J. Intell., Volume 11, Issue 1 (January 2023) – 19 articles

For over a century, the structure of intelligence has been dominated by factor analytic methods that presume tests are indicators of latent entities (e.g., general intelligence or g). Recently, psychometric network methods and theories (e.g., process overlap theory; dynamic mutualism) have provided alternatives to g-centric factor models. However, few studies have investigated contemporary cognitive measures using network methods. We apply a Gaussian graphical network model to the age 9–19 standardization sample of the Woodcock–Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability—Fourth Edition. Results support the primary broad abilities from the Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) theory and suggest that the working memory–attentional control complex may be central to understanding a CHC network model of intelligence. Supplementary multidimensional scaling analyses indicate the existence of possible higher-order dimensions (PPIK; triadic theory; System I-II cognitive processing) as well as separate learning and retrieval aspects of long-term memory. Overall, the network approach offers a viable alternative to factor models with a g-centric bias (i.e., bifactor models) that have led to erroneous conclusions regarding the utility of broad CHC scores in test interpretation beyond the full-scale IQ, g. Full article

Most research on skilled performance is correlational, with skill and predictors measured at a single point in time, making it difficult to draw conclusions about the acquisition of skill. By contrast, in this study, we trained novice participants (N = 79) to solve Rubik’s Cubes using a 7-step solution method. Participants also completed measures of fluid intelligence (Gf), working memory capacity (WMC), and nonability factors (grit, growth mindset, NFC, and the “big five”). Overall, higher Gf (but not WMC) was predictive of efficient and accurate Rubik’s cube skill. No nonability variables were associated with skill. Our results provide compelling evidence for the importance of intellectual talent (cognitive ability) in developing expertise in a complex task. Full article

Creative self-efficacy is a type of individual creative self-belief, which is an important predictor of creative activities and achievements. For gifted children who have high creative potential, the influencing factors of their creative self-efficacy need to be further explored. This study aimed to explore the relationship between gender, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, and creative self-efficacy in gifted children, with special attention on the mediating role of self-esteem and the moderating role of gender in the relationship between emotional intelligence and creative self-efficacy. Participants in this study included 226 gifted students aged 10–13 (135 boys and 91 girls) from experimental classrooms designed for gifted students in North China. The creative self-efficacy scale (CSE), the emotional intelligence scale (EIS), and the self-esteem scale (SES) were tested. The statistical results indicate that: (1) emotional intelligence significantly positively predicted creative self-efficacy in gifted children; (2) self-esteem partially mediated the link between emotional intelligence and creative self-efficacy; and (3) gender acted as a moderator for the mediation model, in which self-esteem played a complete mediating role in gifted boys, while the mediating role of self-esteem in gifted girls was not significant. The results of this study reveal the influential mechanism of creative self-efficacy in gifted children of different genders and may provide further implications for promoting the creative potential of gifted children. Full article

Metacognition is hypothesized to play a central role in problem solving and self-regulated learning. Various measures have been developed to assess metacognitive regulation, including survey items in questionnaires, verbal protocols, and metacognitive judgments. However, few studies have examined whether these measures assess the same metacognitive skills or are related to the same learning outcomes. To explore these questions, we investigated the relations between three metacognitive regulation measures given at various points during a learning activity and subsequent test. Verbal protocols were collected during the learning activity, questionnaire responses were collected after the learning tasks but before the test, and judgments of knowing (JOKs) were collected during the test. We found that the number of evaluation statements as measured via verbal protocols was positively associated with students’ responses on the control/debugging and evaluation components of the questionnaire. There were also two other positive trends. However, the number of monitoring statements was negatively associated with students’ responses on the monitoring component of the questionnaire and their JOKs on the later test. Each measure was also related to some aspect of performance, but the particular metacognitive skill, the direction of the effect, and the type of learning outcome differed across the measures. These results highlight the heterogeneity of outcomes across the measures, with each having different affordances and constraints for use in research and educational practice. Full article

Creativity serves as a fountain for social and scientific development. As one of the most crucial human capabilities, creativity has been believed to be supported by the core component of higher cognitive functions—working memory capacity (WMC). However, the evidence supporting the association between WMC and creativity remains contradictory. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis using random-effects models to investigate the linear association between WMC and creativity by pooling the individual effect size from the previous literature. Further, a subgroup analysis was performed to examine whether such association is specific for different WMC categories (i.e., verbal WMC, visual–spatial WMC and dual-task WMC). The main meta-analytic results showed a significantly positive association between WMC and creativity (r = .083, 95% CI: .050–.115, p < .001, n = 3104, k = 28). The subgroup analysis demonstrated consistent results by showing a significantly positive association between them, irrespective of WMC category. We also found that cultural environments could moderate this association, and we identified a strong correlation in participants from an Asian cultural context. In conclusion, this study provides the evidence to clarify the positive association between WMC and creativity, and implies that the Asian cultural context may boost such an association. Full article

