Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The essays in Mind in Context serve as a bridge between the work of radical constructivists, who propose that all cognition depends on interaction with the outside world, and traditional cognitive scientists, who feel that all cognition resides in the mind. Here, concepts of distributed cognition and situated learning are translated into constructs and methodologies that are accessible to a broad range of psychology researchers and students. The volume is divided into three main parts, containing chapters by leaders in the fields of education, the study of intelligence, and psychometrics. Part I, dealing with performances in academic and test-like tasks, includes essays on novelty and intelligence, and the effects of context on cognition. Part II addresses everyday tasks, with essays on cognitive tests in job selection; and leader intelligence, interpersonal stress, and task performance. In Part III the essays move toward constructing an integrative framework for understanding the volume as a whole. This volume is essential reading for cognitive psychologists, social psychologists, educational psychologists as well as scholars interested in situated learning.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part I Academic Tasks
• 1 Abilities in academic tasks
• 2 Novelty and intelligence M. K. Gardner
• 3 The effects of context on cognition: postcards from Brazil
• Part II Everyday Tasks
• 4 The role of problem interpretations in understanding the development of everyday problem solving
• 5 The case of cognitive ability testing for job selection
• 6 Leader intelligence, interpersonal stress, and task performance
• Part III General Perspectives
• 7 When minds meet: interactions, coincidence, and development in domains of ability
• 8 From intelligence to knowledge construction: a sociogenetic process approach
• 9 PRSVL: an integrative framework for understanding mind in context

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This collection takes as its theme the truism that, in any situation, thinking is affected by many internal and external factors. The essayists provide somewhat Byzantine schematics enumerating every possible factor that might affect thinking. Although this may seem an interesting conceptual exercise, there is little here of practical value. Sternberg identifies five factors that affect thinking (characteristics of the person, social roles, situation, values of the individual and of the organization, and luck--abbreviated PRSVL). Though it appears self-evident that these factors may influence intellectual performance at any given time, such "models" lack predictive validity. All things considered, these models do not provide better tools for making predictions of intellectual ability than the standard techniques already in use--such as IQ testing. Sternberg's introduction gives one example that clearly demonstrates the deficiencies of the argument presented here: a student does poorly on an exam, not because of lack of ability, but because the batteries ran out in the student's calculator. Thus any given performance does not necessarily yield an accurate reflection of total ability--a straw man argument. The issue in probabilistic science is the determination of which variables actually have a high degree of predictive validity across a wide range of circumstances rather than attempting to predict absolutely what is going to happen at any given moment. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate. F. Smolucha; Moraine Valley Community College