What Is Intelligence?: Beyond the Flynn Effect

Professor James Flynn is one of the most creative and influential psychologists in the field of intelligence. The 'Flynn Effect' refers to the massive increase in IQ test scores over the course of the twentieth century and the term was coined to recognize Professor Flynn's central role in measuring and analyzing these gains. For over twenty years, psychologists have struggled to understand the implications of IQ gains. Do they mean that each generation is more intelligent than the last? Do they suggest how each of us can enhance our own intelligence? Professor Flynn is finally ready to give his own views. He asks what intelligence really is and gives a surprising and illuminating answer. This book bridges the gulf that separates our minds from those of our ancestors a century ago. It is a fascinating and unique book that makes an important contribution to our understanding of human intelligence.

"It would almost be damning this book with faint praise to say that it's a valuable addition to the IQ debate (although it is); it's an important take on what we have made of ourselves over the past few centuries and might yet make of ourselves in the future." Cosma Shalizi, American Scientist (read the entire )

An expanded paperback edition of James R. Flynn"s thought-provoking examination of dramatic increases in IQ gains over the twentieth century.