Research suggests the existence of an association between chronotype and intellectual performance, but the nature of this link remains unclear. Studies conducted in a laboratory setting point to the synchrony effect (better performance at a person’s preferred time of day) for fluid intelligence, but not for crystallized intelligence, whereas studies that have analyzed students’ grades suggest that the effect exists for both. In the present study, we aimed to verify the synchrony effect by applying direct measures of crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence, and subjective sleepiness–alertness in a sample of high school students during their morning or afternoon class. The results revealed a synchrony effect for crystallized, but not for fluid intelligence. During morning class, students with a morning chronotype performed better than evening chronotypes on a test of crystallized intelligence, whereas during afternoon class there was no difference between chronotypes. The association resulted from decreased performance during morning class in evening chronotypes that improved during afternoon class and constant performance in morning chronotypes. These effects were independent of sleepiness–alertness levels. The results suggest that individual differences between chronotypes may be important for tasks performed during morning classes, but not during afternoon ones, and that performance across school days may depend on time of day in evening chronotypes. Full article

Background: Video-induced negative affect may have an impact on cognition. In this study, acute exercise and music listening are used to explore their impact on individual cognition with video-induced negative affect. Method: All the participants were randomly divided into six groups. Group 1 (n = 19, average age = 20.15) was not given any form of acute exercise or music listening; Group 2 (n = 20, average age = 21.33) was given music listening; Group 3 (n = 20, average age = 20.89) was given acute exercise; Group 4 (n = 20, average age = 21.03) only watched a video without being given any acute exercise or music listening; Group 5 (n = 19, average age = 20.68) was given music listening after watching a video; Group 6 (n = 18, average age = 21.32) was given acute exercise after watching a video. Results: In the pre-test, we found that there was no significant difference in negative affect, positive affect, and cognitive performance among the groups (p > .05). The post-test indicated that the negative affect of college students who watched the video (20.16 ± 8.34) was higher than that of college students who did not watch the video (11.12 ± 3.29). Acute exercise and music listening improved the cognitive performance of college students with video-induced negative affect. Acute exercise improved the cognitive performance of college students with non-video-induced negative affect, while music listening did not. Conclusion: The acute decline in the cognitive performance of college students caused by video-induced negative affect can be ameliorated by means of acute exercise and music listening. Full article

In the present work we explored in two separate studies the modulatory role of trait emotional intelligence (EI) over the effect exerted on children’s creative potential by two other key elements defining creativity, namely cognitive resources (here explored through basic executive functions, Study 1) and contextual-environmental factors (that is, teachers’ implicit conceptions of the factors influencing children’s creativity, Study 2). Confirming previous research, executive functions (particularly interference control and working memory) emerged as main predictors of children’s creative performance; however, their positive effect arose especially when associated with a high trait EI level. In the same vein, teachers’ implicit conception about children’s creative potential and about their efficacy in teaching creativity emerged to exert a facilitatory effect on children’ creative potential. This effect occurred particularly when associated with low trait EI levels, affecting differently girls and boys. Trait EI emerged from these studies as an important individual resource to consider in order to understand the potential benefit of other (cognitive and contextual-environmental) resources on children’s creative potential. The implications on the role of trait EI as a constitutional element of children’s creativity, capable of promoting the expression of their creative potential, are discussed. Full article

Scores on the ACT college entrance exam predict college grades to a statistically and practically significant degree, but what explains this predictive validity? The most obvious possibility is general intelligence—or psychometric “g”. However, inconsistent with this hypothesis, even when independent measures of g are statistically controlled, ACT scores still positively predict college grades. Here, in a study of 182 students enrolled in two Introductory Psychology courses, we tested whether pre-course knowledge, motivation, interest, and/or personality characteristics such as grit and self-control could explain the relationship between ACT and course performance after controlling for g. Surprisingly, none could. We speculate about what other factors might explain the robust relationship between ACT scores and academic performance. Full article

