evidence. What seems to matter in our jobs and lives is not so much a general trait called “intelligence,” or the presence or absence of AD pathology, as the range of brain functions that serve as important “mental muscles” needed to be “fit” for modern life: attention, working memory, information processing, emotional self-regulation… No doubt, it is going to take a while for this new culture to take hold. The good news: here comes a new book that does an excellent job at debunking old theories and practices around intelligence and development. Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined (424 pages; June 2013), written by cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, provides a comprehensive, detailed and often surprising view into how the concept of IQ was developed in the 19th century, and how it spread afterwards...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neurologists Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning book brain cognitive-skills fluid reasoning gifted growth-mindset intellectual intelligence intelligence tests IQ learning disabilities Lifelong-learning self-regulation un Source Type: blogs