Intelligence Books - Page 9

Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence

Gary Lynch, Richard Granger

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Palgrave Macmillan Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $10.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Medicine -> Internal Medicine -> Neurology -> Neuroscience
Subjects -> Medicine -> Specialties -> Psychiatry -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Is bigger better? 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Summary
Granger and Lynch have done an excellent job of explaining brain evolution; how the human brain evolved and adapted over millions of years. There are many theories out there of how our brains came to be and this summarizes the research very well. The book revolves around an interesting but controversial finding of a race of humans that had bigger brains than we did. Granger and Lynch manage to explain the controversy well and use this as a starting point to think about what it means to have bigger brains.

Audience
If you want to understand how brains evolved read this book. Don't let the controversies around the discoveries stop you. I have read many books on neuroscience and brain evolution and this book provides one of the best explanations of brain evolution.

Details
Granger and Lynch use the discovery of the Boksops, a race of humans that possibly had bigger brains then we do to explain how our brains evolved. They explain the controversies and background around the discovery and why it was shunned by the establishment. BUT this book is so much more than just about the boksops. The book delves into the meaning of bigger brains and the evolution of the brains from early mamals to homo sapiens and beyond. Granger and Lynch don't shy away from the controversy and provide new angles on the subject. This is a fascinating area of research and it adds a new dimension to how brains work. Don't let human-centric chauvinism distract you from understanding the human brain.

Take Aways
If you want to understand the brain more, what it means to have bigger brains and how it relates to intelligence, then pick up this book. I wish the book was marketed differently and it didn't emphasize the controversial finding of the Boksops, since it distracts from the fact that this is a great book on an important area of brain research. Granger and Lynch have done an excellent job of writing one of the best explanations of brain evolution and what it means to have big brains. Read, think and enjoy.

Kes Sampanthar
Inventor of ThinkCube

Editorial Review:

In this groundbreaking look at the evolution of our brains, eminent neuroscientists Gary Lynch and Richard Granger uncover the mysteries of the outsize intelligence of our ancestors, who had bigger brains than humans living today. Weaving together history, science, and the latest theories of artificial intelligence, Lynch and Granger demystify the complexities of our brains, and show us how our memory, cognition, and intelligence actually function, as well as what mechanisms in the brain can potentially be enhanced, improving on the current design. Author of The Emotional Brain, Joseph LeDoux praised it as "provocative and fascinating," and, writing in the New Scientist, Willian Calvin called it "a popular account of how brains enlarge, in both evolutionary and developmental terms" and "a much needed book."

The Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking

Kevin Hogan

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Pelican Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $9.45

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 77 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Everyone needs this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Kevin Hogan is a great storyteller that makes something as complicated as Persuasion techniques seem easy. His humor and dedication to the reader in presenting the information manner that is easy to understand is greatly appreciated. I highly recommend this book to any one trying to gain a competitive edge. The section in the book explaining where to sit in a resturant is worth the price of the book alone! Priceless.

Editorial Review:

This is an insightful and intelligent guide to the powerful tools, strategies, and techniques of persuasion.Persuasion is one of the most powerful social tools a person can have, but how can you direct others to your way of thinking in an ethically acceptable manner? Understanding precisely what they are thinking is the first step.Using proven techniques from a variety of disciplines - including hypnosis, nuerolinguistic programming, and even sales training - "The Psychology of Persuasion" teaches you everything you need to know about this powerful tool.Armed with this knowledge, you can begin your journey to truly understand why we do things - and how to persuade others to your way of thinking.

Searching For Memory: The Brain, The Mind, And The Past

Daniel L. Schacter

List Price: $27.00 By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $1.12

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Cognitive psychology of memory 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 23 people found this review helpful.

