Intelligence最新文献

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.

Financial literacy is positively associated with intelligence, with typically moderate to large effect sizes across studies. The magnitude of the effect, however, has not yet been estimated meta-analytically. Such results suggest financial literacy may be conceptualised as a possible cognitive ability within the Cattel-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of cognitive abilities. Consequently, we present a psychometric meta-analysis that estimated the true score correlation between cognitive ability and financial literacy. We identified a large, positive correlation with general intelligence (r’ = .62; k = 64, N = 62,194). We also found that financial literacy shared a substantial amount of variance with quantitative knowledge (Gq; via numeracy; r’ = .69; k = 42, N = 35,611), comprehension knowledge (crystallised intelligence; Gc; r’ = .48; k = 14, N = 10,835), and fluid reasoning (fluid intelligence; Gf; r’ = .48; k =20, N = 15,101). Furthermore, meta-analytic structural equation modelling revealed Gq partially mediated the association between cognitive ability (excluding Gq) and financial literacy. Additionally, both Gc and Gq had significant direct effects on financial literacy, whereas the total effect of Gf on financial literacy was fully mediated by a combination of Gc and Gq. While the meta-analyses provide preliminary support for the potential inclusion of financial literacy as primarily a Gc or Gq ability within the CHC taxonomy (rather than Gf), the review revealed that very few studies employed comprehensive cognitive ability measures and/or psychometrically robust financial literacy tests. Consequently, the review highlighted the need for future factor analytic research to evaluate financial literacy as a candidate for inclusion in the CHC taxonomy.

Evidence is mixed whether fluid intelligence (Gf) is associated with increased or decreased alpha and beta band activity (7–30 Hz). Moreover, the Gf relationship with the delta and theta band activity (1–7 Hz) is unknown. We recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) data in 160 healthy adults solving Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices with a randomized item order to control for item difficulty unaffected by sequential effects. The participants studied each matrix for 30 s before the response bank onset, so we could track the time course of neural activity during problem solving. We measured Gf using six tests. Gf positively correlated with the delta band power, while there was no correlation with the theta band power. For almost all of the participants, we identified the specific slow rhythm frequency, which varied in power as a function of item difficulty. We observed that the lower this frequency, the higher Gf, but only in men. Finally, the alpha and low-beta activity correlated negatively with Gf after we had filtered out the activity during idle intervals (the latter reflecting waiting for the response bank). Overall, the brain activity in the delta, alpha, and beta bands explained 22.6% of Gf variance.

Causes of sex differences in educational achievement have been controversially discussed in the extant literature. It has been speculated that differing prosperity and equality of opportunities may be linked to these differences, but conclusive empirical evidence for such effects is unavailable. Here, we present evidence for sex differences in international large-scale assessments of reading literacy, mathematics, and science across 16 cohorts from 1995 to 2019. Our analyses of PIRLS and TIMSS reading literacy, mathematics, and science achievement data (N = 3,999,062; 90 countries) showed consistent advantages for girls in reading literacy (d range: −0.02 to 0.66). For mathematics and science this pattern was less unambiguous, yielding non-trivial effects in both directions (d ranges: −0.44 to 0.36 and − 0.50 to 0.46, respectively). Sex differences in all three domains were more pronounced in more egalitarian countries (β range 0.16 to 0.20). Higher national prosperity and educational investment predicted larger sex differences favoring fourth grade boys in mathematics and science (β range: 0.07 to 0.39) and became less meaningful with increasing student ages (β range for eighth graders: 0.17 to 0.21). In all, our findings suggest that influences of economic macro-indicators on sex differences in educational achievement are differentiated according to subject, indicating larger sex differences in mathematics and science in more egalitarian and prosperous countries.

It is still an open question which cognitive and non-cognitive personality traits are useful for describing and explaining behaviour and performance in complex problems. During complex problem solving (CPS), problem solvers have to interact with the task in a way in which learning ability might be beneficial for successful task completion. By investigating the relationship between learning ability and CPS, while accounting for interactions between complex system characteristics and person characteristics, this paper aims to understand the role of learning processes in CPS more closely. In a sample of N = 241 participants, we performed a preregistered analysis to investigate the relationship between knowledge acquisition performance in a CPS test (MicroDYN) and learning test performance (ADAFI) with a multilevel modeling approach across 10 CPS systems with various characteristics. In line with our expectations, we replicated previous findings on a relationship between learning test and MicroDYN performance and found this relationship to be more pronounced in systems with (vs. without) autonomous changes. Further system and person characteristics also showed effects as expected, with better performance in systems with lower complexity, with more experience with the task, and with more strategic exploration behaviour. Our results provide further evidence for the notion that learning is an important component for the successful completion of CPS tasks.

