IQ's Corner APA book nook reviews 6-10-08

A new issue of PsycCRITIQUES is available online.

• If you would like subscription information, please go to http://www.apa.org/psyccritiques.
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June 11, 2008
Volume 53, Issue 24

Book Reviews
1.	The University Department of Psychiatry in Munich: From Kraepelin and His Predecessors to Molecular Psychiatry Authors: Hanns Hippius, Hans-Jürgen Möller, Norbert Müller, and Gabriele Neundörfer-Kohl Reviewer: Michael J. Root
2.	Serial Murder and the Psychology of Violent Crimes Author: Richard N. Kocsis (Ed.) Reviewers: Robert K. Welsh and Joseph D. Muto
3.	The Inner World of a Suicidal Youth: What Every Parent and Professional Should Know Author: Millie Osborne Reviewer: Viola Mecke
4.	Psychological Processes in International Negotiations: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives Authors: Francesco Aquilar and Mauro Galluccio Reviewer: Scott W. Brown
5.	Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss—and the Myths and Realities of Dieting Author: Gina Kolata Reviewer: Lisa Fitzgibbons
6.	Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Childhood OCD: It's Only a False Alarm: Therapist Guide Authors: John Piacentini, Audra Langley, and Tami Roblek Reviewer: Michael F. Sunich
7.	Emerging and Young Adulthood: Multiple Perspectives, Diverse Narratives Author: Varda Konstam Reviewer: Ellen L. Nuffer
8.	Consumer Culture, Identity and Well-Being: The Search for the “Good Life” and the “Body Perfect” Authors: Helga Dittmar, with contributions from Emma Halliwell, Robin Banerjee, Ragna Garoarsdottir, and Judita Jankovic Reviewers: Candice R. Hollenbeck and George M. Zinkhan
9.	Conduct Disorder and Offending Behavior in Young People: Findings From Research Authors: Kristin Liabø and Joanna Richardson Reviewer: Scott Shimabukuro
10.	Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Competitive Edge Authors: Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef, and Bruce J. Avolio Reviewer: Stephen A. Truhon
Video Review
11.	Dependent Personality Disorder with Robert F. Bornstein Reviewer: Gregory Mavrides
Film Review
12.	3:10 to Yuma Director: James Mangold Reviewer: Christopher J. Ferguson

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, books, book reviews, APA

Encephalon 47 brain blog carnival available

Latest from this brain blog carnival at link below.

http://channeln.blogspot.com/2008/06/encephalon-47.html

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Organized mind

Interesting post regarding the "organized mind" over at the ENL blog.

http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/aha-organized-mind.html

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Traing working memory increases fluid intelligence (Gf): New research

Training working memory can increase fluid intelligence (Gf). Wow. Hmmmmm?

I've had a number of people forward the following abstract to me. After reading the article I now see why. The article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reports that a working memory training intervention produced positive transfer effects in fluid intelligence (Gf). Cognitive ability training research suffers from a paucity of studies that demonstrate positive transfer to other tasks/domains that differ from the training medium. This study also adds additional strong evidence to the link between working memory and Gf.

Cool stuff. A must read. Much has been written about the link between working memory and Gf. Here are some prior related posts touching on the topics of working memory and Gf.

I need to take time to read this study in depth before commenting more. I've only skimmed the abstract at this point in time. Maybe others can read and comment.

Jaeggi, S., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J. & Perrig, W. (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences, 105 (19), 6829-6833. (click to read)


Abstract

• Fluid intelligence (Gf) refers to the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge. Gf is critical for a wide variety of cognitive tasks, and it is considered one of the most important factors in learning. Moreover, Gf is closely related to professional and educational success, especially in complex and demanding environments. Although performance on tests of Gf can be improved through direct practice on the tests themselves, there is no evidence that training on any other regimen yields increased Gf in adults. Furthermore, there is a long history of research into cognitive training showing that, although performance on trained tasks can increase dramatically, transfer of this learning to other tasks remains poor. Here, we present evidence for transfer from training on a demanding working memory task to measures of Gf. This transfer results even though the trained task is entirely different from the intelligence test itself. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the extent of gain in intelligence critically depends on the amount of training: the more training, the more improvement in Gf. That is, the training effect is dosage-dependent. Thus, in contrast to many previous studies, we conclude that it is possible to improve Gf without practicing the testing tasks themselves, opening a wide range of applications.

