Journal of Intelligence — Open Access Journal

We conducted two studies to replicate and extend, as well as test, the limits of previous findings regarding an apparent disconnect between scientific-reasoning skills in psychological science, on the one hand, and scores on standardized tests of general intelligence, on the other. In Study 1, we examined whether this disconnect would extend beyond psychological science to additional sciences as well, such as nutrition and agriculture. The results did indeed extend, suggesting that scientific reasoning across various natural sciences is comparable to scientific reasoning in psychological science, but different in kind from the reasoning required on conventional standardized tests. In Study 2, we examined whether these findings were linked to the format of presentation of scientific problems. Whereas real scientific-reasoning problems are open-ended, standardized tests tend to use multiple-choice format. We discovered that using multiple-choice format did indeed result in an apparently closer relation of the scientific-reasoning tests to two of the conventional ability measures (SAT Reading and Number Series) but not to two other tests (Letter Sets and SAT Math). Thus, one can increase the correlations of scientific-reasoning tests with at least some standardized ability tests but at the cost of content validity and ecological validity. Full article

Analogical reasoning is assumed to play a large role in learning and problem solving in everyday and school settings. It was examined whether a newly developed dynamic test of analogical reasoning would be sufficiently difficult for identifying young gifted children’s potential for solving analogies. The study included 74 gifted (n = 31) and average-ability (n = 43) children between 7 and 8 years old. Employing a pre-test–training–post-test format, in which half of the children received a graduated prompts training and the other half received a control task between pre-test and post-test, it was investigated (1) whether trained children would improve more in accuracy from pre-test to post-test than their untrained peers, and whether (2) gifted and average-ability children would demonstrate differences in their level of improvement from pre-test to post-test, and (3) their needs for instruction during training. The results indicated that dynamically tested children improved more than those in the control condition. In addition, the dynamic test seemed sufficiently difficult for the gifted children: regardless of whether they were trained, gifted children demonstrated superior accuracy scores than their average-ability agemates at pre-test and post-test, but similar levels of improvement. They were also found to need fewer instructions during training. Full article

This exploratory study shows that the contributions of cognitive, metacognitive awareness, performance avoidance, test anxiety, and socioeconomic family background factors to SAT scores (i.e., overall SAT, SAT-V, SAT-M) may vary as a function of ethnicity (i.e., European-American, Hispanic). Four hundred and fifty-seven students, 282 European-American and 175 Hispanic, completed multiple measures of cognitive, metacognitive awareness, social/personality (i.e., test anxiety, performance avoidance, academic self-efficacy), and socioeconomic family background factors, which were used in regression analyses predicting overall SAT, SAT-V, and SAT-M scores. The results show that most factors contributed significantly to overall SAT, SAT-M, and SAT-V scores. In addition, the ethnicity X test anxiety interaction was significant for all three SAT measures, a finding that suggests ethnic differences in the contributions of test anxiety to overall SAT, SAT-M, and SAT-V scores. For European-American students, test anxiety had no influence on overall SAT and SAT-M scores, whereas for Hispanic students test anxiety had a negative influence on overall SAT and SAT-M scores. For SAT-V scores, interpreting the ethnicity X test anxiety interaction was more complicated because both the significant main effect of test anxiety and the ethnicity X test anxiety interaction must be interpreted together. Whereas test anxiety negatively influenced European-Americans’ SAT-V scores, this negative influence was less than the influence it had on Hispanic students’ SAT-V scores. Indeed, for Hispanic students with high test anxiety, this negative influence was profound. Taken as a whole, these results suggest that any theory explaining the SAT may need to take into account multiple predictors as well as the possibility that the contributions of these predictors may vary as a function of ethnicity. Full article

Assessing job applicants’ general mental ability online poses psychometric challenges due to the necessity of having brief but accurate tests. Recent research (Myszkowski & Storme, 2018) suggests that recovering distractor information through Nested Logit Models (NLM; Suh & Bolt, 2010) increases the reliability of ability estimates in reasoning matrix-type tests. In the present research, we extended this result to a different context (online intelligence testing for recruitment) and in a larger sample ( $N=2949$ job applicants). We found that the NLMs outperformed the Nominal Response Model (Bock, 1970) and provided significant reliability gains compared with their binary logistic counterparts. In line with previous research, the gain in reliability was especially obtained at low ability levels. Implications and practical recommendations are discussed. Full article

