Intelligence最新文献

A dimensionality reduction method was used to determine the task-timing-related functional brain networks underlying the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM), a non-verbal estimate of fluid intelligence (Gf). We identified five macro-scale task-based blood‑oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD)-signal brain networks and interpreted their network-level task-induced BOLD changes to provide functional interpretations separately for each network. This led to new observations about the brain networks underlying the RSPM: (1) the multiple demand network (MDN) for solution searching peaked early in the trial (∼9 s peak), followed by response (RESP) for response selection (∼12 s), and re-evaluation (RE-EV) for solution checking (∼18 s peak), (2) high activity in the MDN was correlated with high activity in the later-peaking RE-EV network, proposed to underpin cooperative solution searching (MDN) and checking (RE-EV) processes, and (3) high activity in the MDN in all conditions was associated with low accuracy in the hard RSPM condition, suggesting that those with lower performance on hard problems allocate more resources into solution-searching across all conditions. These findings corroborate the MDN's significance in Gf solution searching, and add the RE-EV network as playing an important checking role, providing overlap with the proposed abstraction/elaboration and hypothesis testing phases of the Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT). Therefore, this set of results not only supports past theoretical work on the brain networks underlying Gf and the RSPM task, but extends it by providing more complete anatomical, temporal, and functional information based on a set of brain task-based networks which replicate over many tasks.

The study examines how intensive hockey training is linked with spatial ability and academic performance. Participants were hockey players from top junior teams (N = 225, mean age = 14.25, all boys) and their unselected peers (N = 278, mean age = 15.47, all boys). Compared to the unselected group, hockey players showed lower results in 10 small-scale spatial tests (Cohen's d ranging from 0.42 to 1.04), Raven's Progressive Matrices (d = 0.41), and 12 school subjects (d for the sum of grades = 1.17). The differences in spatial ability remained significant after controlling for Raven's (d varying from 0.26 to 1.03). The absence of spatial advantage in athletes suggests that effects of sports on cognition are complex: spatial ability facet-specific, sport-specific, professional and intensity level-specific. Moreover, these effects might be confounded by differences in academic engagement, investment of effort and psychological and physiological effects of intensive sports engagement.

Jackson Jr. and Winston (2021) claim there is no taboo against research on race and intelligence. We argue, to the contrary, that there is a taboo against such research. We begin by addressing Jackson Jr. and Winston's arguments concerning expert surveys, as well as their criticisms of our published database of controversies. We then provide additional evidence of the taboo, and explain why it would be expected given the features of academic social science in Western countries. We also point out that Jackson Jr. and Winston's paper exemplifies the very taboo they claim does not exist.

The rise of large-scale collaborative panel studies has generated a need for fast, reliable, and valid assessments of cognitive abilities. In these studies, a detailed characterization of participants' cognitive abilities is often unnecessary, leading to the selection of tests based on convenience, duration, and feasibility. This often results in the use of abbreviated measures or proxies, potentially compromising their reliability and validity. Here we evaluate the mini-q (Baudson & Preckel, 2016), a three-minute speeded reasoning test, as a brief assessment of general cognitive abilities. The mini-q exhibited excellent reliability (0.96–0.99) and a substantial correlation with general cognitive abilities measured with a comprehensive test battery (r = 0.57; age-corrected r = 0.50), supporting its potential as a brief screening of cognitive abilities. Working memory capacity accounted for the majority (54%) of the association between test performance and general cognitive abilities, whereas individual differences in processing speed did not contribute to this relationship. Our results support the notion that the mini-q can be used as a brief, reliable, and valid assessment of general cognitive abilities. We therefore developed a computer-based version, ensuring its adaptability for large-scale panel studies. The paper- and computer-based versions demonstrated scalar measurement invariance and can therefore be used interchangeably. We provide norm data for young (18 to 30 years) and middle-aged (31 to 60 years) adults and provide recommendations for incorporating the mini-q in panel studies. Additionally, we address potential challenges stemming from language diversity, wide age ranges, and online testing in such studies.

Complex problem solving (CPS) is a key competence in educational contexts with strong conceptual links to students' overall intelligence. However, the mechanisms underlying successful CPS are not fully understood. Therefore, this study investigated several factors presumed to be relevant to CPS success using log file data to code each individual student action during six CPS tasks with different characteristics (N = 1276). We coded individual strategy combinations per student for each item for different strategy combinations of vary-one-thing-at-a-time (VOTAT), hold-one-thing-at-a-time (HOTAT), vary-no-thing-at-a-time (NOTAT), and change-all (CA). Results from generalized linear mixed models showed that CPS success was likely to be achieved by using VOTAT. However, there was an increased chance of solving an item when additional strategies, such as NOTAT or NOTAT plus HOTAT were used. This result was moderated by the presence/absence of eigendynamics as an important determinant of item difficulty. Strategy combinations of VOTAT together with other strategies (all including NOTAT) showed higher chances of CPS success when eigendynamics were present. Additionally, higher chances of solving an item when using VOTAT with additional strategies was demonstrated for items without eigendynamics. Overall, our results suggest that flexibility in strategy application is the driving force for successful CPS performance. Implications are discussed in light of the presumed benefit of pedagogically relevant metacognitive skills, such as planning, monitoring and reflecting, for CPS success. Based on our findings, we provide specific recommendations for the development of computer-based learning simulations to train CPS and related competencies, ultimately enhancing students' skills in educational contexts.

