BRIGHTEN UP

BRIGHTEN UP: Smart Tools To Excel In Reading, Writing, Memory, Vocabulary, Spelling, Notes, And English Usage

Click here to find out more.

WHY IT IS SMART TO GET MORE SLEEP

What do we know about sleep?  How does it connect to our daily functions, our health, our behavior?  Why is it dangerous to take a good night's sleep for granted, or to be dismissive or cavalier about not getting enough sleep?  Watch this video of a talk by neuroscientist Russell Foster about the importance of sleep.
Click here.

ILLUSIONS - WHAT YOU SEE VERSUS WHAT'S REALLY THERE

There is some fascinating material about Illusions in this video clip.  If you have a few minutes, it is worth watching, not only for its entertainment value but to understand just a bit better the complexities of the brain. Click here.

FLUID INTELLIGENCE AND CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE

In the world of "intelligence", we often hear the terms "fluid intelligence" and "crystallized intelligence".  What are they?  The simple, basic descriptions below will help to separate them.

Fluid Intelligence refers to the ability to solve problems and work with relationships without any previous training regarding those relationships.  It is the ability to reason, to think abstractly, to generate strategies, and to think quickly - "on the fly", so to speak.  When one develops strategies for an exam, for example, or solves puzzles, we see Fluid Intelligence in action.  It is thought that Fluid Intelligence is a physiologically-rooted capacity that sharpens and develops through the younger years into early adulthood, and then tapers off.

Crystallized Intelligence, on the other hand, is the ability to use stored knowledge or experience to complete a task - for example, when one recalls learned knowledge to answer questions on an exam.  It is thought that Crystallized Intelligence is rooted in personality, culture, and education, and that it continues to develop through the adult years.

Discover more about different kinds of intelligence in (click) Intelligent Children.

GREAT BOOK ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR

When it comes to good books on English Grammar and Usage, at the top of the list is English Composition and Grammar: Complete Course by John E. Warriner. It is not inexpensive, but it is arguably the best and, as the title indicates, it is the “Complete Course”, from soup to nuts, from A to Z, "to infinity and beyond". In it you will find expert guidance on composition – how to write sentences, paragraphs, research papers, etc. – and solid information about specifics, such as Parts of Speech, Clauses, Phrases, Pronouns, Capitalization, Punctuation, and more.

CLICK on the title to look at English Composition and Grammar: Complete Course

Your comments on this or other English Grammar and Usage books are welcome. Please share your thoughts and experiences. Thanks.

WHAT SMART PEOPLE KNOW

Dr. Droge's book is now available:
BRIGHTEN UP: SMART TOOLS TO EXCEL IN READING, WRITING, MEMORY, VOCABULARY, SPELLING, NOTES, AND ENGLISH USAGE

SMART TOOLS TO EXCEL

Dr. Droge's book, Brighten Up: Smart Tools to Excel in Reading, Writing, Memory, Vocabulary, Spelling, Notes, and English Usage is available - click here

IMPROVING TEST SCORES

Students Who Write About Their Test Anxiety May Improve Scores

With the understanding that students with anxiety about upcoming exams often perform poorly on them, researchers intervened with an exercise that permitted a randomized group of students to write about their concerns before taking an exam.  Result:  the students improved their performance and scores.   

“Writing About Testing Boosts Exam Performance in the Classroom”. Gerardo Ramirez, Sian L. Beilock.  Science, January 14, 2011, 211-213.

Article may be free with registration at site:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6014/211.abstract?sid=562dcfe5-dac8-4c49-bf84-ae7e91c7f304

VISIT DR. E. DROGE

Find out more about Dr. E. Droge - including  information on his book, INTELLIGENT CHILDREN - at

http://www.amazon.com/author/droge   

CAN GESTURES HELP CHILDREN LEARN?

Researchers at SF State have found that young children who use gestures solve problems well in certain instances.

In the study, children from two-and-a-half to five years of age were asked to sort cards by color and shape. Children who used gestures performed better than those who did not or those who gestured less. Gestures included hand movements that demonstrated card images, like rabbits.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130726191735.htm 

EFFECTS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS ON IQ

Researchers Christiane Capron and Michel Duyme compared IQ scores of adopted children raised by parents with high socio-economic status (SES) and parents with low SES, and found that the children raised by parents with high SES had higher IQ scores and the children raised by parents with low SES had lower IQ scores.  In addition, children of biological parents with high SES scored higher than children of biological parents with low SES.

The abstract is available for free, but the full study may incur a fee.
http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989Natur.340..552C

Worried About Your Worrying? Study Sees Common Benefits of Worrying And Intelligence

Researchers say that intelligence may have co-evolved with worry.  And both are seen as beneficial traits.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120412153018.htm

Are Taller People Smarter Than Shorter People, and, If So, Why?