this is the best review of the cognitive psychology of memory, by one of the leading experts in the field. I personally did not enjoy the artistic aspest of the book, but many say it was complementing. Now there are much better cognitive neuroscience books on memory -Kandel and Squires books, Steven Roses, among others- but as for the psychological aspects, this book stands above all others. At times it reads too much like a collection of case studies, but few would deny that lesion studies have contribuited a lot to an understanding of the brain/mind.
Most of the memory field is covered: recogntion vs. recall, implicit vs. explicit, episodic vs. procedural, short -long term, working memory, genral,emotional, semantic, etc..... but there is also a welcome and thorough discussion of false and recovered memories. In no other field can one see better the imediateimpact that cognitive psychology of memory has on legal and social issues. Schacter effectively explains everything we know about the phenomenon. As for the other themes, adequate and sufficient reviews are given. I personally would have liked a bit more of neuroscience, but it is a great read nontheless. There is also not much mention of the relationship between memory and other higher cognitive processes, like consciousness (a good place for speculation) or attention. But Schacter sticks to what is known, and does it well.
AS an introduction to any aspect of memory studies, few texts are better than this one. But I would tell anyone interested to also read other Schacter books, as well as more pure psychology and neurological texts on the subject. (see Seven Sins of Memory by the same author, Kandel and Squires Memory:from Minds to Molecules and Roses The Making of Memory among others).

Editorial Review:

Memory. There may be nothing more important to human beings than our ability to enshrine experience and recall it. While philosophers and poets have elevated memory to an almost mystical level, psychologists have struggled to demystify it. Now, according to Daniel Schacter, one of the most distinguished memory researchers, the mysteries of memory are finally yielding to dramatic, even revolutionary, scientific breakthroughs. Schacter explains how and why it may change our understanding of everything from false memory to Alzheimer’s disease, from recovered memory to amnesia with fascinating firsthand accounts of patients with striking—and sometimes bizarre—amnesias resulting from brain injury or psychological trauma.

Drawing on the Artist Within: An Inspirational and Practical Guide to Increasing Your Creative Powers

Betty Edwards

Amazon Price: $12.38 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fireside Amazon Marketplace: 113 new & used starting at $0.47

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Artists, A-Z -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Artists, A-Z -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Drawing -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

AH-HA! I SEE IT NOW!

Everyone has experienced that joyful moment when the light flashes on -- the Ah-Ha! of creativity.

Creativity. It is the force that drives problem-solving, informs effective decision-making and opens new frontiers for ambition and intelligence. Those who succeed have learned to harness their creative power by keeping that light bulb turned on.

Now, Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, the million-copy best-seller that proved all people can draw well just as they can read well, has decoded the secrets of the creative process to help you tap your full creative potential and apply that power to everyday problems. How does Betty Edwards do this? Through the power of drawing -- power you can harness to see problems in new ways.

Through simple step-by-step exercises that require no special artistic abilities, Betty Edwards will teach you how to take a new point of view, how to look at things from a different perspective, how to see the forest and the trees, in short, how to bring your visual, perceptual brainpower to bear on creative problem-solving.

You will learn how the creative process progresses from stage to stage and how to move your own problem-solving through these key steps:

* First insight
* Saturation
* Incubation
* Illumination (the Ah-Ha!)
* Verification

Whether you are a business manager, teacher, writer, technician, or student, you'll find Drawing on the Artist Within the most effective program ever created for tapping your creative powers. Profusely illustrated with hundreds of instructional drawings and the work of master artists, this book is written for people with no previous experience in art.

Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment (Essentials of Psychological Assessment)

Dawn P. Flanagan, Samuel O. Ortiz

List Price: $34.95 By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $18.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Quickly acquire the knowledge and skills you need to confidently conduct Cross-Battery Assessment

The CHC (Cattell-Horn-Carroll)-based Cross-Battery approach is a time-efficient assessment method grounded solidly within contemporary psychometric theory and research. The CHC Cross-Battery Assessment systematically integrates tests from one of the major intelligence batteries (WISC-III, WAIS-III, WPPSI-R, DAS, K-ABC, KAIT, WJ-R/III, CAS, Leiter-R, and UNIT), with tests from other cognitive batteries or supplemental cognitive ability tests, enabling mental health professionals to expand their traditional assessments to include important abilities that are not measured by traditional test series. This new approach also includes guidelines for assessing the cognitive capabilities of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals.

Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment includes widespread coverage of the key cognitive test batteries, expert assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the tests, valuable advice on clinical applications, and illustrative case reports. The book also includes practical interpretation worksheets and summary sheets for anyone who wants to learn how to conduct cross-battery assessment.

