In January, W. H. Brady Scholar Charles Murray stepped back from current education debates about reauthorization of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act and education funding in the president's budget to ask more fundamental questions about the goals that should shape American education in the future. This "On the Issues" is adapted from…

Critiques recent research on the effects of birth order on intelligence and personality, which found that the between-family design revealed that birth order negatively related to intelligence, while the within-family design revealed that birth order was unrelated to intelligence. Suggests that it may not be intelligence that co-varies with birth…

Critiques Rodgers et al.'s June 2000 research on the relation between birth order and intelligence, which suggests that it is a methodological illusion. Explains how the intellectual environment and the teaching function (whereby older children tutor younger ones) contribute to the growth of intellectual maturity, the first negatively and the…

This article discusses the innovative minority. Gifted students differ from the average students. There are those who argue that the differences are a matter merely of quantitative degree reference studies of IQ scores, or SAT scores, which are clearly quantitative scales, and point out that gifted students appear at the top level of these scales…

The purpose of this article is to disclose and comment upon some of the conceptual and empirical confusions that confront a revised concept of intelligence which sees intelligence as general skill(s) that can be directly taught rather than as a relatively fixed ability. Implications for teaching thinking skills are discussed. (IAH)

The question of how to integrate developmental (Piagetian) and psychometric conceptions and assessments of intelligence is considered. A solution which incorporates the contributions of each position--intelligence as forms and as traits--is offered. Premises and objectives of each tradition are reviewed and compared. Overlaps make synthesis…

Studies reporting predictions from assessments of infant recognition memory to later developmental performance and IQ are critiqued. Inelegancies in design, procedure, and analyses are noted. While this approach may have potential, its utility for practical or clinical purposes is still not demonstrated. (Author/RD)

Zajonc and Bargh's (EJ 241 537) application of the confluence model to six national data sets is critiqued. Extreme differences in intelligence levels are predicted between nations, including substantial retardation for some populations. Moreover, the parameter values used do not allow mental growth functions which are consistent with previous…

In this response to the critiques by Jensen and McVicker Hunt, we focus on the meaning of g, the permanence of effects produced by early education, and the educational significance of IQ gains produced by early education programs. New longitudinal data from our study presented. (Author/RD)

Ramey and Haskins report two findings of major importance: absence of decline in test scores and absence of mother-child correlation for treated children. Implications of these findings are discussed. (Author)

Jensen (1985) caused us to reexamine earlier findings. After correcting perceptual efficiency and executive systems measures for unreliability, original conclusions remain tenable. Control processes are factors in understanding race-related differences in intelligence. We do not deny the association of "speediness" but argue for a multidimensional…

This article responds to a critique of a study in which an ambitious program of thinking skills instruction was designed, implemented, and evaluated. Concepts of intelligence and thinking skills are explored, the relationship between the two is analyzed, and the impact of instruction on both is considered. (IAH)

This book chronicles the evolution of the child welfare movement of the early 20th century into the science of child development, from both the national perspective and the perspective of the field's best-known research center, the University of Iowa's Child Welfare Research Station. The book first explores the child welfare movement as it evolved…