Here is an interesting article from the archives of Psychology Today addressing that question:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200901/why-are-taller-people-more-intelligent-shorter-people

If you would like to comment about this, please know that we would welcome your thoughts.

VISIT DR. E. DROGE

Find out more about Dr. E. Droge - including  information on his books - at

http://www.amazon.com/author/droge   

INTELLIGENT CHILDREN: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO WHAT TODAY'S SMART PARENTS KNOW ABOUT INCREASING A CHILD'S INTELLIGENCE

IMPORTANT LINKS - IQ and INTELLIGENCE TESTS

Regarding IQ and intelligence tests - here are links from Dr. Droge's book,  Intelligent Children: A Brief Introduction To What Today's Smart Parents Know About Increasing A Child's Intelligence :

Stanford-Binet Test:  http://www.assess.nelson.com/pdf/sb5-asb1.pdf 

Raven's Progressive Matrices:  http://books.google.com/books?id=sMSWbI23RMUC&pg=PA460&lpg=PA460&dq=history+of+Raven%E2%80%99s+Progressive+Matrices&source=bl&ots=PdMFYpWxFZ&sig=m8mhpRjYXYm03XBB0nyOzv-MrFc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Wp6eUdSKF4rk8gSMk4CYAg&ved=0CC8Q6AEwATgK

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children: http://www.k12academics.com/standardized-testing/iq-tests/wechsler-intelligence-scale-children 

Woodcock-Johnson Test for Cognitive Abilities:  http://books.google.com/books?id=SU9-LSh4HgcC&pg=PT580&lpg=PT580&dq=history+of+Woodcock-Johnson+Tests+of+Cognitive+Abilities&source=bl&ots=pCTYLbsYpD&sig=1hgXGgQxXK5JAqG4Qdsxgp1Tc-o&hl=en&sa=X&ei=i6CeUYGKLpLc8wTqtoGoBA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwATgK

Here are the links for online previews of two books mentioned in Dr. Droge's Intelligent Children: A Brief Introduction To What Today's Smart Parents Know About Increasing A Child's Intelligence:

Sternberg, Robert. J.. Beyond IQ: A Triarchic Theory of Intelligence.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.  http://books.google.com/books/about/Beyond_IQ.html?id=jmM7AAAAIAAJ 

Tizard, Barbara and Martin Hughes.  Young Children Learning.  New York: Wiley, 2008.
http://books.google.com/books/about/Young_Children_Learning.html?id=T6nDYCVZjCoC 

Ideal for middle-grade readers and above:

Studies and Articles on Intelligence

Here are links to several studies and articles about intelligence, mentioned in Dr. Droge's book, Intelligent Children: A Brief Introduction To What Today's Smart Parents Know About Increasing A Child's Intelligence  ( http://www.amazon.com/author/droge  ):

Articles and Studies

Garlick, Dennis.  “Understanding the nature of the general factor of intelligence: the role of individual differences in neural plasticity as an explanatory mechanism.”  Psychological Review, 2002, Vol. 109, No. 1, 116-136.

http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/rev-1091116.pdf

Greulich, William Walter.  “A comparison of the physical growth and development of American-born and native Japanese children.”  American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Volume 15, Issue 4, pages 489–515, December 1957.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.1330150403/abstract

Hart, Betty, and Todd R. Risley.  “The early catastrophe: the 30 million word gap by age 3.”  Excerpt from Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children.  Hart, Betty.  Baltimore: Brookes Publishing; 1995.

http://www.unitedwayracine.org/sites/default/files/imce/files/SOH%20The%20Early%20Catastrophe%20-%20The%2030%20Million%20Word%20Gap%20by%20Age%203%20-%20Risley%20and%20Hart%20-%20summary.pdf 

Jaeggi, Susanne M., Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides, and Walter J. Perrig. “Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory.”  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 105, No. 19, May 2008.

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/19/6829.long

Kruglinski, Susan.  “What Makes You Uniquely You.”  Discover Magazine, February 2009.

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/16-what-makes-you-uniquely-you#.URbCLB37Jad

Spearman, Charles. (1904). "General intelligence," objectively determined and measured. American Journal of Psychology 15, 201-293.

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Spearman/

Sternberg, Robert J. (2005). “The theory of successful intelligence”.  InterAmerican Journal of Psychology, Vol. 39, No. 2, 189-202.

http://www.psicorip.org/Resumos/PerP/RIP/RIP036a0/RIP03921.pdf

Terman, Lewis Madison.  The Measurement of Intelligence: An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon
Intelligence Scale.  E-book version available via Project Gutenberg.  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20662

Weinberg, Richard A.  “Intelligence and IQ: Landmark issues and great debates.” American Psychologist, Vol. 44, No. 2, 98-104, February 1989.

http://data.psych.udel.edu/abelcher/Shared%20Documents/1%20Assessment%20%2848%29/e%20IQ%20and%20diversity/weinberg,%201989.pdf