Reviews for No Directions on the Package: A Practical Guide for Parents with Children from Birth to Age 12

The average rating for No Directions on the Package: A Practical Guide for Parents with Children from Birth to Age 12 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-05-21 00:00:00 Andrew Delrosario "Cognition & Intelligence" is not exactly an easy book for a layman to read. I am, however, quite interested in knowing as much as I can about what distinguishes a highly intelligent person from an "average" person, with respect to what particular properties of brain functions are found in to prevail to what degree for each level of intelligence. The "Preface" to this book (page x) states that: "This book is written for upper division undergraduate students, graduate students, career professionals, and anyone else who wishes to understand the current landscape with respect to the study of cognition and intelligence." I am neither a student nor a professional psychologist, neuroscientist, or researcher. I found this book to have quite a lot of challenging essays (it consists of 16 essays - chapters - by different authors), and some of those are technical enough that only a professional in the respective field of study would likely genuinely grasp the details of the expositions. Professionals, of course, debate over exactly what it is that constitutes intelligence, and yet further debates arise over questions pertaining to the degrees of heritability of intelligence, influences of environment, etc. Additional deficiencies in knowledge about intelligence arise from a lack of understanding of what neural correlates determine intelligence - to the extent to which neural correlates are the decisive factor. If certain neural properties correlate with intelligent functioning, then which particular neural properties are the ones that foster intelligent behaviors? It appears that neuroscience, psychology, psychometrics, etc. are not advanced enough to answer such questions. One might suppose that they could, in principle, be answered, even if current knowledge, techniques, and skills do not facilitate such feats. From my perspective, the book, although somewhat challenging reading, was sufficiently interesting and enlightening to make it a quite worthwhile read.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-12-29 00:00:00 Amy Williams This is an exceptional textbook. It is clearly written, well laid out and with excellent examples for clearer understanding. There is a tremendous amount of information but it reads so well that I actually found myself enjoying (and looking forward) to reading it! The only drawback is that my classes move so fast that I don't get a chance to really read and think about everything the way I would like to but then again, I can always do that once the class is finished. I highly recommend this book for those taking their first psychology class or just want a clearer understand of psychology in general.