Mind in Context

Traditional views of abilities have viewed them as internal properties of the organism. The views presented in this book, in contrast, view abilities as inhering in the interaction between minds and the contexts in which they are found. Some of the greatest psychologists of all time, such as Piaget and Vygotsky, have recognised the importance of person-context interaction to the development of intelligence, and even fervent hereditarians have recognised the extent to which when genotypes are expressed phenotypically, there is a reaction range that can limit or enhance the extent to which the genotype is expressed in the environment. The book is divided into three main parts. Part I, focusing on academic tasks, contains chapters by R. E. Snow on abilities in academic tasks, M. K. Gardner on novelty and intelligence, and S. J. Ceci and A. Roazzi on the effects of context on cognition. Part II, focusing on everyday tasks, contains chapters by C. A. Berg and K. S. Calderone on the role of problem interpretations in understanding the development of everyday problem solving, R. K. Wagner on use of cognitive tests in job selection, and F. E. Fiedler and T. G. Link on leader intelligence, interpersonal stress, and task performance. Finally, Part III, containing general perspectives, contains chapters by N. Granott and H. Gardner on interactions, coincidence, and development in domains of ability, J. Valsiner and M.-C. Leung on a sociogenetic process approach to abilities, and R. J. Steinberg on an integrative framework for understanding mind in context.