ACT and general cognitive ability

Assessing the predictive validity of expectancy theory for academic performance

BACKGROUND

Despite expectancy theory's widespread appeal and influence as a framework for motivation in organizational and educational settings, studies that have examined the theory's validity for performance-based outcomes, particularly with academic performance as the criterion, have been characterized by inconsistent results. Given numerous methodological concerns associated with past studies (e.g., prevalence of between-person rather than within-person design), we examined the predictive validity of expectancy theory for academic performance using methods that were consistent with the theory's original conceptualization. Additionally, we assessed the validity of the theory for students' study effort.

METHODS

The final sample included 123 undergraduate students who reported their final grades in four courses. Study effort and other variables were measured with self-report surveys. Because course grades were nested within each person, multilevel modeling was used to test study hypotheses.

RESULTS

Both the valence model and the force model predicted a student's current study effort, but contrary to expectations, neither model predicted a student's final course grades. In contrast, both valence for academic success and the simplified force model (based only on valence and expectancy) predicted current study effort, final course grades, and explained incremental variance beyond cognitive ability. Furthermore, the predictive validity of this force model was relatively stable across the 11 weeks of the study.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on methods congruent with expectancy theory's original framework, we find that the force model does not predict academic performance. An alternative version of the model, however, predicts course grades and has incremental validity over cognitive ability. Our results have several significant theoretical and practical implications.

Mental counters as an online tool for assessing working memory capacity

Working memory capacity (WMC) describes an individual's ability to focus their attention in the face of interference which allows them to actively maintain and manipulate information in immediate memory. Individual differences in WMC predict a wide range of psychological constructs. The development of online measures can enable data collection from broader, more diverse samples than those typically collected in person in laboratory settings. In addition, logistical challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have mandated the need for reliable and valid remote assessments of individual differences that are both culture-fair and less susceptible to cheating. This study reports details of a new online version of a Mental Counters task that takes only 10 min to collect and provides evidence for its reliability and convergent validity with other measures including Picture Span and Paper Folding.

Predictors of standardized in-service examination performance and residency outcomes in a graduate periodontics program

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study were to assess the influence of learner- and education-related factors on standardized in-service examination performance and determine whether in-service examination scores predict residency outcomes.

METHODS

American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) In-service Examination (AIE) scores from 10 periodontics residency classes at a single center were recorded and compared against a panel of learner- and education-related variables using multiple linear regression models. Defined residency outcome measures were analyzed against AIE scores using binomial logistic regression.

RESULTS

No evaluated learner- or education-related variable was a statistically significant predictor of AIE score in this study sample. Likewise, AIE score was not a statistically significant predictor of any assessed residency outcome.

CONCLUSIONS

The AAP has performed a tremendous service to periodontics residents and programs by marshaling the leadership and expertise necessary to offer a professionally constructed assessment instrument. However, in the current study, no relationship could be identified between AIE score and any outcome, including first-attempt board certification. The AAP In-service Committee appears well situated to provide additional leadership focusing on exam implementation, which may enhance AIE value in competency decision making.

Method considerations for school psychology from longitudinal research on gifted students

This article draws from longitudinal research on gifted students to provide method considerations for school psychology research. First, we provide some background of gifted and talented education in the United States. Then, drawing from multiple longitudinal samples of gifted students, in particular the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), we illustrate the role of replications, including constructive replications. In the middle two sections, we highlight methodological design features focused first on predictors, and then on outcomes, considering types, magnitude, and breadth. Finally, we provide additional considerations and future directions, including expanding the outcome domain, overcoming the limitations of past gifted and talented research studies, and suggesting possibilities for future research. Our article may help improve school psychology research as well as assist school psychology researchers interested in conducting their own longitudinal studies using gifted samples.