Current taxonomies of intelligence comprise two factors of mental speed, clerical speed (Gs), and elementary cognitive speed (Gt). Both originated from different research traditions and are conceptualized as dissociable constructs in current taxonomies. However, previous research suggests that tasks of one category can be transferred into the other category by simply changing the mode of administration, i.e., in form of a paper-and-pencil test or in from of a computer-based elementary cognitive task. However, cross-mode correlations for specific tasks are usually only moderate. In the present study, mental speed was assessed as a broad construct across different tasks and stimulus materials. This allowed modeling mental speed as a hierarchical construct for paper-and-pencil as well as for computer-based tests. Cross-mode correlations of the respective general factors were moderate (r = 0.64), while the cross-mode correlations of task-specific components depended on task type (r = 0.12 to r = 0.71). Only the g factors of mental speed, but not the task-specific components, were found to be related with working memory capacity as a marker of cognitive ability. The speed general factor modeled across computer-based tests was more highly correlated with working memory capacity (r = 0.66) than the general factor modeled across paper-and-pencil tests (r = 0.46). These findings corroborate a crucial role of the assessment method and imply that validity of speed tests is affected by the choice of the test format. Full article

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is an essential 21st century skill at the intersection of social collaboration and cognitive problem solving, and is increasingly integrated in educational programs, such as the influential Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). As research has identified the impact of the Big Five personality traits either on cognitive ability or social collaboration skills in groups, this study firstly identified their impact on the conjoint construct of CPS. Results from structural equation modelling (N = 483) found openness to experience and agreeableness as predictors for CPS performance. The results are embedded in the lifelong learning and investment model by Ackermann and provide implications for PISA 2015, as original PISA 2015 CPS tasks were used. Full article

There has been increased interest in assessing the quality and usefulness of short versions of the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. A recent proposal, composed of the last twelve matrices of the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM-LS), has been depicted as a valid measure of g. Nonetheless, the results provided in the initial validation questioned the assumption of essential unidimensionality for SPM-LS scores. We tested this hypothesis through two different statistical techniques. Firstly, we applied exploratory graph analysis to assess SPM-LS dimensionality. Secondly, exploratory bi-factor modelling was employed to understand the extent that potential specific factors represent significant sources of variance after a general factor has been considered. Results evidenced that if modelled appropriately, SPM-LS scores are essentially unidimensional, and that constitute a reliable measure of g. However, an additional specific factor was systematically identified for the last six items of the test. The implications of such findings for future work on the SPM-LS are discussed. Full article

The present study set out to explore the locus of the poorly understood but frequently reported and comparatively large practice effect in sustained attention tests. Drawing on a recently proposed process model of sustained attention tests, several cognitive tasks were administered twice in order to examine which specific component of test performance benefitted from practice and to which extent. It was shown that the tasks representing the three sub-components of sustained attention tests, namely the perception of an item, the simple mental operation to solve an item, and the motor reaction to indicate a response to an item, benefitted from practice. Importantly, the largest practice gain was observed for the task that required item-solving processes in addition to perceptual and motor processes. Two additional postulated mechanisms in sustained attention tests—the deliberate shifting between items and the preprocessing of upcoming items—did not become more efficient through practice. Altogether, the present study shows that the practice effect in sustained attention tests seems to be primarily due to faster item-solving processes and, to a limited extent, due to a faster perception of the item, as well as a faster motor response. Moreover, besides the sub-components, it is likely that also the coordination of perceptual, item-solving, and motor processes benefitted from practice. Altogether, the present paper may have taken a first step towards a better understanding of the specific processes that cause the large practice gains in sustained attention tests. Full article