Like all the volumes in the Essentials of Psychological Assessment series, this book is designed to help busy mental health practitioners quickly acquire the knowledge and skills they need to make optimal use of psychological assessment instruments. Each concise chapter features numerous callout boxes highlighting key concepts, bulleted points, and extensive illustrative material, as well as test questions that help you to gauge and reinforce your grasp of the information covered.

Other titles in the Essentials of Psychological Assessment series:

Essentials of WAIS-III Assessment

Essentials of CAS Assessment

Essentials of Forensic Psychological Assessment

Essentials of Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II Assessment

Essentials of WISC-III and WPPSI-R Assessment

Essentials of Millon Inventories Assessment

Essentials of WAIS-III Assessment

Essentials of CAS Assessment

Essentials of Forensic Psychological Assessment

Essentials of Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II Assessment

Essentials of WISC-III and WPPSI-R Assessment

Essentials of Millon Inventories Assessment

The Society of Mind

Marvin Minsky

List Price: $22.45 By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 73 new & used starting at $0.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Behavioral Sciences -> Cognitive Psychology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Understanding how the mind works 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a very unusual book. 270 chapters of one page grouped under 30 headings. Minsky tries to figure out how the mind works, by splitting what it does in one page very interesting bits. The discipline of one subject per page is unusual but effective. The brain is recognised as enormously complicated, but not so complicated that nothing can be understood about it. In fact it can only be understood by understanding its many different bits. Minsky built the first "randomly wired neural network learning machine" the SMRAC Such a type of machine has some kind of intelligence and some learning capabilities. Marvin Minsky is one of the pioneers of "artificial intelligence". He found that to make these machines work intelligently it was useful to figure out how the brain solved the challenges of for example seeing in a useful way. To understand those brain processes Minsky delved into the workings of evolution.He found that you can learn a lot by figuring out how evolution in different steps increased brain capabilities. For example: why are we much more capable to remember faces of people rather than their names? Simply because vision is much older than language. Or why do people have strong egocentric tendencies? That is the result of a child having to learn how to survive. Why blind desire for prestige, money and sex? Our shared ancestry with chimpanzees etc
To me surprisingly the book contains many useful rules that can make you more effective. For example if you want to convince somebody it is better to use parallel than serial arguments. A serial argument is more vulnerable because if one link in the chain is weak you lose. Another example. "Virtually any problem will be easier to solve the more one learns about the context world in which that problem occurs". Finally "Whatever happens, where or when, we're prone to wonder who or what's responsible?" That is why people are uncomfortable inside and outside organisations if they cannot find out who is responsible.
An unusual and very stimulating book.

Editorial Review:

Marvin Minsky -- one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT -- gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?"

Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter -- on a self-contained page -- corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, The Society of Mind is an adventure in imagination.

The Courage to Create

Rollo May

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton & Company Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $4.76

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Creativity
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Creativity & Genius

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

"Without courage our fidelity becomes conformism." 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Courage to Create has been on my to-read pile for quite some time. Strongly recommended by several friends, I was very curious to read it. This despite an admitted suspicion of books that address creativity from a psychological perspective.

I found the book interesting and relatively clearly written. May resisted the temptation to pad out the work, and its 140 pages are perfectly adequate to make its point. The book is divided into seven sections; they run from "The Courage to Create" to "A Passion for Form".

I found the sections relevant to creativity and the unconscious the least interesting parts of the book. This may be, in part, because the book was early enough (1975) that many of the concepts in those chapters feel a little bit like open doors. Courage to Create has been a very influential book and over the years a number of its themes have been picked up and expanded on-- sometimes in a more complete way. I was quite interested in May's thoughts linking form to creativity. Again, they weren't new ideas, but I found he articulated them clearly and with some perspectives that I hadn't considered until reading the book.

Despite my reservations I would still recommend the book to readers interested in the roots of creation and creative ability. It isn't a lengthy read, and requires more time for consideration than it does for the actual reading.

Editorial Review:

"A lucid and highly concentrated analysis of the creative process. . . . [May] describes the requisites for the creative encounter and the moment of the 'breakthrough'."—Saturday Review

What if imagination and art are not, as many of us might think, the frosting on life, but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms, rather than the other way around? In this trenchant volume, Rollo May helps all of us find those creative impulses that, once liberated, offer new possibilities for achievement.

