The volume traces the history of intelligence from the early 19th century approaches, to the most recent analyses of the hierarchical structure of cognitive abilities, and documents the transition from a hopelessly confused concept of intelligence to the development of an objective measure of psychometric g. The contributions...

Nyborg sets out to prove that classic ideas of the mind, learning, and memory must be re-examined through the lens of modern biology. Neuroscience and the biological and biomedical sciences have advanced far beyond the limits of 19th century neuroanatomy, and we now know that chemical neurotransmitters and circulating hormones act to alter electrical brain activity and structure. At the same time heredity is now recognized to be not as omnipotent as in the Nature/Nurture debate of the last century.

Nyborg examines these issues, and he shows that recent research in the molecular and...