An item response theory analysis of the matrix reasoning item bank (MaRs-IB)

Matrix reasoning tasks are among the most widely used measures of cognitive ability in the behavioral sciences, but the lack of matrix reasoning tests in the public domain complicates their use. Here, we present an extensive investigation and psychometric validation of the matrix reasoning item bank (MaRs-IB), an open-access set of matrix reasoning items. In a first study, we calibrate the psychometric functioning of the items in the MaRs-IB in a large sample of adult participants (N = 1501). Using additive multilevel item structure models, we establish that the MaRs-IB has many desirable psychometric properties: its items span a wide range of difficulty, possess medium-to-large levels of discrimination, and exhibit robust associations between item complexity and difficulty. However, we also find that item clones are not always psychometrically equivalent and cannot be assumed to be exchangeable. In a second study, we demonstrate how experimenters can use the estimated item parameters to design new matrix reasoning tests using optimal item assembly. Specifically, we design and validate two new sets of test forms in an independent sample of adults (N = 600). We find these new tests possess good reliability and convergent validity with an established measure of matrix reasoning. We hope that the materials and results made available here will encourage experimenters to use the MaRs-IB in their research.

Joint Latent Space Model for Social Networks with Multivariate Attributes

In social, behavioral and economic sciences, researchers are interested in modeling a social network among a group of individuals, along with their attributes. The attributes can be responses to survey questionnaires and are often high dimensional. We propose a joint latent space model (JLSM) that summarizes information from the social network and the multivariate attributes in a person-attribute joint latent space. We develop a variational Bayesian expectation-maximization estimation algorithm to estimate the attribute and person locations in the joint latent space. This methodology allows for effective integration, informative visualization and prediction of social networks and attributes. Using JLSM, we explore the French financial elites based on their social networks and their career, political views and social status. We observe a division in the social circles of the French elites in accordance with the differences in their attributes. We analyze user networks and behaviors in multimodal social media systems like YouTube. A R package "jlsm" is developed to fit the models proposed in this paper and is publicly available from the CRAN repository https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/jlsm/jlsm.pdf .

An Historical Causal-Chain Theory of Conceptions of Intelligence

Lurking behind every conception of intelligence—whether an implicit (folk) or explicit (expert-generated) conception—is an underlying theory of meaning that specifies the form the theory of intelligence does and, indeed, can take. These underlying theories of meaning become presuppositions for the conception’s form. The theories of meaning have different origins—for example, psycholinguistic, philosophical, and anthropological. This essay reviews the different underlying theories of meaning and proposes a new historical causal-chain theory of conceptions of intelligence. The underlying theories of meaning affect the flexibility and modifiability of laypersons’ (implicit) and experts’ (explicit) conceptions of intelligence. As a result, these historical causal chains have profound but largely invisible effects on societies.

The Evolution of Intelligence: Analysis of the Journal of Intelligence and Intelligence

What are the current trends in intelligence research? This parallel bibliometric analysis covers the two premier journals in the field: Intelligence and the Journal of Intelligence (JOI) between 2013 and 2022. Using Scopus data, this paper extends prior bibliometric articles reporting the evolution of the journal Intelligence from 1977 up to 2018. It includes JOI from its inception, along with Intelligence to the present. Although the journal Intelligence's growth has declined over time, it remains a stronghold for traditional influential research (average publications per year = 71.2, average citations per article = 17.07, average citations per year = 2.68). JOI shows a steady growth pattern in the number of publications and citations (average publications per year = 33.2, average citations per article = 6.48, total average citations per year = 1.48) since its inception in 2013. Common areas of study across both journals include cognitive ability, fluid intelligence, psychometrics-statistics, g-factor, and working memory. Intelligence includes core themes like the Flynn effect, individual differences, and geographic IQ variability. JOI addresses themes such as creativity, personality, and emotional intelligence. We discuss research trends, co-citation networks, thematic maps, and their implications for the future of the two journals and the evolution and future of the scientific study of intelligence.

The ACT Predicts Academic Performance-But Why?

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.