The insight memory advantage refers to the situation in which memory performance could be improved by solving a problem with an Aha experience. In re-solution tests and recognition tests, studies demonstrate an insight memory advantage by spontaneous insight or induced insight. For the re-solution test, the neural mechanisms of the effect of induced insight were studied by the fMRI technique. However, the neural mechanisms of the effect of insight on re-solution in the temporal dimension were not known. The neural mechanisms of the effect of spontaneous insight on re-solution were not known. In the present study, we use the compound remote-associated (CRA) task to reveal the neural mechanisms of the effect of spontaneous insight on re-solution by the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique. The 25 participants were asked to solve a series of Chinese verbal CRA tasks and then perform a re-solution test 1 day later. Our results indicated that the solution with the Aha experience evoked a larger N400 in the early solution phase and a more negative wave in the late solution phase than the solution with no Aha experience. In the re-solution phase, items with an Aha during the solution phase were re-solved better with higher Aha rates than items with no Aha. In the re-solution phase, compared with items with no Aha, items with an Aha during the solution phase evoked a larger positive ERP in the 250 to 350 ms time window in the early phase, and a more negative deflection before the response (−900 to −800 ms) in the later phase. In one word, spontaneous insight during the solution phase could promote re-solution and elicit ERP deflection in the re-solution phase. Full article

The World Economic Forum predicts that the skills most highly valued by employers in 2025 will be problem-solving, self-management, working with people, and technology use and development. Educators are seeking ways in which to incorporate these skills into their daily instruction. Here, we offer one possible approach to bolster skills in each of these domains: the inspirED program. inspirED was designed for U.S. middle and high schools to support teams of students in completing projects or campaigns that they believe will make their school a better place for all. This study enrolled teams of students from 22 middle and high schools, and provided them with online training, coaching in the inspirED process, and resources to complete their project. Upon finishing their projects, students on the inspirED teams reported higher sense of purpose and self-awareness around the importance of emotions. The larger student bodies at schools in which inspirED projects took place also reported improvements in school climate including students’ perceptions of teaching quality, sense of school pride, student relationships, and emotional safety. Implications and future directions for school-based social-emotional learning and student leadership opportunities are discussed. Full article

This article scrutinises the linkage between ethnicity and people’s behaviour on Twitter. It examines how offline culture manifests itself online among Arabs. The article draws upon the literature to identify the offline ethnic characteristics of Arabs, and through interviews with and observations of Arab social media users, discovers their online ethnic characteristics. It then compares these online and offline characteristics and, through this comparison, finds that offline culture has been enacted online among Arabs, sustaining expressions of generosity, religiosity, traditionalism, female privacy, over-flattery, collectivism, tribalism, pan-Arabism, and social contracts; however, in other ways, offline culture has been counteracted online, which has led to the destabilisation of power relations between genders, elites and non-elites, and majorities and minorities. A further finding is that online culture has been enacted offline among Arabs in that online performance has exerted influence over offline ethnic identity expectations. In short, there are three main findings: offline culture has been enacted online, offline culture has been counteracted online, and online culture has been enacted offline. The take-home finding of this study is the existence of ‘e-ethnic culture’, that is, although ethnic activity online tends to be based on and reinforces offline realities and may alter offline realities as well, not all online performances have roots offline. Full article

Previous work has shown that emotion recognition is positively related to effective social interactions, but the mechanism underlying this relationship has remained largely unclear. Here, we examined the possibility that people who understand others’ emotions also talk to them using similar language. In the current study participants (N = 106) listened to emotional stories people shared from their own lives. They were later asked to recognize the storytellers’ feelings and finally provide written support messages. Perceivers’ ability to accurately recognize others’ feelings was assessed using the Emotional Accuracy Test (EAT), which uses naturalistic verbal and nonverbal emotional cues, and using two standard tests of nonverbal emotion recognition (GERT, RMET). The language of the expressor (target) was compared to the language of the supporter (participant) to quantify Language Style Matching, a proxy for effective communication. People who perform better in emotion recognition with verbal cues (EAT) also communicate their understanding and support using language similar to the expresser (r = .22, p = .02). This relation was insignificant for tests without verbal information (RMET, GERT). The result provides additional construct validation for the EAT and supports the view that understanding the emotions of others and communicating with them are two manifestations of a broader interpersonal skill. Full article

