DOSSIÊ "ACERCA DA INTELIGÊNCIA HUMANA"

Preface

The Intelligence subject was chosen as central topic by this special edition of Temas em Psicologia, 2012. We shall offer a brief explanation about the reasons for that choice, before to introduce the different works which composed this special edition.

There is no doubt that the world is rapidly changing. Diverse devices are being created for doing the same things that years ago took so long for doing them. For instance, we do not need going to our home, office or to a phone public for doing a call. Now we have cell phone. We do not need going to the post-office for sending a letter. There is e-mail. We do not need go to the cinema. There is DVD. We do not need special cameras of TV for recording an unexpected event. Everybody can record an event using a camera embodied in a cell phone. We do not need to memorize routes. We have GPS. We do not need traveling to France for visiting the Louvre Museum. We can do that (seated comfortably in our chairs) using internet. In others words, rapidly people are more instrumented, more interconnected, and, probably, more intelligent. The three words (instrumentation, interconnection, and intelligence) are the core of the new campaign of International Business Machine, the famous company known as IBM. The three words characterize very well the technological society of new millennium. For this reason, in January 2010, Mr. Sam Palmisano, the IBM's CEO, announced, during his speech in The Royal Institute of International Affairs (a famous British Think Tank), the called "Decade of Smart". For exemplify this "decade of smart", Palmisano described the initiatives of his company in traffic-congestion system, crime-data systems, reduction of carbon emissions and others smart systems to solve (or reduce) most pressing problems of cities, countries or industries - and obviously, multi-millionaires contracts. According to IBM´s CEO, the goal will be to helping to create a smarter planet. For the scientific psychology is clear that if the world is become itself a smarter planet, then the principal human psychological process that underlie this changing is the faculty of thought, reason, and producing knowledge. This psychological process is scientifically and popularly known as Intelligence. Without intelligence, it would be difficult for the world to achieve better instrumentation or a more efficient interconnection.

The special edition of Temas em Psicologia, 2012, is an attempt to raising scientific information about intelligence, in which Brazilian and international studies are exposed. In the present edition, the first paper "El capital humano y la riqueza de los países" (The human capital and the wealth of nations), written by Professors Roberto Colom and Carmen Flores-Mendoza, shows the importance of intelligence for the development of a nation. According to the authors, despite of cognitive differences of nations, there is strong evidence that the Flynn effect (cognitive gains between generations) is happening in developing countries, especially in Brazil.

The second article written by professors Joseph Nedelec, Joseph Schwartz, Eric Connolly, and Kevin Beaver of Florida State University, explores the relationship between-twin differences in IQ and examined outcome measures. This study used four waves of data collected between 1994 and 2008 by National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in USA. Surprisingly, the authors found little significant relationship between-twin differences in IQ and differential life outcomes.

The third article was written by professors Denise Dascanio of Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil), Fabián Olaz of National University of Córdoba (Argentina), Anne Fontaine of Porto University (Portugal), Olga Rodrigues of Paulista State University (Brazil), Almir Del Prette and Zilda A. P. Del Prette of Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil). This study compares the performance of Brazilian adolescents with high and low blood lead level in measures on social skills, intelligence and school achievement.

The fourth article written by Brazilian professors Fabio Feitosa of Federal University of Rondonia, Zilda Del Prette and Almir Del Prette of Federal University of Sao Carlos, examines the role of cognitive competence as mediator of the relationship between social skills and school achievement.

The fifth article was written by professors Nermin Đapo, Jadranka Kolenović-Đapo, Nina Hadžiahmetović and Indira Fako of University of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The authors do explore the relationship between the Eysenck´s Giant Three with Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence and Learning Potential among adolescents.

The sixth article written by professors Aurelio Figueredo, Alyssa Cuthbertson, Ilyssa Kauffman, Elana Weil of University of Arizona( USA), and Paul Gladden of the Macon State College (USA) shows that executive functions partially mediates history strategy and short-term mating and the relation between slow life history and emotional intelligence.

The seventh article written by professors Gerhard Meisenberg of Ross University Medical School (Dominica), Heiner Rindermann of Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany), Hardik Patel and Michael Woodley of Ross University Medical School (Dominica) analyzes the relationship between differences of national religiosity and differences of national IQ.

The eighth article written by Brazilian professors Ricardo Primi of University of San Francisco, and Tatiana Nakano, and Solange Wechsler of Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, describes the ongoing study of the Brazilian adaptation of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability. Their first results seem to prove the pertinence of C-H-C theory.

The ninth article written by professors Carmen Flores-Mendoza of UFMG, Keith F. Widaman of University of California at Davis, Marcela Mansur-Alves of UFMG, José H. da Silva Filho of Universidade Federal do Amazonas, and Sonia Pasian of Universidade de São Paulo, shows the estimative of size of top human capital in Brazil, which is 10% of population.

Finally, the last article written by Professors José A. Da Silva from University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto, Nilton Ribeiro-Filho from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and Rosemary Conceição dos Santos from USP-São Paulo and UNESP-São José do Rio Preto, reviews the impacts of intelligence (or cognitive skills) measured by test scores are directly related to individual earnings, productivity, and economic growth, and with others several important social, health, and educational indicators.

Much has been learned and much remains to be learned. That is certainly true of intelligence.

Carmen Flores-Mendoza
and
José Aparecido Da Silva
June 30th, 2012