WJ III discrepancy base rate information

Recently a question was asked on the NASP listserv on how to find "base rate" information regarding WJ III discrepancy scores. Barb Wendling, a colleague and friend, posted a very thorough response+. I decided to make her well-written explanation below...so it can be readily available for future reference. Kudos to Barb [Conflict of interest statement- I'm a coauthor of the WJ III].

Discrepancy Norms

• The conorming of the WJ III ACH and the WJ III COG made it possible to compute discrepancy scores for each individual in the norming sample and then to prepare discrepancy norms using that information. For both the variation and discrepancy procedures, "ACTUAL" discrepancy norms in contrast to "PSEUDO" discrepancy norms are used to determine the significance and frequency of any variations or discrepancies (see report at following link for additional explanation:). These discrepancy norms offer several advantages to practitioners. First, both the cognitive and achievement batteries were normed on the same large, nationally representative sample, eliminating errors from unknown differences that exist when using tests based on different norm samples. Second, the correlation coefficients are known between ability and achievement at all ages so it is not necessary to estimate and make a correction for the amount of regression based on a few correlations and a limited sample. Third, practitioners can evaluate the significance of a discrepancy by using either the percentile rank of the discrepancy (Discrepancy PR) or the difference between the achievement score and the predicted achievement score in standard error of estimate units (Discrepancy SD).

• Discrepancy percentile rank. This score defines the percent of the population that has a particular size discrepancy between the actual and predicted scores. The Discrepancy PR is a norm-based estimate of the BASE RATE of a particular discrepancy in the population. Unlike base rates offered by other tests which are typically based on cross-sectional data, the WJ III provides more precision by reporting the information by subgroups (same age or grade) within the norm sample.

• Discrepancy standard deviation. This score reflects the distance that the examinee’s score is above or below the average score for age or grade mates. The Discrepancy SD allows the criterion of significance to be defined in terms of the standard error of the estimate. Commonly, a Discrepancy SD of +/-1.5 or greater is selected as being significant. A discrepancy of this magnitude would occur approximately 6 out of 100 times. Practitioners may, however, select a different level of significance ranging from +/- 1.0 to +/-2.3 when using the various WJ III software scoring programs.

Brain rules

Mindblog has some comments regarding the popular press book "Brain Rules"

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Newsweek article: EF is new IQ?

Click link to read Newsweek article "Is Executive Functioning the new IQ."

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IQs Corner APA book nook reviews

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A new issue of PsycCRITIQUES is available online. If you would like subscription information, please go to http://www.apa.org/psyccritiques. If you have a subscription June 4, 2008 Volume 53, Issue 23 Book Reviews 1. Intuition in Judgment and Decision Making Authors: Henning Plessner, Cornelia Betsch, and Tilmann Betsch (Eds.) Reviewer: Stuart W. G. Derbyshire 2. Unlocking the Potential of Patients With ADHD: A Model for Clinical Practice Author: Vincent J. Monastra Reviewer: George M. Kapalka 3. Accounting for Rape: Psychology, Feminism and Discourse Analysis in the Study of Sexual Violence Authors: Irina Anderson and Kathy Doherty Reviewer: Jill Cermele 4. Science of Memory: Concepts Authors: Henry L. Roediger III, Yadin Dudai, and Susan M. Fitzpatrick (Eds.) Reviewer: David A. Gallo 5. Chronic Illness in Children and Adolescents Authors: Ronald T. Brown, Brian P. Daly, and Annette U. Rickel Reviewer: Mark Connelly 6. Whole Person Healthcare Author: Ilene A. Serlin (Ed.) Reviewer: Luis Montesinos 7. Correctional Psychiatry: Practice Guidelines and Strategies Authors: Ole J. Thienhaus and Melissa Piasecki (Eds.) Reviewer: Robert K. Ax 8. Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness Author: Christopher Lane Reviewer: Susan H. Houston 9. Sensuality and Sexuality Across the Divide of Shame Author: Joseph D. Lichtenberg Reviewer: Michelle Y. Smart 10. How Children Learn to Learn Language Author: Lorraine McCune Reviewer: F. Richard Ferraro Point/Counterpoint 11. Response to "An Ecological Perspective on School Reform" (A Review of Learning Places: A Field Guide for Improving the Context of Schooling) Reviewers: Clif St. Germain and Michael Fullan 12. Response to Fullan and St. Germain Reviewer: Ellen Nuffer Film Review 13. Trainwreck: My Life as an Idoit Director: Tod Harrison Williams Reviewer: Kathleen E. Cook

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IQs Corner Recent Literature of Interest: 6-3-08

This weeks recent literature of interest can be found by clicking here.

Technorati tags: teaching tool. psychology. educational psychology. school psychology.