The Relationship Between Religiousness/Spirituality and Psychometric Intelligence in the United States

An inverse relationship between religiousness/spirituality (R/S) and psychometric intelligence (IQ) is well-documented in previous literature. However, the studies that have examined group differences on IQ regarding R/S have limited generalizability. The present study contributed to the literature by evaluating IQ among participants identifying as differentially religious/spiritual (i.e., religious only, spiritual only, both religious and spiritual, or neither religious nor spiritual) and among those classified as either Christian/Catholic, Atheist, or Agnostic. Four hundred and thirty-two participants (M age = 37.9; 36% men) participated online via Amazon's Mechanical Turk as part of a larger study and completed a brief measure of IQ, a scale of religiousness and spirituality, and a demographics questionnaire. Correlations between IQ and self-reported religiousness/spirituality were small and negative (Mean r = -0.17), consistent with previous literature. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) controlling for age, gender, education, and socioeconomic status (operationalized by estimated annual household income) indicated that IQ scores tended to be lowest (p < 0.001) for "religious only" participants (estimated marginal mean [EMM] = 93.0) and highest for "neither religious nor spiritual" participants (EMM = 103.7). Furthermore, IQ scores were significantly lower (ps < 0.001) for Christian/Catholic participants (EMM = 96.7) compared to both Atheist (EMM = 104.9) and Agnostic participants (EMM = 107.5). Discussion of these findings, relationships to previous theoretical and empirical work, limitations of the present study, and directions for future inquiry are provided.

The Intelligent Attitude: What Is Missing from Intelligence Tests

Intelligence, like creativity and wisdom, has an attitudinal component as well as an ability-based one. The attitudinal component is at least as important as the ability-based one. Theories of intelligence, in ignoring the attitudinal component of intelligence, have failed to account fully or accurately for why so many people who have relatively high levels of intelligence as an ability fail fully to deploy their ability, especially toward positive ends. The article reviews the need to view intelligence as comprising an attitude as well as an ability, and surveys reasons why people's lack of an intelligent attitude hinders their deployment of intelligence. Suggestions are made for how things could change in a positive way.

Student Characteristics, Institutional Factors, and Outcomes in Higher Education and Beyond: An Analysis of Standardized Test Scores and Other Factors at the Institutional Level with School Rankings and Salary

When seeking to explain the eventual outcomes of a higher education experience, do the personal attributes and background factors students bring to college matter more than what the college is able to contribute to the development of the student through education or other institutional factors? Most education studies tend to simply ignore cognitive aptitudes and other student characteristics—in particular the long history of research on this topic—since the focus is on trying to assess the impact of education. Thus, the role of student characteristics has in many ways been underappreciated in even highly sophisticated quantitative education research. Conversely, educational and institutional factors are not as prominent in studies focused on cognitive aptitudes, as these fields focus first on reasoning capacity, and secondarily on other factors. We examine the variance in student outcomes due to student (e.g., cognitive aptitudes) versus institutional characteristics (e.g., teachers, schools). At the level of universities, two contemporary U.S. datasets are used to examine the proportion of variance accounted for in various university rankings and long-run salary by student cognitive characteristics and institutional factors. We find that depending upon the ways the variables are entered into regression models, the findings are somewhat different. We suggest some fruitful paths forward which might integrate the methods and findings showing that teachers and schools matter, along with the broader developmental bounds within which these effects take place.

Adaptive Intelligence: Its Nature and Implications for Education

This article introduces the concept of adaptive intelligence—the intelligence one needs to adapt to current problems and anticipate future problems of real-world environments—and discusses its implications for education. Adaptive intelligence involves not only promoting one’s own ability to survive and thrive, but also that of others in one’s own generation and in future generations. The article opens with a discussion of some of the strengths but also the limitations of the concept of general intelligence. It then discusses the concept of adaptive intelligence. Then, it breaks down adaptive intelligence into its constituent parts—creative, analytical, practical, and wisdom-based skills and attitudes. Finally, it discusses how the concept of adaptive intelligence can be operationalized in schools.

