Developing intelligence: Is a comprehensive theory possible?

Abstract

This introduction first outlines the main issues and questions about mind and intelligence that need to be dealt with by disciplines such as differential, developmental, and cognitive, psychology. It then summarizes the major findings of the target article, the main points raised by the commentators, and the main points of the rejoinder. It ends up with a set of questions to be followed by future research.; •Interdisciplinary research is needed to understand the developing mind.•The special issue presents interdisciplinary research that generated new findings.•Many important questions still need to be answered by psychological and brain research.; Reading comprehension is essential for successful functioning in our society. In virtually all instances, the goal of reading is to identify the meaning or message of the text at hand. Doing so involves the execution and integration of many processes. In the current chapter, we discuss the underlying cognitive processes that support reading comprehension and link them to the PASS (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive processing) theory of intelligence. This discussion is enriched with empirical data demonstrating the contribution of each of the PASS components to reading comprehension in adolescent readers. Finally, we discuss specific implications derived from this research for enhancing learning from texts and reading achievement.