Journal of Intelligence

In the US, undeniable evidence shows that socioeconomic inequities explain a high proportion of individual differences in school achievement. Although not all countries show this same effect due to socioeconomic status, it is consistently found that social inequities lead to achievement gaps. These achievement gaps then manifest into trajectories that set some individuals on a path of lower incomes, poorer health and higher mortality, lower wellbeing, and other poor adult outcomes. Like James Flynn so handily reminded the scientific literature that achievement gaps are explainable by environmental factors, the inequities we see around the world are based on environments some children are exposed to. In his work, Flynn stated his belief that the suppression of scientific work on intelligence would continue to lead to social inequities. We wish to take this idea and move it forward. We believe that the scientific construct of intelligence plays a key role in helping create a more equitable society through science. We also believe that the poor perception of intelligence, rooted in historical realities, means that it will continue to be misunderstood, feared, and misused, limiting how effective it could be in helping to close gaps in achievement and in creating a more equitable society. Full article

Social networks have created an information diffusion corpus that provides users with an environment where they can express their views, form a community, and discuss topics of similar or dissimilar interests. Even though there has been an increasingly rising demand for conducting an emotional analysis of the users on social media platforms, the field of emotional intelligence (EI) has been rather slow in exploiting the enormous potential that social media can play in the research and practice of the framework. This study, thus, tried to examine the role that the microblogging platform Twitter plays in enhancing the understanding of the EI community by building on the Twitter Analytics framework of Natural Language Processing to further develop the insights of EI research and practice. An analysis was conducted on 53,361 tweets extracted using the hashtag emotional intelligence through descriptive analytics (DA), content analytics (CA), and network analytics (NA). The findings indicated that emotional intelligence tweets are used mostly by speakers, psychologists (or other medical professionals), and business organizations, among others. They use it for information dissemination, communication with stakeholders, and hiring. These tweets carry strong positive sentiments and sparse connectedness. The findings present insights into the use of social media for understanding emotional intelligence. Full article

In recent studies, test-score increases have been shown in rule-based intelligence test tasks, such as number series, after watching a corresponding video tutorial. An open question remains regarding the mechanisms involved. Specifically, taking notes to describe the relations between numbers might be linked to test scores, and is hypothesized to mediate the effect of a number series video tutorial on number series test scores. Therefore, an experimental group (EG) watching a number series video tutorial (n = 58) was compared with a control group (CG) watching an irrelevant tutorial (n = 52) before working on number series items. Results revealed higher number series scores in the EG than the CG (d = .48), more items with provided notes in the EG than in the CG (d = .41), and substantial correlations between the number of items with notes and the number series sum scores in both groups (EG: r = .66; CG: r = .75). The effect of the video tutorial on the number series sum score was mediated by the number of items with notes (indirect effect = 3.41, SE = 1.74). Theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions are discussed. Full article

Global policy makers increasingly adopt subjective wellbeing as a framework within which to measure and address human development challenges, including policies to mitigate consequential societal problems. In this review, we take a systems-level perspective to assemble evidence from studies of wellbeing, of collective intelligence, and of metacognition and argue for a virtuous cycle for health promotion in which the increased collective intelligence of groups: (1) enhances the ability of such groups to address consequential societal problems; (2) promotes the wellbeing of societies and the individual wellbeing of people within groups; and, finally, (3) enables prosocial actions that further promote collective problem-solving and global wellbeing. Notably, evidence demonstrates that effective collaboration and teamwork largely depend on social skills for metacognitive awareness—the capacity to evaluate and control our own mental processes in the service of social problem-solving. Yet, despite their importance, metacognitive skills may not be well-captured by measures of general intelligence. These skills have instead been the focus of decades of research in the psychology of human judgment and decision-making. This literature provides well-validated tests of metacognitive awareness and demonstrates that the capacity to use analysis and deliberation to evaluate intuitive responses is an important source of individual differences in decision-making. Research in network neuroscience further elucidates the topology and dynamics of brain networks that enable metacognitive awareness, providing key targets for intervention. As such, we further discuss emerging scientific interventions to enhance metacognitive skills (e.g., based on mindfulness meditation, and physical activity and aerobic fitness), and how such interventions may catalyze the virtuous cycle to improve collective intelligence, societal problem-solving, and global wellbeing. Full article