The aim of this study was to investigate sex similarities and differences in visuospatial and fluid abilities and IQ scores based on those abilities in children aged two to eight. Standardization data from the Snijders-Oomen Nonverbal Intelligence Test for Children aged 2–8 (SON-R 2–8) were used. A representative sample composed of 965 children from the Netherlands and 762 children from Germany was examined. Small but significant mean sex differences favoring girls were observed until age four. At ages six and seven, boys achieved similar cognitive development levels to girls regarding all abilities assessed and outperformed girls on the Mosaics subtest measuring visuospatial cognition. Boys also displayed higher variability rates in performance. The distribution of IQ scores, with the overrepresentation of girls scoring above mean and the overrepresentation of boys scoring below mean in early childhood, altered with age towards parity between the sexes. The results suggest that girls tend to mature earlier with respect to cognitive abilities. During the course of development, however, the differences between girls and boys may become negligible. Full article

In a recent article, Wundrack et al. (2018) put forward an elaborate and intriguing hypothesis on enhanced perspective-taking (Theory of Mind) ability as a consequence of higher personality state variability. While there is evidence in favor of this hypothesis, the clinical examples of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, as highlighted by the authors, demonstrate that a high state variability can also be accompanied by a lower perspective-taking ability (as commonly observed in these disorders). We suggest that only those state changes which are initiated on a voluntary basis and are accompanied by self-awareness go along with a higher perspective-taking ability. Introducing self-awareness as a moderating factor might help explain seemingly conflicting findings related to the hypothesis proposed in the target article. Moreover, we argue that the direction of causality proposed in the target article is not the only conceivable one, and perspective-taking ability could also be a cause, not just a consequence, of personality state variability. Finally, we provide suggestions on how these hypotheses could be tested in future studies. Full article

The aim of this multiple-case study was to find out how the most successful team of the 1971 Mathematical Olympiad in Hungary developed professionally. It is impressive that in 1971, no fewer than four participants on the Hungarian team received gold medals and four participants received silver medals. Seven of the eight analyzed participants on the team came from a grammar school in Budapest. Three of the four gold medal winners achieved remarkable academic positions. On average, professional positions were achieved (as scored by the magnitude prestige scale) well above the average for a normal grammar school sample. Interestingly, the calculated average of the Hungarian team (156.5 ± 15.5) was slightly higher than that of the comparison team from Sweden (142.8 ± 30.5), but this difference was not significant (p = 0.351). In principle, excellence seems to result in excellence. For several former participants on the Hungarian team, it was shown that they continued to be extremely successful in the field of mathematics, with a thematic focus in the field of statistics and probability calculations. Full article

The articles in this special issue provide an overview of the wide breadth of questions and methodologies that arise when the research devoted to intelligence intersect with the research devoted to U.S. education. The unique contributions of each paper are highlighted and discussed based on their contribution to the literature. The implications of these findings for educational research and policy are briefly discussed. Full article

Achievement gaps refer to the difference in the performance on assessments of students belonging to different social groups. Achievement gaps between ethnic groups have been observed in countries with heterogeneous populations. In this paper, achievement gaps between ethnic populations in Brazil were analyzed by studying the performance of a large cohort of senior high-school students in a standardized national exam. Ethnic groups were stratified by Brazilian states and socio-economic variables to homogeneize the groups, and the analyses focused on the disciplines of mathematics and writing that involve different cognitive functions. A Welch’s t-test analysis was performed and key socio-economic variables that may explain the gaps were studied. The results show that gaps between ethnic groups of students living in low-income households were either statistically insignificant or small (2– $6\%$ ) if statistically significant. Larger gaps however were observed for students coming from high-income families in some contexts. Although parental education was associated with higher performance, it may either increase, decrease or maintain the gaps between White and Black, and between White and Pardo students. Our results support that socio-economic variables, linked to historical developments, have an impact on student’s performance irrespective of ethnic background, resulting on little to no influence on group performance when students are exposed to similar cultural and economic contexts. Full article