Developing and Validating a Short-Form Questionnaire for the Assessment of Seven Facets of Conscientiousness in Large-Scale Assessments

Conscientiousness is the most important personality predictor of academic achievement. It consists of several lower order facets with differential relations to academic achievement. There is currently no short instrument assessing facets of conscientiousness in the educational context. Therefore, in the present multi-study report, we develop and validate a short-form questionnaire for the assessment of seven Conscientiousness facets, namely Industriousness, Perfectionism, Tidiness, Procrastination Refrainment, Control, Caution, and Task Planning. To this end, we examined multiple representative samples totaling N = 14,604 Grade 9 and 10 students from Luxembourg. The questionnaire was developed by adapting and shortening an existing scale using an exhaustive search algorithm. The algorithm was specified to select the best item combination based on model fit, reliability, and measurement invariance across the German and French language versions. The resulting instrument showed the expected factorial structure. The relations of the facets with personality constructs and academic achievement were in line with theoretical assumptions. Reliability was acceptable for all facets. Measurement invariance across language versions, gender, immigration status and cohort was established. We conclude that the presented questionnaire provides a short measurement of seven facets of Conscientiousness with valid and reliable scores.

Integrating Diverse Points of View on Intelligence: A 6P Framework and Its Implications

This article introduces a 6P framework for understanding intelligence, as well as the theories and tests that are derived from it. The 6Ps in the framework are purpose, press, problems, persons, processes, and products underlying intelligence. Each of the 6Ps is considered in turn. We argue that although the purpose of intelligence is culturally universal, the other Ps can vary at least somewhat over time and space. A single theory or test of intelligence represents a particular configuration of the 6Ps, but other configurations of the 6Ps might yield different theories and different tests.

Is it worth it? The costs and benefits of bringing a laptop to a university class

Students often bring laptops to university classes, however, they do not limit their laptop use to class-related activity. Off-task laptop use occurs frequently in university classrooms and this use negatively impacts learning. The present study addresses whether potential benefits of class-related laptop use might mitigate the costs of off-task laptop activity. We used tracking software to monitor both class-related and off-task laptop use by undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology course, and we observed how types of laptop use related to course performance. We found a positive correlation between class-related use and exam scores that was driven by viewing lecture slides during class. We also found a negative correlation between off-task laptop use and exam scores, but class-related activities did not predict an increase in off-task use. Thus, for students who constrain their laptop use to class-related activity, the benefits outweigh the costs. While a laptop may be beneficial for some, it is unclear which students are able to constrain themselves to class-related activities and whether the benefits of class-related laptop use obtained by slide viewing could be achieved by other means. Thus, students and educators should carefully consider the costs and benefits of laptop use in the classroom.

Adjectives vs. Statements in Forced Choice and Likert Item Types: Which Is More Resistant to Impression Management in Personality Assessment?

Our objective was to compare individuals' ability to intentionally make a positive impression when responding to a Five-Factor Model personality measure under adjective vs. statement and forced choice vs. Likert conditions. Participants were 1,798 high school students who were randomly assigned to either a condition receiving normal instructions or instructions to make a positive impression. We compared the groups' scores and validity estimates under the various conditions. Although impression management occurred on all item types, participants could more easily manipulate their responses to Likert items vs. forced choice items, and statements vs. adjectives. Item type made little difference in terms of convergent and discriminant validity and criterion-related validity for all outcomes but one, ACT scores, which suggests cognitive ability plays a role in impression management ability.

Individual Differences in Miserly Thinking Predict Endorsement of Racial/Ethnic Stereotypes

The “cognitive miser” metaphor is a classic characterization of mental life wherein cognitive efficiency is favored over careful and reflective thinking. A presumed implication is that reliance on intuitive processing in the absence of reflective thinking should encourage stereotyping. However, research to date has not adequately tested whether proclivities to engage reflective thinking correspond with less stereotype endorsement, nor if their influence occurs independent of cognitive ability and epistemic motivation. In two studies, we conducted straightforward tests of this hypothesis by measuring individual differences in miserly or reflective thinking, cognitive ability, and epistemic motivation as unique predictors of stereotype endorsement. We utilized objective, performance-based measures of reflective thinking via the Cognitive Reflection Test. The results provide the first direct evidence for the cognitive miser hypothesis. Individual differences in miserly thinking predicted endorsements of racial/ethnic stereotypes independent of cognitive ability and epistemic motivation.