Tip-of-the-tongue info.

Thanks to Mind Hacks for the post regarding the tip-of-the-tongue
phenomena.

http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/06/what_the_tip_of_the_.html

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Brain fitness report accolades

More deserved praise for Sharp Brains recent brain fitness software market report. Check link below.

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Brain Blogging #34

Brain Blogging brain carnival #34 is now available.

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How brain scans work

Thanks Mind Hacks for this post that explains how brain scans work.

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CHC and math research synthesis project

Yesterday I posted an update regarding the CHC & Reading research synthesis project . Today I'm pleased to make the same announcement for the CHC & Math research synthesis project. It has been updated in a manner similar to that described yesterday (for the reading project).

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, intelligence, IQ, IQ scores, math, dyscalculia, achievement, school learning, CHC, Cattell-Horn-Carroll, IQs Corner

Alzheimers Q and A

FYI. Questions and answers about Alzheimers in NY TIMES. Click link to
read.

http://health.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-alzheimers-qa.html?WT.mc_id=HL-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M039-EM-0408-PH&WT.mc_ev=click&mkt=HL-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M039-EM-0408-PH

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CHC and reading research synthesis project update

The CHC & Reading research synthesis project has been updated (click here for original post and description). Aside from some minor spelling edits, the major changes are a number of significant additions:

• Inclusion of my own ongoing CHC-achievement correlates meta-analysis project results
• Inclusion of other non-CHC organized research synthesis article results in the synthesis (e.g., Shaywitz et al., 2008 Annual Review of Psychology article)
• Links to on-line Power Point presentations from NASP 2008 that provide a context and summary of the results in the larger synthesis "big picture."
  
• A grand summary table (for those who prefer a linear/tabular summary versus the Gv-oriented clickable Mind Map navigation of the current page).

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, intelligence, IQ, IQ scores, reading, dyslexia, achievement, school learning, CHC, Cattell-Horn-Carroll, IQs Corner

Did Spearman abandon g? Guest post by Ruben Lopez

The following is a guest post by Ruben Lopez, school psychologist with the Moreno Valley Unified School District, CA and member of the IQs Corner Virtual Community of Scholars.

Ruben reviewed the following article and has provided his comments below.

• Deary, I. J., Lawn, M., & Bartholomew, D. J. (2008). A conversation between Charles Spearman, Godfrey Thomson, and Edward L. Thorndike: The international examinations inquiry meetings 1931-1938. History of Psychology, 11(2), 122-142 (click here to view)

At the end of his life, did Spearman abandon g?

After his retirement and late in life at age 68, what did Charles E. Spearman, discoverer of the general factor of human intelligence (symbolized as g), really think about general factor g? A recent article in the journal History of Psychology (complete citation above) addresses this question and concludes that Spearman’s long-standing adversaries Godfrey Thomson and Edward Thorndike proposed an incipient version of the CHC broad factors known as fluid (Gf) and crystallized (Gc). If Thomson and Thorndike indeed proposed an incipient non-hierarchical Gf-Gc versus Spearman’s hierarchical g, they began a debate which would continue more than 70 years later between CHC luminaries John Carroll (in support of hierarchical g) against John Horn (in support of non-hierarchical Gf-Gc)—a debate they waged until fairly recently to the end of both of their lives.

In their article, Deary, Lawn, and Bartholomew analyze word for word transcriptions of the contributions Spearman, Thomson, and Thorndike made to the theory and practice of testing intelligence at three meetings in 1931, 1935, and 1938 to which Spearman had been invited by Thorndike. Yet Deary, et al. report that Thorndike and Thomson found their interaction with Spearman to be negative and Spearman felt the same. Moreover, it seems to me that Deary, et al. clearly favored Thomson and Thorndike over Spearman’s contributions and personal style. Deary, et al., for example, describe Thomson as practical and winning, while Spearman in contrast is described as mechanically theoretical and a “contrarian”, waiting only to challenge and correct the theoretical views of the other participants.

Deary, et al. cite statements by Spearman that appear to indicate that he was uncertain or even disbelieved that g exists beyond being nothing more than a statistical phenomenon, as many anti-g proponents wish to communicate when they say that Spearman believed that g was just a “positive manifold.” Deary, et al., for example, suggest that supporters of g should know that at these meetings Spearman said about g, “There is no such thing, but only a general factor in intelligence.” (p. 126)

Yet at the same meeting Spearman said, “This than is what the G term means, a score-factor and nothing more. But this meaning is sufficient to render the term well defined so that the underlying thing is susceptible to scientific investigation; we can proceed to find out facts about this score-factor, or G. We can ascertain the kind of mental operations in which it plays a dominant part as compared with the other or specific factor.” (p. 126) This says to me that Spearman as an objective researcher admitted that g was at least a psychometric fact but at the time was a phenomenon that was not understood in psychological or biological terms.

