Professor publishes chapter in forthcoming Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience

Associate Professor Drew Bailey is co-authoring a chapter with colleague Jonathan Wai (University of Arkansas) to be published in A. K. Barbey, S. Karama, & R. J. Haier (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience: How Intelligence Research Can Inform Education and Public Policy.

Bailey's research focuses on understanding the longitudinal stability of individual differences in children’s mathematics achievement and on the medium- and long-term effects of educational interventions. His current work attempts to use psychological theories and methods to build models to improve the accuracy of predictions about the medium and long-term effects of educational interventions.

Chapter Abstract

This chapter aims to explore how intelligence research—both current evidence as well as potential new findings that remain undiscovered—might inform education and public policy. We will first address why studying human intelligence is not only an exciting area of research for basic discovery but also how knowledge about intelligence might be applicable to education and public policy. We will review selected areas of intelligence related research with potential implications for policy. We will discuss research on intelligence test scores as predictors of school performance and later success and research on features of the most promising policy relevant variables for improving intelligence. Finally, we will conclude with a discussion and explanation for researchers about how influencing policy requires 1) learning from policy researchers and practitioners, who have expertise that we argue complements the strengths of intelligence researchers’, and 2) effectively communicating those findings to policy researchers and practitioners. We write this chapter primarily from the perspective of researchers who are engaged in intelligence research that might be applied to education and policy discussions.