Human Motivation

Robert E. Franken

Amazon Price: $43.95 List Price: $43.95 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: Thomson Brooks/Cole Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $0.63

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Infotrac deal is actually worth it 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Hard to evaluate a textbook, but this one I have an opinion about. The text itself is pretty standard fare, but the online features really drive the concepts home. I am in a CD-ROM/Distance Learning Course and find that the extra "browsing" really suites my learning style and doesn't feel like hard work. I enjoy the supplemental reading and it is really helping me with sources for my midterm. At first, I balked at the price, but now I am really thankful for the online section.

Editorial Review:

This Sixth Edition provides a thorough introduction to the basic facts and major theories of human motivation. Throughout the book, the author addresses the types of questions that often arise, such as "Why are some people more organized than others?" and "Why do people dream?" In his exploration of day-to-day human motivation, Franken provides a topical organization that shows students how biology, learning, and cognition interact with individual differences to produce human behavior.

Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten: Build a Better Brain and Increase IQ up to 30 Points

David Perlmutter, Carol Colman

Amazon Price: $16.29 List Price: $23.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Morgan Road Books Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $10.23

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Women's Health -> Pregnancy & Childbirth -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Between birth and age five, your child has up to thirty IQ points at stake. Scientists now know that the human brain is undergoing a constant and dramatic transformation in the first years of life. During this peak time of development, every activity and experience leaves an indelible mark on your baby’s brain, for better or worse. The right kind of stimulation and nutrition will create connections in the brain that promote intelligence and raise IQ. The wrong kinds of activities and foods can stifle intellectual development, destroy brain cells, and leave your child more vulnerable to learning or behavior problems down the road. So, what can you do during the first five years to ensure that your child is primed to excel?

The good news is that raising a smarter child is easier than you think. It doesn’t require making an investment in expensive equipment or high priced tutors. It’s as simple as playing the right games, serving the right foods, and maintaining a brain-enhancing environment in your home by eliminating common household toxins. In Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten by Dr. David Perlmutter, you’ll learn easy and highly effective strategies that can vastly improve your child’s brain power and reduce his or her chances of developing ADD and ADHD. For example, you can:

• Stimulate Memory: Changing a component on the over-the-crib mobile every week makes the baby compare what was there before to what’s there now, reinforcing memory pathways in the brain that are critical for learning.

• Spread out those shots: Schedule more frequent trips to the pediatrician for vaccinations, so that fewer shots are administered at once. Flooding the immune system with a cocktail of different vaccines can damage the nervous system.

• Get rid of toxins: Protecting a child from neurotoxins found in foods, toys and even baby bottles can help preserve precious IQ points.

Dr. Perlmutter provides a scientifically backed food and supplement plan for children and nursing mothers and details the many brain-building activities that you can do with your child. In addition, he reveals the numerous toys and household products that contain harmful, brain-damaging toxins and shows how to identify and combat common childhood problems like ADD and food allergies that may affect your child’s development.

Your job over the first five years is to help your child build the best brain possible. With Dr. Perlmutter’s help, you can mine the countless opportunities you have each day to make your child smarter, happier and better prepared to excel.

Cognitive Psychology

Barry F. Anderson

By: Academic Press Inc Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $1.89

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Very dry, like the desert 3 out of 5 stars.
12 of 17 people found this review helpful.

The main objective of the text is to advance an information processing approach to mind in conjunction with functional neuroscience. With that in mind, one shouldn't expect a historical treatment of the field in this text. Anderson is an excellent author, and he makes his points clear (if somewhat over-simplified). CP provides anyone interested in human learning and cognition, either from a strictly theoretical standpoint or a practical standpoint, an excellent resource for thinking about the nature and complexity of what we do when we think (in the broadest sense of the word). The chapter on problem solving is particularly interesting and will propel one to reconsider the significance of our descriptions of things that exist. See also "functional fixedness"

Editorial Review:

An acclaimed text offering a systematic and accessible presentation of the theoretical foundations of higher mental processes. Addressing both the information processing and the cognitive neuroscience approaches to the field, the book clearly demonstrates knowledge representation as the central issue around which cognitive psychology is organized. The new edition has been thoroughly updated throughout.