Although people with autism are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, there is little theoretical or practical effort to determine whether traditional pre-employment assessments unfairly impact autistic job seekers. Due to the lack of emphasis on social communication, game-based assessments (GBAs) may offer a way of assessing candidate ability without disadvantaging autistic candidates. A total of 263 autistic job seekers took one of two game-based assessment packages designed to measure cognitive ability. After comparing their results to 323 college-graduate job seekers in the general population, we found that performance on the GBAs was generally similar in both populations, although some small differences were detected. Implications for hiring decisions are discussed. Full article

U. S. Supreme Court justices and other federal judges are, effectively, appointed for life, with no built-in check on their cognitive functioning as they approach old age. There is about a century of research on aging and intelligence that shows the vulnerability of processing speed, fluid reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory to normal aging for men and women at all levels of education; even the maintained ability of crystallized knowledge declines in old age. The vulnerable abilities impact a person’s decision-making and problem solving; crystallized knowledge, by contrast, measures a person’s general knowledge. The aging-IQ data provide a rationale for assessing the key cognitive abilities of anyone who is appointed to the federal judiciary. Theories of multiple cognitive abilities and processes, most notably the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model, provide a well-researched blueprint for interpreting the plethora of findings from studies of IQ and aging. Sophisticated technical advances in test construction, especially in item-response theory and computerized-adaptive testing, allow for the development of reliable and valid theory-based tests of cognitive functioning. Such assessments promise to be a potentially useful tool for evaluating federal judges to assess the impact of aging on their ability to perform at a level their positions deserve, perhaps to measure their competency to serve the public intelligently. It is proposed that public funding be made available to appoint a panel of experts to develop and validate an array of computerized cognitive tests to identify those justices who are at risk of cognitive impairment. Full article

The inclusion of people with disabilities, intellectual in the case that concerns this research, has been one of the main concerns of society in recent years. The University of Murcia has launched the “We are all Campus” program in order to facilitate the inclusion of this group from a training perspective. Being aware of the influence of self-concept in such inclusion, this research aims to analyze the influence of the self-concept of people with intellectual disabilities in their expectations of inclusion. For this purpose, 18 subjects were asked to carry out a SWOT analysis, assessing the situation in which they find themselves through a qualitative perspective and a phenomenological design. The research reveals, among other conclusions, how important personal development is to them, especially by generating autonomy in their daily routines, and also the relevance of their relationships to feel socially included. Full article

The Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) or three-stratum model of intelligence envisions human intelligence as a hierarchy. General intelligence (g) is situated at the top, under which are a group of broad intelligences such as verbal, visuospatial processing, and quantitative knowledge that pertain to more specific areas of reasoning. Some broad intelligences are people-centered, including personal, emotional, and social intelligences; others concern reasoning about things more generally, such as visuospatial and quantitative knowledge. In the present research, we conducted a meta-analysis of 87 studies, including 2322 effect sizes, to examine the average correlation between people-to-people intelligences relative to the average correlation between people-to-thing-centered intelligences (and similar comparisons). Results clearly support the psychometric distinction between people-centered and thing-centered mental abilities. Coupled with evidence for incremental predictions from people-centered intelligences, our findings provide a secure foundation for continued research focused on people-centered mental abilities. Full article

