Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
The scientific study of human intelligence is a relatively recent development in Spain. Its study began early in the twentieth century with a strong influence from psychometrics (Yela, 1956). Nevertheless, current Spanish research on human intelligence covers the main topics within the field, from the structure of human intelligence to its biological correlates.
This chapter begins with a brief review of the history of human intelligence and of the most important databases in psychology, to identify content domains. Second, current research programs are discussed within the context of the international literature. Finally, assessment instruments for the measurement of intelligence are summarized, and data related to their use for practical purposes are presented.
THE HISTORY OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE IN SPAIN
Human intelligence has a long history as a philosophical issue, but a short one as the subject of scientific inquiry. Therefore, before describing contemporary research in Spain, we should consider some representative thoughts of a sixteenth-century physician-philosopher, Juan Huarte de San Juan, as well as some more modern pioneers in the area.
Main Antecedents
As is widely recognized, Juan Huarte de San Juan (1526–1588?) was a pioneer of experimental and differential psychology, as well as of the study of personality and intelligence. Huarte published the Exam of the Talents for Sciences in 1575. This book presents a quite modern concept of intelligence as a set of mental abilities. The book deals not only with types of intelligence, but also with their application to counseling and personnel selection.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.