In The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould argued that the preconceived beliefs and biases of scientists influence their methods and conclusions. To show the potential consequences of this, Gould used examples from the early days of psychometrics and allied fields, arguing that inappropriate assumptions and an elitist desire to rank individuals and/or groups produced incorrect results. In this article, we investigate a section of The Mismeasure of Man in which Gould evaluated the Army Beta intelligence test for illiterate American draftees in World War I. We evaluated Gould’s arguments that the Army Beta (a) had inappropriate content, (b) had unsuitable administration conditions, (c) suffered from short time limits, and (d) could not have measured intelligence. By consulting the historical record and conducting a pre-registered replication of Gould’s administration of the test to a sample of college students, we show that Gould mischaracterized the Army Beta in a number of ways. Instead, the Army Beta was a well-designed test by the standards of the time, and all evidence indicates that it measured intelligence a century ago and can, to some extent, do so today. Full article

We review papers in the special issue regarding the great debate on general and specific abilities. Papers in the special issue either provided an empirical examination of the debate using a uniform dataset or they provided a debate commentary. Themes that run through the papers and that are discussed further here are that: (1) the importance of general and specific ability predictors will largely depend on the outcome to be predicted, (2) the effectiveness of both general and specific predictors will largely depend on the quality and breadth of how the manifest indicators are measured, and (3) research on general and specific ability predictors is alive and well and more research is warranted. We conclude by providing a review of potentially fruitful areas of future research. Full article

People use their personal intelligence (PI) to understand personality in themselves and others. In Studies 1 and 2 (Ns = 961 and 548), individuals completed the Test of Personal Intelligence, Version 5 (TOPI 5), which is introduced here. The TOPI 5 is an ability assessment with a broader range of content and more challenging items than earlier test versions. In past research, factor analyses indicated that people employ two distinct but highly correlated abilities to problem-solve in this area. These two-factor models, however, exhibited instabilities and limited applicability between the TOPI 4 and 5 in this research (and as reported in the Supplementary Materials). In Study 3, we successfully test the one-factor models of the TOPI with the present data and archival data sets (N_archival = 19,627). We then use the one-factor models to develop a pair of new test forms: one that is compatible with all the TOPI test versions and another, TOPI 5E, that is better at distinguishing among people scoring in the higher range of performance relative to previous measures. Full article

Taking up new approaches and calls for experimental test validation, in the present study we propose and validate a process model of sustained attention tests. Four sub-components were postulated: the perception of an item, a simple mental operation to solve the item, a motor reaction, and the shift to the next item. In two studies, several cognitive tasks and modified versions of the d2-R test of sustained attention were applied in order to determine performance in the proposed sub-components. Their contribution for the prediction of performance in sustained attention tests and tests of higher cognitive abilities was assessed. The sub-components of the process model explained a large amount of variance in sustained attention tests, namely 55–74%. More specifically, perceptual and mental operation speed were the strongest predictors, while there was a trend towards a small influence of motor speed on test performance. The measures of item shifting showed low reliabilities and did not predict test scores. In terms of discriminant validity, results of Study 1 indicated that the postulated sub-components were insufficient to explain a large amount of variance in working memory span tasks, in Study 2 the same was demonstrated for reasoning tasks. Altogether, the present study is the first to disentangle sub-components in sustained attention tests and to determine their role for test performance. Full article

This study explored a longitudinal data set of 4361 adults (2119 males and 2239 females) to examine factors that influence adult vocabulary task performance. Data were collected at birth, in childhood (age 10 years), during teenage years (age 16 years), and in adulthood (ages 30, 34, and 42 years) to examine the effects of family social status, childhood cognitive ability, teenager locus of control, psychological distress, educational qualifications, and occupational prestige in adulthood on an adult vocabulary task—an index of crystallized intelligence. Structural equation modeling showed that childhood cognitive ability, teenager locus of control, education, and occupation were all significant and direct predictors of adult vocabulary task performance. Parental social status affected the outcome variable mediated through educational qualifications. The strongest predictor of adult vocabulary task performance was childhood cognitive ability, followed by educational qualifications and locus of control. Finally, limitations were acknowledged. Full article