Intelligence最新文献

Most research on individual differences in performance on tests of cognitive ability focuses on general cognitive ability (g), the highest level in the three-level Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) hierarchical model of intelligence. About 50% of the variance of g is due to inherited DNA differences (heritability) which increases across development. Much less is known about the genetics of the middle level of the CHC model, which includes 16 broad factors such as fluid reasoning, processing speed, and quantitative knowledge. We provide a meta-analytic review of 747,567 monozygotic-dizygotic twin comparisons from 77 publications for these middle-level factors, which we refer to as specific cognitive abilities (SCA), even though these factors are not independent of g. Twin comparisons were available for 11 of the 16 CHC domains. The average heritability across all SCA is 56%, similar to that of g. However, there is substantial differential heritability across SCA and SCA do not show the developmental increase in heritability seen for g. We also investigated SCA independent of g (SCA.g). A surprising finding is that SCA.g remain substantially heritable (53% on average), even though 25% of the variance of SCA that covaries with g has been removed. Our review highlights the need for more research on SCA and especially on SCA.g. Despite limitations of SCA research, our review frames expectations for genomic research that will use polygenic scores to predict SCA and SCA.g. Genome-wide association studies of SCA.g are needed to create polygenic scores that can predict SCA profiles of cognitive abilities and disabilities independent of g.

Conservative economic attitudes have been theorized as symptoms of low cognitive ability. Studies suggest the opposite, linking more conservative views weakly to higher, not lower, cognitive ability, but with very large between-study variability. Here, we propose and replicate a new model linking cognitive ability not to liberal or conservative economics, but to economic extremism: How far individuals deviate from prevailing centrist views. Two large pre-registered studies in the UK (N = 700 & 700) and the British Cohort Study dataset (N = 11,563) replicated the predicted association of intelligence with economic deviance (β = 0.4 to 0.12). These findings were robust and expand the role of cognitive ability from tracking the economic consensus to influencing support for (relatively) extremist views. They suggest opportunities to understand the generation and mainstreaming of radical fringe social attitudes.

Abstract

Previous research has noted the relationships between Piagetian and Psychometric tests. The literature on this topic has revealed consistent and moderate-to-high magnitude associations and largely unidimensional tests. However, most of this literature has not explicitly assessed whether Psychometric general intelligence corresponds to a similar factor measurable with Piagetian tests. This study did just that by fitting structural equation models to available data from administrations of Piagetian and Psychometric tests given to the same samples. The tests were modeled separately, and then in models where they were featured together so their general factors could be correlated. The results of those analyses were then subjected to a meta-analysis (K = 8, N = 862) and the meta-analytic relationship between Piagetian and Psychometric general factors was found to be exceptionally high (r = 0.847). Piagetian scales thus test intelligence, and intelligence tests assess Piagetian development.

Form perception has been found to be critical for arithmetic fluency. How visual processing of form is related to arithmetic fluency is a question that remains to be answered. The current study hypothesized that form perception speed correlates with arithmetic fluency. Experiment 1 applied a between-subject design. 227 fifth grade students were recruited and randomly divided into two experimental groups. The groups performed the same figure-matching task, but with different stimulus durations: 400 ms or 1000 ms. The results showed that the 400 ms group had greater arithmetic fluency than the 1000 ms group, and form perception measured only in 400 ms group could explain the relationship between non-verbal number sense and arithmetic fluency. Experiment 2 applied a within-subject design. 245 fifth-grade students were recruited and all participants were administered a 400-ms figure-matching task and a 1000-ms figure-matching task. The form perception measured with 400 ms or 1000 ms duration could explain the relationship between non-verbal number sense and arithmetic fluency. These findings indicate that form perception speed underlies the association among form perception, non-verbal number sense, and arithmetic fluency.

Using a sample of over 1.6 million scores of U.S. test takers on the Graduate Record Examination 2015–2020, this study broadly replicated prior findings going back over seven decades on overall academic skill and math-verbal tilt as a function of different field specialization. Individuals pursuing STEM degrees and STEM undergraduate backgrounds had stronger quantitative than verbal skills. Individuals pursuing arts/humanities degrees and arts/humanities undergraduate backgrounds had stronger verbal than quantitative skills. However, there were also differences regarding math-verbal tilt in the GRE relative to other samples. Academic skill patterns may be both a cause of or result of educational choices, and deeper consideration of these issues may ultimately have implications for expertise development for students who pursue fields such as the STEM or the arts/humanities.

