Predicting Academic Achievement with Cognitive Abilities: Cross-Sectional Study across School Education
1
Department of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 125009 Moscow, Russia
2
Psychological Institute of Russian Academy of Education, 125009 Moscow, Russia
3
Russian Academy of Education, 119121 Moscow, Russia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Behav. Sci. 2020, 10(10), 158; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10100158
Received: 7 September 2020
/
Revised: 7 October 2020
/
Accepted: 15 October 2020
/
Published: 17 October 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Educational Psychology)
The relationship between cognitive abilities and academic achievement across schooling from the first to the eleventh grade was analyzed. Information processing speed, visuospatial working memory, number sense, and fluid intelligence were considered predictors of general academic achievement, which was derived from grades in mathematics, language, and biology. This cross-sectional study involved 1560 pupils who were in grades 1–11 at general education schools and were aged from 6.8 to 19.1 years (50.4% were boys). Information processing speed, visuospatial working memory, and number sense were measured using the Choice Reaction Time, Corsi Block-Tapping, and Number Sense computerized tests, respectively. Fluid intelligence was measured using the paper-and-pencil version of the Standard Progressive Matrices test. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were carried out. It was shown that it is possible to describe the structure of the relationship between cognitive abilities and academic achievement for all levels of schooling with a single model. In this model, information processing speed is the key predictor of fluid intelligence, working memory, and number sense, which in turn contribute to individual differences in academic success. Additionally, the specificity of the relationship between individual indicators of cognitive abilities and academic achievement at each level of schooling was revealed.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
academic achievement; cognitive ability; information processing speed; visuospatial working memory; number sense; fluid intelligence; schooling; cross-sectional study
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Tikhomirova, T.; Malykh, A.; Malykh, S. Predicting Academic Achievement with Cognitive Abilities: Cross-Sectional Study across School Education. Behav. Sci. 2020, 10, 158. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10100158
AMA Style
Tikhomirova T, Malykh A, Malykh S. Predicting Academic Achievement with Cognitive Abilities: Cross-Sectional Study across School Education. Behavioral Sciences. 2020; 10(10):158. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10100158
Chicago/Turabian StyleTikhomirova, Tatiana, Artem Malykh, and Sergey Malykh. 2020. "Predicting Academic Achievement with Cognitive Abilities: Cross-Sectional Study across School Education" Behavioral Sciences 10, no. 10: 158. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10100158
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