Gesture during math instruction specifically benefits learners with high visuospatial working memory capacity

Background

Characteristics of both teachers and learners influence mathematical learning. For example, when teachers use hand gestures to support instruction, students learn more than others who learn the same concept with only speech, and students with higher working memory capacity (WMC) learn more rapidly than those with lower WMC. One hypothesis for the effect of gesture on math learning is that gestures provide a signal to learners that can reduce demand on working memory resources during learning. However, it is not known what sort of working memory resources support learning with gesture. Gestures are motoric; they co-occur with verbal language and they are perceived visually.

Methods

In two studies, we investigated the relationship between mathematical learning with or without gesture and individual variation in verbal, visuospatial, and kinesthetic WMC. Students observed a videotaped lesson in a novel mathematical system that either included instruction with both speech and gesture (Study 1) or instruction with only speech (Study 2). After instruction, students solved novel problems in the instructed system and transfer problems in a related system. Finally, students completed verbal, visuospatial, and kinesthetic working memory assessments.

Results

There was a positive relationship between visuospatial WMC and math learning when gesture was present, but no relationship between visuospatial WMC and math learning when gesture was absent. Rather, when gesture was absent, there was a relationship between verbal WMC and math learning.

Conclusion

Providing gesture during instruction appears to change the cognitive resources recruited when learning a novel math task.

Social and general intelligence improves collective action in a common pool resource system

On a planet experiencing global environmental change, the governance of natural resources depends on sustained collective action by diverse populations. Engaging in such collective action can only build upon the foundation of human cognition in social-ecological settings. To help understand this foundation, we assess the effect of cognitive abilities on the management of a common pool resource. We present evidence that two functionally distinct cognitive abilities, general and social intelligence, improve the ability of groups to manage a common pool resource. Groups high in both forms of intelligence engage in more effective collective action that is also more consistent, despite social or ecological change. This result provides a foundation for integrating the effects of cognitive abilities with other dimensions of cognitive diversity to explain when groups will and will not sustainably govern natural resources.

Why Intelligence Is Missing from American Education Policy and Practice, and What Can Be Done About It

To understand why education as a field has not incorporated intelligence, we must consider the field's history and culture. Accordingly, in this cross-disciplinary collaboration between a political scientist who studies institutions and a psychologist who studies intelligence, we outline how the roots of contemporary American Educational Leadership as a field determine its contemporary avoidance of the concept of intelligence. Rooted in early 20th century progressivism and scientific management, Educational Leadership theory envisions professionally run schools as "Taylorist" factories with teaching and leadership largely standardized, prioritizing compliance over cognitive ability among educators. Further, the roots of modern education theory do not see the intelligence of students as largely malleable. Hence, prioritizing intelligence is viewed as elitist. For more than a century, these assumptions have impacted recruitment into education as a profession. We conclude with ideas about how to bring intelligence into mainstream schooling, within the existing K-12 education institutional context. We believe that better integration of intelligence and broader individual differences research in education policy and practice would lead to more rapid advances to finding evidence based solutions to help children.

What We Know, Are Still Getting Wrong, and Have Yet to Learn about the Relationships among the SAT, Intelligence and Achievement

Fifteen years ago, Frey and Detterman established that the SAT (and later, with Koenig, the ACT) was substantially correlated with measures of general cognitive ability and could be used as a proxy measure for intelligence (Frey and Detterman, 2004; Koenig, Frey, and Detterman, 2008). Since that finding, replicated many times and cited extensively in the literature, myths about the SAT, intelligence, and academic achievement continue to spread in popular domains, online, and in some academic administrators. This paper reviews the available evidence about the relationships among the SAT, intelligence, and academic achievement, dispels common myths about the SAT, and points to promising future directions for research in the prediction of academic achievement.

Cognitive aptitude, peers, and trajectories of marijuana use from adolescence through young adulthood

BACKGROUND

Using a nationally representative longitudinal cohort, we examine how cognitive aptitude in early adolescence is associated with heterogeneous pathways of marijuana use from age sixteen through young adulthood. We also examine whether this relationship can be explained by the role of cognitive aptitude in the social organization of peer group deviance.

METHODS

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we identified 5 latent trajectories of frequency of marijuana use between ages 16 and 26: abstainers, dabblers, early heavy quitters, consistent users, and persistent heavy users. Multinomial regression assessed the relationship of cognitive aptitude in early adolescence with these latent trajectories, including the role of peer group substance use in this relationship.