This current study explores the influence of learners’ working memory capacity (WMC) on the facilitation effect of an instructor’s presence during video lectures. Sixty-four undergraduates were classified into high and low WMC groups based on their performance in an operation span task. They watched three types of video lectures on unfamiliar topics in a random order: video lectures with an instructor’s voiceover but without presence (VN), video lectures with the instructor’s face picture (VP), and video lectures with the same instructor talking (VV). We collected their eye movement data during the video lectures and their learning performance in the comprehension tests following each video. Two-way ANOVA and post-hoc analyses showed that the instructor’s presence significantly improved comprehension performance in only the low WMC group. They allocated more attention to the instructor’s face picture and talking head than the high WMC group. Our results highlight the value of the instructor’s presence as a social cue in video lectures, which is particularly beneficial for learners with a low WMC. Full article

Working memory is a limited-capacity system responsible for maintaining information that is known to dramatically develop throughout childhood and adolescence. Different maintenance mechanisms are proposed to support working memory development, among which is attentional refreshing. Attentional refreshing is assumed to improve the accessibility of working-memory representations by cycling attention from one mental representation to the other, serially. It has been suggested that the efficiency of refreshing increases between the ages of 7 and 14 years old, thereby supporting working memory development. Yet, there is not much research about refreshing in adolescence. Here, we investigate the occurrence of refreshing in 15-year-olds by using a recently-developed index, i.e., the last-presented benefit. Adolescents had to remember a list of four letters and judge whether a subsequent probe letter was present or not in the list. Reaction times to the probe were used to assess the spontaneous occurrence of refreshing. We found that, unlike young adults, 15-year-olds showed consistent speeded responses to probes matching the last-presented memory item, indicating that, in this task, adolescents did not refocus their attention away from the last memory item to initiate refreshing. Implications for working memory functioning and development are discussed. Full article

Monitoring of cognitive abilities in large-scale survey research is receiving increasing attention. Conventional cognitive testing, however, is often impractical on a population level highlighting the need for alternative means of cognitive assessment. We evaluated whether response times (RTs) to online survey items could be useful to infer cognitive abilities. We analyzed >5 million survey item RTs from >6000 individuals administered over 6.5 years in an internet panel together with cognitive tests (numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, task switching/inhibitory control). We derived measures of mean RT and intraindividual RT variability from a multilevel location-scale model as well as an expanded version that separated intraindividual RT variability into systematic RT adjustments (variation of RTs with item time intensities) and residual intraindividual RT variability (residual error in RTs). RT measures from the location-scale model showed weak associations with cognitive test scores. However, RT measures from the expanded model explained 22–26% of the variance in cognitive scores and had prospective associations with cognitive assessments over lag-periods of at least 6.5 years (mean RTs), 4.5 years (systematic RT adjustments) and 1 year (residual RT variability). Our findings suggest that RTs in online surveys may be useful for gaining information about cognitive abilities in large-scale survey research. Full article

This study examines interindividual differences between gifted and non-gifted children in the school environment. Three distinct measurement tools were used to enable a multimodal approach of gifted and non-gifted children with abstract graphic creativity, feelings about school and engagement in the school environment being considered. The results obtained from 328 children (including 45 gifted children) revealed that the gifted children obtained scores significantly higher than non-gifted children in terms of self-determination, feelings about school, and creativity. In addition, a gap appears among gifted children between their significantly higher scores for motivation and intellectual skills versus standard scores for their socio-affective development. Such results are consistent with the idea of asynchronous development, which is characteristic of gifted children (cognitive and conative vs. socio-affective sphere), offering perspectives for more adapted support for these pupils in elementary school. Full article

This research addresses teacher training at different generational stages, with the aim of analysing the training actions developed by school teachers and the intentionality of linking them to their professional development, in order to offer a broad perspective of the paradigm of smart schools, allowing for the adjustment of the quality of training to real demands. To this end, a systematic review of articles published between 2012 and 2022 in the main databases (WoS, Scopus, Eric, Dialnet, and Google Scholar) was carried out. After applying the inclusion criteria, 56 articles were selected and analysed following the PRISMA 2020 statement. The findings showed the interest and importance of initial, continuous, and lifelong learning among teachers as a driver of professional development. The results also showed that research is mostly focused on novice teachers and qualitative methodologies predominate, although this is limited to certain countries and specialised publications. However, generational differences were observed. While younger teachers are more highly trained in ICT, older teachers have a higher level of competence at a processual and relational level in the classroom. In conclusion, it should be noted that teacher training linked to professional development has an impact on school improvement, especially if it is carried out from an intergenerational collaborative perspective, and the acquisition of new skills. Full article