The items of intelligence tests can demonstrate differential item functioning across different groups: cross-sample differences in item difficulty or discrimination, independently of any difference of ability. This is also true of comparisons over time: as the cultural context changes, items may increase or decrease in difficulty. This phenomenon is well-known, but its impact on estimates of the Flynn effect has not been systematically investigated. In the current study, we tested differential item functioning in a subset of 111 items common to consecutive versions of the French WAIS-R (1989), WAIS-III (1999) and/or WAIS-IV (2009), using the three normative samples (total N = 2979). Over half the items had significant differential functioning over time, generally becoming more difficult from one version to the next for the same level of ability. The magnitude of differential item functioning tended to be small for each item separately, but the cumulative effect over all items led to underestimating the Flynn effect by about 3 IQ points per decade, a bias close to the expected size of the effect itself. In this case, this bias substantially affected the conclusions, even creating an ersatz negative Flynn effect for the 1999–2009 period, when in fact ability increased (1989–1999) or stagnated (1999–2009) when accounting for differential item functioning. We recommend that studies of the Flynn effect systematically investigate the possibility of differential item functioning to obtain unbiased ability estimates.

The structure of intelligence is not static. Differentiation hypotheses suggest that the contribution of g and specific abilities on tasks performance varies with age, but most research focused solely on g. Here we sought to test intelligence differentiation in both its general and specific components using a bifactor modelling approach that – previously ignored in literature – should be better suited to this aim. In parallel, the possible differences in intelligence differentiation between males and females are explored for the first time. A population of 8866 youths (8–19 years old) of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopment Cohort completed 12 tasks measuring four components of cognition (complex cognition, executive control, episodic memory, and social cognition) and the WRAT-4. Using bootstrap and meta-regression analysis, the bifactor-(S·I - 1) model shows that the variance explained differently changes over time according to peculiar development patterns of specific components. Executive functions lose specificity with age and their variance is explained only by g at the end of adolescence, episodic memory is increasingly explained by g, and complex cognition is explained more by g in males – and less in females – when age increases, also suggesting a possible role of gender in intelligence differentiation. We conclude discussing the importance of using adequate statistical models and we proposed studying differentiation also at the level of specific abilities to account for the complexity of the developmental phenomenon that could be better described by development priority theories.

Few issues in the social sciences are as controversial as the role of cognitive ability for educational and subsequent socioeconomic attainments. There are a variety of arguments raised to dismiss, discount or discredit the role of cognitive ability: socioeconomic background is the dominant influence; if cognitive ability appears important, that is only because important predictors have been omitted; the relative importance of socioeconomic background and cognitive ability cannot be ascertained; and cognitive ability is simply a function of socioeconomic background and, for post-education socioeconomic attainments, education. This study analyses the effects of cognitive ability and socioeconomic background on a chronological sequence of social stratification outcomes - school grades, SAT and ACT scores, educational and occupational attainment, income and wealth - in data from the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. The coefficients for cognitive ability decline marginally with the addition of socioeconomic background measures, including family-of-origin income averaged over several years, and wealth. In contrast, socioeconomic background coefficients decline substantially with the addition of cognitive ability. Net of educational attainment, cognitive ability has sizable effects on occupational attainment and income. Net of socioeconomic background, education and occupation, a one-standard-deviation difference in ability corresponds to a sizable 43% difference in positive wealth at around age 35 in the older cohort and a 25% increase in the younger cohort. Therefore, contrary to dominant narratives, cognitive ability is important to a range of social stratification outcomes, and its effects cannot be attributed to socioeconomic background or educational attainment.

There is substantial evidence for the association between higher early life IQ and better cognition in late life. To advance knowledge on potential pathways, the present study tested whether Five-Factor Model personality traits in adulthood mediate the association between adolescent IQ and later-life cognition. Participants were from the Graduate sample of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study on Aging (WLS; N = 3585). IQ was assessed in 1957 (about age 17), personality was assessed in 2003–2005 (age = 64), and cognition was assessed in 2011 (age = 71). Controlling for demographic factors, higher IQ in adolescence was related to higher openness, lower neuroticism, lower extraversion, lower agreeableness and lower conscientiousness in adulthood. Higher openness partially mediated the association between higher IQ and better cognition. Additional analyses indicated that the pattern of associations between IQ, personality and cognition was similar when the polygenic score for cognition was included as an additional covariate. Although effect size were small, this study provides new evidence that openness in adulthood is on the pathway between early life IQ and later-life cognition.

Tilt represents a pattern of specific abilities and is based on within subject differences between two abilities, indicating strength in one ability (e.g., technical) and weakness in another ability (e.g., academic). The current study examined age differences in tilt, processing speed, and general intelligence (g) in adolescence for 13- to 17-year-olds. Tilt was measured using the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and was based on differences in technical (mechanical and electrical) and academic abilities (math or verbal). These differences yielded tech tilt (technical > academic) and academic tilt (academic > technical). Older ages correlated with greater tech tilt and academic tilt and with faster processing speed. In addition, processing speed strongly mediated age-tilt relations. The mediating effects of processing speed (on age-tilt relations) were partly related to g. The results supported investment theories, which assume that age-related increases in speed accelerate the acquisition of specific abilities that produce tilt. Adding g to the model supported cascade theories, which assume that age-related increases in speed boost general abilities (e.g., g), which in turn accelerate the acquisition of specific abilities related to tilt. Future research should examine different types of tilt and factors that influence tilt such as developmental period and ability specialization.