In the 1960s and early 1970s, converging scientific and social movements had generated increasing concern over the meaning of the term intelligence. Traditional definitions, rooted in the history of intelligence testing and school selection practices, had come under challenge as experimental psychology turned increasingly to the study of human cognitive processes and as understanding of the influence of culture on patterns of thinking grew.

Originally published in 1976, the theme of the book is an examination of cognitive and adaptive processes involved in intelligent behavior and a look at how these processes might be related to tested intelligence. The book contains sections on intelligence from the psychometric viewpoint, computer simulations of intelligent behavior, studies of intelligence as social and biological adaptation, and intelligence analyzed in terms of basic cognitive processes. In a number of the chapters the constructs and methods of modern information-processing psychology are used in their analyses of intelligence. As the reader will discover, the divisions of the book do not necessarily represent competing viewpoints, but rather multiple windows on the phenomenon of human intelligence. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.