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The history of testing mental abilities has seen the dominance of two contrasting approaches, psychometrics and neuropsychology. These two traditions have different theories and methodologies, but overlap considerably in the tests they use. Historically, psychometrics has emphasized the primacy of a general factor, while neuropsychology has emphasized specific abilities that are dissociable. This issue about the nature of human mental abilities is important for many practical concerns. Questions such as gender, ethnic, and age-related differences in mental abilities are relatively easy to address if they are due to a single dominant trait. Presumably such a trait can be measured with any collection of complex cognitive tests. If there are many specific mental abilities, these would be much harder to measure and associated social issues would be more difficult to resolve. The relative importance of general and specific abilities also has implications for educational practices. This book includes the diverse opinions of experts from several fields including psychometrics, neuropsychology, speech language and hearing, and applied psychology.
Incorporating chaos theory into psychology and the life sciences, this text includes empirical studies of neural encoding, memory, eye movements, warfare, business cycles and selection of time series analysis algorithms. There are theoretical chapters on emergence and social dynamics, and clinical contributions dealing with: the measurement of quality of life for psychiatric patients; psychosis; the organization of self; and the role of love in family dynamics. Finally ideas from non-linear dynamics are applied to understanding the creative process.
This book represents a selection of papers presented at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences, held at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, June 24-27, 1995. The book reflects the Society as a whole, consisting of applications of nonlinear methodology in psychophysics, neurophysiology, business and social science as well as applications of the nonlinear paradigm to issues arising in psychotherapy and the study of creativity. Unique are contributions on the use of Boolean networks in the study of psychosis and quality of life. Review articles on the appropriate use of time series methods in psychology and psychophysics provide a valuable reference.
A cutting-edge survey of formal methods directed specifically at dealing with the deep mathematical problems engendered by the study of developing systems, in particular dealing with developing phase spaces, changing components, structures and functionalities, and the problem of emergence. Several papers deal with the modelling of particular experimental situations in population biology, economics and plant and muscle developments in addition to purely theoretical approaches. Novel approaches include differential inclusions and viability theory, growth tensors, archetypal dynamics, ensembles with variable structures, and complex system models. The papers represent the work of theoreticians and experimental biologists, psychologists and economists. The areas covered embrace complex systems, the development of artificial life, mathematics, computer science, biology and psychology.
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