Understanding Intelligence

Ken Richardson is a former senior lecturer at the Open University, UK, and an independent researcher, consultant, and author. After completing a doctorate in brain biochemistry he became interested in cognitive systems, chiefly developmental, and how these areas, as intelligent systems, are inter-related through evolution.

• 1. Testing, testing; 2. In the genes?; 3. Intelligent systems; 4. Intelligence evolving; 5. Intelligent development; 6. Intelligent machine?; 7. Becoming human; 8. Individual differences; 9. Promoting intelligence.

'Ken Richardson has written a masterful book about intelligence. In contrast to what leading behavioural geneticists and psychometrically oriented psychologists see as the moderately or highly heritable trait of general intelligence (IQ), Richardson explains why psychometric and behavioural genetic arguments fail, and how intelligence should be seen as a socially acquired characteristic. A longstanding expert on intelligence, he writes in a manner that can be understood by both academic and general readers. I strongly recommend this book as an accessible and important counterweight to mainstream descriptions of intelligence in the fields of psychology and behavioural genetics, and in the media.' Jay Joseph, Psy.D., psychologist and author, Oakland, California, USA