This paper invokes cognitive developmental theory as a means for preparing citizens to deal with and resolve conflicts within or across nations. We take the centuries-old Greek–Turkish dispute as an example. We first outline a theory of intellectual development postulating that mental changes emerge in response to changing developmental priorities in successive life periods, namely, interaction control in infancy, attention control and representational awareness in preschool, inferential control and cognitive management in primary school, and advanced forms of reasoning and self-evaluation in adolescence. Based on this model, we outline a control theory of wisdom postulating that different aspects of wisdom emerge during development as different levels of control of relations with others: trust and care for others in infancy, taking the other’s perspective, reflectivity, and empathy in preschool, rationality and understanding the rules underlying individual and group interactions in primary school, and understanding the general principles of societal operation explaining the differences in approach and interest between groups in adolescence and early adulthood. We also outline the educational implications of this theory for the education of citizens by capitalizing on intellectual strengths at successive developmental periods to comprehensively understand the world and to act prudently when dealing with interpersonal and social or national conflict. Finally, the paper discusses the political constraints and implications of this theory. This is the first attempt to derive wisdom from the development of cognitive and personality processes from infancy through early adulthood and to connect it to serious world problems. Full article

Business psychologists study and assess relevant individual differences, such as intelligence and personality, in the context of work. Such studies have informed the development of artificial intelligence systems (AI) designed to measure individual differences. This has been capitalized on by companies who have developed AI-driven recruitment solutions that include aggregation of appropriate candidates (Hiretual), interviewing through a chatbot (Paradox), video interview assessment (MyInterview), and CV-analysis (Textio), as well as estimation of psychometric characteristics through image-(Traitify) and game-based assessments (HireVue) and video interviews (Cammio). However, driven by concern that such high-impact technology must be used responsibly due to the potential for unfair hiring to result from the algorithms used by these tools, there is an active effort towards proving mechanisms of governance for such automation. In this article, we apply a systematic algorithm audit framework in the context of the ethically critical industry of algorithmic recruitment systems, exploring how audit assessments on AI-driven systems can be used to assure that such systems are being responsibly deployed in a fair and well-governed manner. We outline sources of risk for the use of algorithmic hiring tools, suggest the most appropriate opportunities for audits to take place, recommend ways to measure bias in algorithms, and discuss the transparency of algorithms. Full article

Cultural intelligence is one’s ability to adapt when confronted with problems arising in interactions with people or artifacts of diverse cultures. In this study, we conduct an initial construct-validation and assessment of a maximum-performance test of cultural intelligence. We assess the psychometric properties of the test and also correlate the test with other measures with which it might be expected there would be some connection. We found that our test was internally consistent and correlated significantly with maximum-performance tests of abilities but generally less or not at all with typical-performance tests, including cultural intelligence and openness to experience. However, our test appears to be distinct in what it measures from the other tests of cognitive abilities. The results lead us to suggest that cultural intelligence may have both maximum-performance and typical-performance aspects. Full article

In recent years, workplace envy has gradually become a hot research topic for organizational behavior. Scholars have explored the antecedents and consequences of envy following the traditional research paradigm. The latest leadership theory also provides new ideas for its development. Although the traditional methods continue to optimize the research on the relationship between leadership and envy, they still do not fully reflect the binary logical relationship between the two and cannot offer sufficient explanatory power for the psychological activities and behaviors of employees and supervisors. In this paper, two pieces of bibliometric software, CiteSpace (American, Drexel University) and Histcite (American, Clarivate Analytics), were used in order to analyze the previous literature in regard to providing a theoretical basis, the main content, and the stages of development. Based on the integration, we propose a dual-track theoretical model of leadership and envy as the prediction framework for future research. The research has returned to the intelligent attribute of leadership and believes that effective leadership can adjust the existence of various types of envy and transform it into the actual productivity of the workplace. Full article

Process-Overlap Theory (POT) suggests that measures of cognitive abilities sample from sets of independent cognitive processes. These cognitive processes can be separated into domain-general executive processes, sampled by the majority of cognitive ability measures, and domain-specific processes, sampled only by measures within a certain domain. According to POT, fluid intelligence measures are related because different tests sample similar domain-general executive cognitive processes to some extent. Re-analyzing data from a study by De Simoni and von Bastian (2018), we assessed domain-general variance from executive processing tasks measuring inhibition, shifting, and efficiency of removal from working memory, as well as examined their relation to a domain-general factor extracted from fluid intelligence measures. The results showed that domain-general factors reflecting general processing speed were moderately and negatively correlated with the domain-general fluid intelligence factor (r = −.17–−.36). However, domain-general factors isolating variance specific to inhibition, shifting, and removal showed only small and inconsistent correlations with the domain-general fluid intelligence factor (r = .02–−.22). These findings suggest that (1) executive processing tasks sample only few domain-general executive processes also sampled by fluid intelligence measures, as well as (2) that domain-general speed of processing contributes more strongly to individual differences in fluid intelligence than do domain-general executive processes. Full article