Therefore, this article convinced me that even as an old man, likely battle worn by younger adversaries like Thorndike and Thomson, Spearman did not appear to have abandoned g. In fact, one year after the last meeting with Spearmen at a symposium of the British Psychological Society in 1939, Godfrey Thomson is quoted in the article as saying, “I myself lean at the moment more toward Spearman’s g and his later group factors than I do to Thurstone’s….” (p. 129) Also, 69 years ago, Thomson conceded at the symposium, “Surely the real defense of g is simply that it has proved useful.” (p. 129)

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, intelligence, IQ, g, general intelligence, Charles Spearman, CHC, Cattell-Horn-Carroll, History of Psychology, IQs Corner

Disseration Dish: God and IQ

I just ran across this new unpublished doctoral dissertation. I only have read the abstract so I have no basis on which to comment on the methodology, size of the "marginal" relationship between Glr and "Awareness of God", etc. This is just an FYI post. I wish I did have access to the entire dissertation as I'd be interested in the literature review and hypothesis about the Glr-spirituality link.



Cognitive deficits and spiritual development: The relationships between cognitive deficits and spiritual development by Thomas, Charles Nolan, Ph.D., Liberty University, 2008, 117 pages; AAT 3297567

Abstract (Summary)

• An individual's spirituality is shaped and supported by his or her cognitive capacities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between various cognitive deficits and the spiritual development in individuals who qualified for special education under the category of Specific Learning Disability. Participants were randomly selected through systematic sampling of students and former students of Kellyville Public School who met the criteria. The cognitive deficits were measured by the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (2001) or the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-R (1989), and spiritual development was measured by the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (2002). The results of this study indicate that there is a marginal correlation between Long-Term Retrieval and Awareness of God.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, intelligence, IQ, cognition, God, spirituality, CHC theory, Glr, Cattell-Horn-Carroll

IQs Corner Book Nook APA Reviews 5-29-08

A new issue of PsycCRITIQUES is available online.

• If you would like subscription information, please go to http://www.apa.org/psyccritiques.
• If you have a subscription to the product and experience any access problems, please go to http://members1.apa.org/memhelp1.html.

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May 28, 2008
Volume 53, Issue 22

Book Reviews
1.	Healing From Violence: Latino Men's Journey to a New Masculinity Authors: Christauria Welland and Neil Ribner Reviewer: Kellina M. Craig-Henderson
2.	Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness Author: B. Alan Wallace Reviewer: Simon M. McCrea
3.	A Historical and Contemporary Look at Psychological Systems Author: Joseph J. Pear Reviewer: Eugene Taylor
4.	Aggression and Adaptation: The Bright Side to Bad Behavior Authors: Patricia H. Hawley, Todd D. Little, and Philip C. Rodkin (Eds.) Reviewer: Eric K. Cooper
5.	Handbook of Response to Intervention: The Science and Practice of Assessment and Intervention Authors: Shane R. Jimerson, Matthew K. Burns, and Amanda M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.) Reviewer: Stephen P. Hampe
6.	Responsibility at Work: How Leading Professionals Act (or Don't Act) Responsibly Author: Howard Gardner (Ed.) Reviewer: Karl N. Kelley
7.	Directive Family Therapy Authors: Jay Haley and Madeleine Richeport-Haley Reviewer: Dolores E. McCarthy
8.	Causal Learning: Psychology, Philosophy, and Computation Authors: Alison Gopnik and Laura Schulz (Eds.) Reviewer: James J. Jakubow
9.	Diagnostic Manual—Intellectual Disability: A Textbook of Diagnosis of Mental Disorders in Persons with Intellectual Disability Authors: Robert Fletcher, Earl Loschen, Chrissoula Stavrakaki, and Michael First (Eds.) Reviewer: Donald P. Oswald
10.	Handbook of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Authors: John W. Jacobson, James A. Mulick, and Johannes Rojahn (Eds.) Reviewer: Scott J. Hunter
11.	Promoting Self-Determination in Students With Developmental Disabilities Author: Michael L. Wehmeyer Reviewer: Marcie N. Desrochers
Film Review
12.	Premonition Director: Mennan Yapo Reviewer: Etzel Cardeña

Senior moments: It sucks getting old

Article on "senior moments" from APA. Click on link below.

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