RESULTS

A one decile increase in cognitive aptitude in early adolescence is associated with greater relative risk of the dabbler trajectory (RR = 1.048; p < .001) and consistent user trajectory (RR = 1.126; p < .001), but lower relative risk of the early heavy quitter trajectory (RR = 0.917; p < .05) in comparison with the abstainer trajectory. There was no effect for the persistent heavy user trajectory. The inclusion of peer group substance use-either via illegal drugs or smoking-had no effect on these relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescents who rate higher in cognitive aptitude during early adolescence may be more likely to enter into consistent but not extreme trajectories of marijuana use as they age into young adulthood. Cognition may not influence patterns of marijuana use over time via the organization of peer groups.

Are You a Good Friend? Assessing Social Relationship Competence Using Situational Judgments

Individual differences in social relationship competence (SRC) should have significant implications for social relationship success and well-being. Ability-based measures of SRC are scarce, though, particularly in social-personality psychology, and these considerations led to the present research. In specific terms, a situation judgment method was used to create and examine the correlates of a scenario-based assessment of SRC termed the Social Relationship Competence-Ability Measure (SRC-AM). Four studies (total N = 994) were conducted. Study 1 used item-total correlations and factor analyses to select scenarios from a larger pool. Studies 2 and 3 then showed that the SRC-AM predicted outcomes consistent with social relationship success (Study 2) as well as psychological well-being (Study 3). Study 4, finally, linked SRC levels to peer ratings of social competence and popularity. The research highlights a class of social inferences and abilities that possess novel implications for social relationship success.

What would you do? A new approach to health competence based on situational judgment

OBJECTIVE

An advantage of the trait approach to health is that it implicates common elements to multiple different health behaviors. An advantage of the social-cognitive approach, in contrast, is that it models the situational factors that are likely to elicit particular behavioral reactions. The present research sought to combine the advantages of these two approaches.

METHOD

A situational judgment method was developed to quantify general variations in health competence (HC) in terms of more specific responses to simulated health-challenging events.

RESULTS

After developing the method, Study 1 showed that individual differences in HC were systematically related to approach-related coping tendencies and behaviors known to be health promoting. Study 2 then showed that variations in HC predicted both health behaviors and quality of life among older individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

The results highlight a new form of HC that is not dependent on self-reports of ability.

A Theory of Adaptive Intelligence and Its Relation to General Intelligence

Intelligence typically is defined as consisting of "adaptation to the environment" or in related terms. Yet, it is not clear that "general intelligence" or g, traditionally conceptualized in terms of a general factor in a psychometrically-based hierarchical model of intelligence, provides an optimal way of defining intelligence as adaptation to the environment. Such a definition of adaptive intelligence would need to be biologically based in terms of evolutionary theory, would need to take into account the cultural context of adaptation, and would need to take into account whether thought and behavior labeled as "adaptively intelligent" actually contributed to the perpetuation of the human and other species, or whether it was indifferent or actually destructive to this perpetuation. In this article, I consider the similarities and differences between "general intelligence" and "adaptive intelligence," as well as the implications especially of the differences.

Validation of a matrix reasoning task for mobile devices

Many cognitive tasks have been adapted for tablet-based testing, but tests to assess nonverbal reasoning ability, as measured by matrix-type problems that are suited to repeated testing, have yet to be adapted for and validated on mobile platforms. Drawing on previous research, we developed the University of California Matrix Reasoning Task (UCMRT)-a short, user-friendly measure of abstract problem solving with three alternate forms that works on tablets and other mobile devices and that is targeted at a high-ability population frequently used in the literature (i.e., college students). To test the psychometric properties of UCMRT, a large sample of healthy young adults completed parallel forms of the test, and a subsample also completed Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and a math test; furthermore, we collected college records of academic ability and achievement. These data show that UCMRT is reliable and has adequate convergent and external validity. UCMRT is self-administrable, freely available for researchers, facilitates repeated testing of fluid intelligence, and resolves numerous limitations of existing matrix tests.