Emotional awareness is the ability to conceptualize and describe one’s own emotions and those of others. Over thirty years ago, a cognitive-developmental theory of emotional awareness patterned after Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was created as well as a performance measure of this ability called the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). Since then, a large number of studies have been completed in healthy volunteers and clinical populations including those with mental health or systemic medical disorders. Along the way, there have also been further refinements and adaptations of the LEAS such as the creation of a digital version in addition to further advances in the theory itself. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the evolving theoretical background, measurement methods, and empirical findings with the LEAS. The LEAS is a reliable and valid measure of emotional awareness. Evidence suggests that emotional awareness facilitates better emotion self-regulation, better ability to navigate complex social situations and enjoy relationships, and better physical and mental health. This is a relatively new but promising area of research in the domain of socio-emotional skills. The paper concludes with some recommendations for future research. Full article

Here, intelligence is taken to mean scores from psychometric tests of cognitive functions. This essay describes how cognitive tests offer assessments of brain functioning—an otherwise difficult-to-assess organ—that have proved enduringly useful in the field of health and medicine. The two “consequential world problems” (the phrase used by the inviters of this essay) addressed in this article are (i) the ageing of modern societies (and the resulting increase in the numbers of people with ageing-related cognitive decrements and dementias) and (ii) health inequalities, including mortality. Cognitive tests have an ubiquitous place in both of these topics, i.e., the important fields of cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology, respectively. The cognitive tests that have sprouted in these fields are often brief and not mainstream, large psychometric test batteries; I refer to them as ‘irregulars’. These two problems are not separate, because results found with mental/cognitive/intelligence tests have produced a growing understanding that intelligence and health have a reciprocal, life-long relationship. Intelligence tests contribute to the applied research that is trying to help people to stay sharp, stay healthy, and stay alive. Full article

Cognitive abilities are related to job performance. However, there is less agreement about the relative contribution of general versus specific cognitive abilities to job performance. Similarly, it is not clear how cognitive abilities operate in the context of complex occupations. This study assessed the role of cognitive abilities on the performance of three aviation-related jobs: flying, navigation, and air battle management (ABM). Correlated-factor and bifactor models were used to draw a conclusion about the predictive relations between cognitive abilities and job performance. Overall, the importance of particular cognitive abilities tends to vary across the three occupations, and each occupation has different sets of essential abilities. Importantly, the interplay of general versus specific abilities is different across occupations, and some specific abilities also show substantial predictive power. Full article

The Mindset Assessment Profile is a popular questionnaire purportedly designed to measure mindset—an individual’s belief in whether intelligence is malleable or stable. Despite its widespread use, the questionnaire appears to assess an individual’s need for cognition and goal orientation more than mindset. We assessed the reliability, construct validity, and factor structure of the Mindset Assessment Profile in a sample of 992 undergraduates. The reliability of the Mindset Assessment Profile was questionable (α = .63) and significantly lower than the reliability of the Implicit Theories of Intelligence Questionnaire (α = .94), an established measure of mindset. The Mindset Assessment Profile also lacked convergent and discriminant validity. Overall scores on the Mindset Assessment Profile correlated significantly more strongly with need for cognition than with mindset. Item-level analyses supported this finding: most items correlated weakly or not at all with mindset, and correlated significantly more strongly with need for cognition and learning goal orientation. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that three factors were underlying scores on the Mindset Assessment Profile: need for cognition, mindset, and performance goal orientation. Based on its questionable reliability and poor construct validity, we do not recommend that researchers and educators use the Mindset Assessment Profile to measure mindset. Full article