Meta-analytic structural equation modeling was used to estimate the relative contributions of general cognitive ability or g (defined by executive functions, short-term memory, and intelligence) and basic domain-specific mathematical abilities to performance in more complex mathematics domains. The domain-specific abilities included mathematics fluency (e.g., speed of retrieving basic facts), computational skills (i.e., accuracy at solving multi-step arithmetic, algebra, or geometry problems), and word problems (i.e., mathematics problems presented in narrative form). The core analysis included 448 independent samples and 431,344 participants and revealed that g predicted performance in all three mathematics domains. Mathematics fluency contributed to the prediction of computational skills, and both mathematics fluency and computational skills predicted word problem performance, controlling g. The relative contribution of g was consistently larger than basic domain-specific abilities, although the latter may be underestimated. The patterns were similar across younger and older individuals, individuals with and without a disability (e.g., learning disability), concurrent and longitudinal assessments, and family socioeconomic status, and have implications for fostering mathematical development.

The correlation between primate “Big G” scores and brain volume in 68 extant species was employed to estimate probable G values for an additional 68 extinct and 1 extant species with endocranial volume data, employing phylogenetic bracketing. Three different methods were used to generate bracketed estimates, which all showed high convergence. The average of these G estimates (for the extinct primates) coupled with the values from the extant species were found to correlate strongly with neurocognitive measures of both extant and extinct primate taxa, specifically Transfer Index scores (an indicator of cognitive flexibility) and the neuroanatomical covariance ratio (a measure of neural integration). Ancestral character reconstruction incorporating G values was made possible with a phylogenetic tree containing data on the relationships among extant and extinct primates. Negative correlations were found between G and branch length, indicating that higher-G species do not persist as long as lower-G ones, consistent with the presence of the grey-ceiling effect (brain mass negatively predicts maximum population growth rate, and therefore a heightened vulnerability to extinction). Cladogenesis rates were also positively associated with G. Both associations were robust to models that controlled for false positive rates. Comparative models revealed that G evolved in extinct and extant primates in a punctuated pattern. The biggest increase in G occurred after the split between the members of the tribes Hominini and Gorillini 10 million years ago. Hence at the macroevolutionary scale, there can be said to have been a “ten-million-year explosion” in primate G leading up to modern humans.

Over the past hundred years, a plethora of studies on intelligence and religiosity associations predominantly yielded evidence for a meaningful negative relation between these two variables. However, effect strengths varied substantially between primary studies and it has been suggested that religiosity and intelligence associations change as people age, because religiosity may play a protective role for cognitive abilities in elderly individuals. Consequently, it has been suggested that negative intelligence and religiosity associations may decline in strength or even reverse signs as people age. Therefore, we examine here cross-sectional associations of self-reported religious behaviors and several measures of cognitive function (numeracy, verbal fluency, memory and a proxy of psychometric g) as well as their cross-temporal changes in respondents from 11 European countries and Israel aged 50+ years (N = 30,424) in three waves of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). As expected, cognitive function scores were meaningfully negatively related to praying whilst associations with participation in religious services were trivial. Cross-lagged panel analyses yielded consistently negative, albeit small, effects of both intelligence on praying and of praying on intelligence. Multilevel random-intercept regressions showed tentative evidence for faster cognitive declines in more religious people for numeracy and g, but not for verbal fluency and memory. No conclusive evidence for a moderation by societal values of religiosity could be found. In all, our evidence shows a negative, non-trivial association between intelligence and religiosity in elderly participants which remains longitudinally robust. These findings corroborate the generality of the small negative intelligence and religiosity association.

This article, written by the guest editor, is an introduction to a special issue of Intelligence. The special issue includes eleven research papers on the Flynn effect, each written to pay tribute to the past work by James Flynn, who passed away in December 2020. The papers are organized in the current article into four categories: empirical papers, theoretical papers, methodological papers, and integrative papers. Each paper is summarized separately, and then the papers are discussed in an integrative critique that makes a number of points about the current status of research on the Flynn effect.

Just as carbon infuses all life forms, g infuses almost all aspects of cognitive performance. This Special Issue focuses on specific abilities, defined as distinct abilities (e.g., verbal, math, spatial) that differ conceptually and empirically from g, which refers to variance common to tests. The nine contributions examine different specific abilities (e.g., spatial, academic, executive), involve different samples (e.g., humans, animals, countries), and compare different groups (e.g., males and females; gifted and nongifted). The contributions are discussed in terms of their support for a “primacy of g hypothesis,” which assumes that the validity of tests is largely attributable to g, or a “more than g hypothesis,” which assumes that specific abilities contribute to the validity of tests beyond g. The article summarizes each contribution and discusses models and theories of g and specific abilities (e.g., Cattell-Horn-Carroll and Verbal-Perceptual-Image Rotation models; investment and differentiation theories), with a focus on future research on specific abilities. Taken together, the contributions show that specific abilities are a meaningful addition to g but that their validity depends on the particular abilities, models, and theories being examined.