| Description |
3 videodiscs (540 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 course guidebook (137 pages : illustrations) |
| Series |
Great courses. Science & mathematics. Psychology |
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Great courses (DVD). Science & mathematics.
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| System Details |
DVD. |
| Note |
Title from container. |
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18 lectures (30 min. each) on 3 discs. |
| Performer |
Lecturer: Richard J. Haier, Professor emeritus, School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. |
| Contents |
Disc 1 -- What is intelligence? -- Assessing intelligence -- General intelligence in everyday life -- To g or not to g : is that the question? -- Intelligence and genius over the life span -- Early childhood experience and intelligence -- |
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Disc 2 -- Genes and intelligence -- Can we see intelligence in the brain? -- What brain imaging reveals about intelligence -- Intelligence and the brains of children -- Sex and intelligence -- Race and intelligence -- |
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Disc 3 -- Are we really getting smarter? -- The mind in milliseconds -- Creativity and intelligence -- Creativity and intelligence -- Can intelligence be enhanced? -- Intelligence, child rearing, and education -- The IQ pill. |
| Summary |
From the guidebook. The concept of human intelligence is sometimes controversial, but two things are surely true. First, no matter how "intelligence" is defined, you know someone who is not as intelligent as you are. Second, intelligence has something to do with the brain. New neuroscience tools, especially brain imaging, are revealing what a smart brain looks like and helping researchers understand the neural mechanisms of what makes one person learn faster, remember more, and reason better than another. This course begins with the challenge of defining intelligence for scientific study. Savants show one aspect of specific mental abilities, but there is also strong evidence that all mental abilities have a common general factor depends mostly on IQ-type tests, which the course will explain, including what these tests do and do not measure. Evidence from long-term studies of genius and IQ over the life span will give some insights about the power and value of intelligence tests, especially as we all navigate the complexities of everyday life. Some popular alternative concepts of intelligence that do not focus on the g-factor include practical intelligence and multiple intelligences, but as you will see, the research evidence for their validity is more limited. The role of early childhood experiences on intelligence is also surprisingly controversial, especially because the role of genetics is increasingly well supported by research, as the course will review. The concept of epigenetics is important because it potentially reverses the idea that a genetic basis for intelligence means that intelligence is fixed. Whether intelligence is mostly influenced by genes or by environmental/cultural factors, any effects must work on the brain's biology. Brain imaging has made major advances to help understand the neural basis of intelligence in adults and in children. This course will review some of these studies and present several surprising results. These studies also show that measures of intelligence are not meaningless artifacts of statistical methods because test scores are related to specific brain features. This allows a more objective review of older controversies about sex and race differences in mental abilities. The course will update research findings about these persistent controversies. One of the newest mysteries to consider is that average intelligence test scores are slowly increasing around the world for reasons unknown. One hope is that older controversies and newer mysteries can be addressed with novel ways to assess intelligence based on measuring brain processing speed. Another issue of renewed interest from brain imaging studies is how creativity may be related to intelligence. Overall, the new neuroscience of intelligence research leads inexorably to speculation about whether brain mechanisms can be tweaked to enhance intelligence with brain training or by manipulating neurochemistry or even by genetic engineering. It may be possible not only to raise low intelligence, but also increase high intelligence to new levels. There are already attempts to do so. These possibilities raise a number of issues for child rearing, education, and social policy. Once central issue is whether we have a moral obligation to increase intelligence is we could. Assuming that more intelligence is always better than less, would you take an IQ pill, or prevent your child taking one? Research on intelligence is progressing so that such choices could be real in the not-so-distant future (p. 1-2). |
| Subject |
Brain -- Videodiscs.
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Intellect -- Videodiscs.
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| Genre |
Filmed lectures.
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DVD-Video discs.
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| Added Author |
Teaching Company.
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| ISBN |
9781598039412 |
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1598039415 |
| Music No. |
1642 Teaching Company |
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ID1642A-01 Teaching Company |
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