J. Intell., Volume 12, Issue 5 (May 2024) – 3 articles

This study provides an empirical test of a previously proposed assertion that intelligence as adaptation has an attitudinal as well as an ability component. The ability component deals with what the basic knowledge and skills are that underlie intelligence, and how much of each one an individual has. The attitudinal component deals with how an individual chooses to deploy the abilities they have. In other words, to what use are the abilities put? It is argued that it is impossible fully to separate the measurement of the ability component from the attitudinal one. In a diverse population, even taking an intelligence test will show itself to involve an attitude toward the test, which may enhance or detract from performance, as when one sees the test as irrelevant or harmful to one’s life, or as a sociocultural misfit to one’s life experience. To succeed, people need not only to have abilities, but attitudes that put those abilities to effective use to accomplish individuals’ life goals. In the study, we found that intelligent attitudes are related, but non-identical, to germane constructs, such as wisdom, the need for cognition, creativity, and openness to experience. Scores on the attitudinal measure were not related to scores on tests of fluid intelligence and academic abilities/achievement. Thus, the range of attitudes regarding how to deploy intelligence can vary over ability levels. Full article

In this study, an investigation was conducted into the types of attitudes that parents may have of gifted students and gifted education, and the predictors of these attitudes. Using data collected from 331 parents of students enrolled in a Christian faith-based school system in one of the eight states/territories of Australia, multiple analyses, including exploratory factor analysis and latent profile analysis, were performed. The results revealed three subgroups of parents, each representing distinct attitude profiles (i.e., “strong”, “moderate” and “weak” supporters of gifted students and gifted education). Furthermore, we found nine variables to be potential predictors of parent attitudes, including perceptions of the giftedness of one’s child, and the anticipated socio-emotional and academic impacts of giftedness and gifted education. Some of the important contributions of the study to the research literature included the distinction made by parents between attitudes toward gifted education adaptations and attitudes toward special gifted education settings, and the comparatively large number of parents who are moderately (rather than strongly or weakly) supportive of gifted students and gifted education. Full article

People often cling to their beliefs even in the face of counterevidence. The current study explored metacognitive reflection as a potential driver for belief updating. In a randomized controlled experiment (n = 155), participants rated their degree of agreement with a statement regarding genetic modification in humans. Following this, participants were presented with a passage containing an argument counter to their indicated belief. Participants in the metacognition condition were asked to deeply reflect on the ways in which the passage was similar to or different from their current beliefs. Participants in the control condition were asked to engage in more shallow reflection on the composition of the passage. After reflecting on the counterevidence, participants were asked to again rate their agreement with the statement regarding human gene modification. Both groups updated their initial beliefs to be more consistent with the presented counterevidence. Although greater belief updating was observed in those who metacognitively reflected on the passage, this effect did not reach significance (p = .055). These findings suggest that reflecting on counterevidence has the potential to encourage belief updating, regardless of whether that reflection is metacognitive in nature, and provide promise for future work investigating the role of metacognition in belief updating. Full article