This study examined how brain structure influences creative performance during cooperation with others. This study employed graph theory to analyze the moderating effect of connectivity efficiency of a default mode network (DMN) on individuals' creative performance in interactive situations. The results showed that the global efficiencies of the DMN moderated the relationship between individuals' divergent thinking performance in the single- and paired-player modes. When the global efficiency in the DMN is high, an individual's originality performance in the single-player mode has high predictive power for performance in the paired-player mode. In addition, the global efficiency of the DMN can moderate the relationship between the flexibility scores in the single- and paired-player modes. In the case of high global efficiency, the flexibility performance in single-player mode has a higher predictive power in interactive situations. Furthermore, the nodal efficiency of the parahippocampal cortex can moderate the correlation between fluency (an index of divergent thinking) scores in the single- and paired-player modes, whereas the nodal efficiency of the anterior medial prefrontal cortex can moderate the relationship between the Chinese Radical Remote Associates Test performance in the single- and paired-player modes.

Previous studies have found that participants use two cognitive strategies—constructive matching and response elimination—in responding to items in the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM). This study proposed a multi-strategy psychometric model that builds on item responses and also incorporates eye-tracking measures, including but not limited to the proportional time on matrix area (PTM), the rate of toggling (ROT), and the rate of latency to first toggle (RLT). By jointly analyzing item responses and eye-tracking measures, this model can measure each participant's intelligence and identify the cognitive strategy used by each participant for each item in the APM. Several main findings were revealed from an eye-tracking-based APM study using the proposed model: (1) The effects of PTM and RLT on the constructive matching strategy selection probability were positive and higher for the former than the latter, while the effect of ROT was negligible. (2) The average intelligence of participants who used the constructive matching strategy was higher than that of participants who used the response elimination strategy, and participants with higher intelligence were more likely to use the constructive matching strategy. (3) High-intelligence participants increased their use of the constructive matching strategy as item difficulty increased, whereas low-intelligence participants decreased their use as item difficulty increased. (4) Participants took significantly less time using the constructive matching strategy than the response elimination strategy. Overall, the proposed model follows the theory-driven modeling logic and provides a new way of studying cognitive strategy in the APM by presenting quantitative results.

Tilt refers to a pattern of specific abilities and is based on within subject differences in two abilities (e.g., technical and academic), producing relative strength in one ability (technical) and relative weakness in another ability (academic). This study examined sex differences in the development of tilt in adolescence (13- to 17-years) using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 6969), a representative sample of adolescents in the United States. Tilt was based on within subject differences in technical (mechanical, electrical, automotive) and academic abilities (math or verbal) on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. The differences produced tech tilt (technical > academic) and academic tilt (academic > technical). Consistent with investment theories and sex differences in technical preferences, males showed increases in tech tilt over time, whereas females showed increases in academic tilt over time, with sex differences in tilt increasing with age. In addition, processing speed and general intelligence (g) mediated most age-tilt relations, with age-tech tilt relations generally being stronger for males. The stronger age-tech tilt relations for males support investment theories and sex differences in vocational interests, which assume that stronger technical interests in males accelerate increases in tech tilt over time. The mediating effects of speed and g are consistent with cascade theories, which assume that age-related increases in speed boost g, which in turn boosts tilt. Future research should examine factors that influence sex differences in the development of tilt, including vocational interests (e.g., technical and academic), developmental period (e.g., later adulthood), and exceptional ability (e.g., intellectual giftedness).

It is well documented that memory is heritable and that older adults tend to have poorer memory performance than younger adults. However, whether the magnitudes of genetic and environmental contributions to late-life verbal episodic memory ability differ from those at earlier ages remains unresolved. Twins from 12 studies participating in the Interplay of Genes and Environment in Multiple Studies (IGEMS) consortium constituted the analytic sample. Verbal episodic memory was assessed with immediate word list recall (N = 35,204 individuals; 21,792 twin pairs) and prose recall (N = 3805 individuals; 2028 twin pairs), with scores harmonized across studies. Average test performance was lower in successively older age groups for both measures. Twin models found significant age moderation for both measures, with total inter-individual variance increasing significantly with age, although it was not possible definitively to attribute the increase specifically to either genetic or environmental sources. Pooled results across all 12 studies were compared to results where we successively dropped each study (leave-one-out) to assure results were not due to an outlier. We conclude the models indicated an overall increase in variance for verbal episodic memory that was driven by a combination of increases in the genetic and nonshared environmental parameters that were not independently statistically significant. In contrast to reported results for other cognitive domains, differences in environmental exposures are comparatively important for verbal episodic memory, especially word list learning.

Dual process theories often contrast a hot, reactive affective system with a cool, reflective cognitive system. The cognitive system permits rationality and reasoning, but may inhibit spontaneous affect. Such frameworks would seem to suggest that individual differences in general cognitive ability, which is linked to abstract forms of reasoning, may impact dynamic components of emotional reactivity. In two studies involving five samples (total N = 631), participants were asked to continuously rate their emotional experiences in response to presented affective images. General cognitive ability, assessed, by proxy, with self-reported ACT scores, was linked to less intense peak reactions, peak reactions that were delayed, and/or to velocities of affect change that were less pronounced. Such relationships tended to be observed regardless of whether images were positive or negative. The findings provide support for dual process theorizing and suggest that general cognitive ability modulates dynamic components of emotional responding.