The Relation of Tests of Scientific Reasoning to Each Other and to Tests of General Intelligence

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.

Not All Factors Contribute Equally to European-American and Hispanic Students' SAT Scores

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.

Common language effect size for correlations

The Pearson correlation coefficient can be translated to a common language effect size, which shows the probability of obtaining a certain value on one variable, given the value on the other variable. This common language effect size makes the size of a correlation coefficient understandable to laypeople. Three examples are provided to demonstrate the application of the common language effect size in interpreting Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple correlation coefficients.

The importance of cognitive diversity for sustaining the commons

Cognitive abilities underpin the capacity of individuals to build models of their environment and make decisions about how to govern resources. Here, we test the functional intelligences proposition that functionally diverse cognitive abilities within a group are critical to govern common pool resources. We assess the effect of two cognitive abilities, social and general intelligence, on group performance on a resource harvesting and management game involving either a negative or a positive disturbance to the resource base. Our results indicate that under improving conditions (positive disturbance) groups with higher general intelligence perform better. However, when conditions deteriorate (negative disturbance) groups with high competency in both general and social intelligence are less likely to deplete resources and harvest more. Thus, we propose that a functional diversity of cognitive abilities improves how effectively social groups govern common pool resources, especially when conditions deteriorate and groups need to re-evaluate and change their behaviors.

Social intelligence and general intelligence are two distinct cognitive abilities. Here, the authors show that groups of people with high competency in both social and general intelligence perform better in a resource-management task involving cooperation, and adjustment to unexpected ecological change.

Stephen Jay Gould’s Analysis of the Army Beta Test in The Mismeasure of Man: Distortions and Misconceptions Regarding a Pioneering Mental Test

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.

Spearman’s Hypothesis Tested Comparing 47 Regions of Japan Using a Sample of 18 Million Children

Many groups differ in their mean intelligence score. Spearman’s hypothesis states that the differences are a function of cognitive complexity. There tend to be large differences on subtests of high cognitive complexity and small differences on subtests of low cognitive complexity. Spearman’s hypothesis has been supported by a large number of studies. Can Spearman’s hypothesis be generalized to regions of a country, where these regions differ in mean intelligence? We utilized data from 86 different cognitive tests from all 47 Japanese prefectures and correlated the g loadings of 86 subtests with standardized differences on the same subtests. Spearman’s hypothesis was clearly supported: the biggest differences between the regions were on the tests that were of the greatest complexity, meaning that Spearman’s hypothesis may be generalizable from groups to regions. In Japan, g loadings offer a better explanation of group differences in intelligence than cultural differences. Future research should explore whether Spearman’s hypothesis is also supported for differences between regions of other countries.

Spearman’s Hypothesis Tested Comparing 47 Regions of Japan Using a Sample of 18 Million Children

Many groups differ in their mean intelligence score. Spearman’s hypothesis states that the differences are a function of cognitive complexity. There tend to be large differences on subtests of high cognitive complexity and small differences on subtests of low cognitive complexity. Spearman’s hypothesis has been supported by a large number of studies. Can Spearman’s hypothesis be generalized to regions of a country, where these regions differ in mean intelligence? We utilized data from 86 different cognitive tests from all 47 Japanese prefectures and correlated the g loadings of 86 subtests with standardized differences on the same subtests. Spearman’s hypothesis was clearly supported: the biggest differences between the regions were on the tests that were of the greatest complexity, meaning that Spearman’s hypothesis may be generalizable from groups to regions. In Japan, g loadings offer a better explanation of group differences in intelligence than cultural differences. Future research should explore whether Spearman’s hypothesis is also supported for differences between regions of other countries.

Weakest Link Goal Orientations and Team Expertise: Implications for Team Performance

Using prior theory and research, we argue that a team member with a low learning goal or a high avoid orientation is detrimental for the expertise–performance relationship in team tasks. Results from a study of 82 teams showed that, after controlling for goal orientation team composition, expertise improved team performance only when teams did not have a weak link team member. In contrast, when teams had this weak link teammate, expertise did not improve performance, and in some cases damaged it. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.