Handbook of Understanding and Measuring Intelligence

"...it is extremely useful and contemporary, covering among its five hundred pages, genetics, neuro-imaging and emotional intelligence. It also provides a good indicator of current psychological work in the area with empirical evidence and theory sitting alongside each other. The material on meta-cognition would, I suspect, be of most interest to philosophers, along with the more basic questions concerning the nature of memory and intelligence."
―PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY

"This volume provides an in-depth yet accessible and up-to-date review of the key topics pertinent to current intelligence research. This state-of-the-art summary about our theoretical understanding of human abilities and their measurement is of interest for researchers, practitioners, and advanced students in psychology, education, and related disciplines. It′s a great summary and a good read on a truly important topic."
―Dr. Heinz Holling, University of Muenster

The Handbook of Understanding and Measuring Intelligence provides an overview of recent studies on intelligence to help readers develop a sound understanding of results and perspectives in intelligence research. In this volume, editors Oliver Wilhelm and Randall W. Engle bring together a group of respected experts from two fields of intelligence research, cognition and methods, to summarize, review, and evaluate research in their areas of expertise. The chapters in this book present state-of-the-art examinations of a particular domain of intelligence research and highlight important methodological considerations, theoretical claims, and pervasive problems in the field.

The Handbook provides those with a broad interest in individual differences, cognitive abilities, intelligence, educational measurement, thinking, reasoning, or problem solving with a comprehensive description of the status quo and prospects of intelligence research. The book is divided into two parts that are intended to build upon and relate to one another. Part I, the cognitive section, explores several theoretical viewpoints on intelligence and Part II, the methodological section, addresses fundamental statistical problems and pragmatic assessment problems in measuring intelligence.

Key Features

• The volume editors provide a general introduction and conclude the book with an integrative epilogue.
• Contributors to this volume are experts in intelligence with a background in methodology or theory who offer current theoretical perspectives and recent empirical results, which are of interest to a broad audience.
• In addition to contributions from U.S. intelligence experts, authors from Europe and Australia provide an international perspective and articulate viewpoints and results not otherwise readily available to an American audience.
• Developments in theory are described with respect to their implications at the measurement level, and developments on the methodological level are evaluated with respect to their contribution to the theoretical understanding of intelligence.

The Handbook is designed for scholars and psychology professionals interested in intelligence, cognitive abilities, educational testing and measurement, reasoning, and problem solving. It can also be used by advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying intelligence or the psychology of individual differences. In addition, the Handbook will be a welcome addition to any academic library.

Oliver Wilhelm, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany. He earned his doctoral degree in 2000 from the Universeity of Mannheim and subsequently worked at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and at the University of Arizona in Tucson.  His research focuses on individual differences in working memory, reasoning, and mental speed.  Additional research interests are in intellectual engagement, openness for new experiences, and cognitive failures and how these traits relate to various abilities.  He is also doing experimental work on deductive reasoning and working memory.

Randall W. Engle received his Ph.D. in 1973 from Ohio State University, where his mentor was D.D. Wickens.  Following a 21 year tenure at the University of South Carolina, he moved to Atlanta, where he took the position of Professor and Chair of the School of Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  He has published numerous papers and book chapters exploring the properties of attention and working memory capacity and their relationship to intelligence.  Together with faculty colleagues across the globe, the Engle team, including former doctoral students and post docs, continues to pursue the nature of working memory capacity using micro-analytic experimental studies and macro-analytic factor analysis studies.