Fluid intelligence, emotional intelligence, and the Iowa Gambling Task in children

Decision-making and ageing: everyday life situations under risk and under ambiguity

Cognitive modifications during ageing can affect decision-making competence (DMC). As this ability is central to the preservation of autonomy, our study aims to investigate how it changes in elderly adults and to determine whether such changes are linked to the deterioration of executive functions and working memory. To this end, 50 young adults and 50 elderly adults were assessed with executive, working memory, and DMC tasks. The latter comprised the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and a scenario task based on situations inspired by everyday life, under conditions of both risk and ambiguity. The results revealed lower performances in old than in young adults for the updating, inhibition, and working memory tasks. The IGT failed to distinguish between the two age groups. However, the scenario task did permit such a distinction, with young adults seeking more risky and ambiguous choices than elderly adults. Moreover, updating and inhibition capacities appeared to influence DMC.

Non-Cognitive Specificities of Intellectually Gifted Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review of the Literature

For several years, there was a growing interest in intellectual giftedness and in particular in the non-cognitive specificities of gifted individuals. This topic attracted much public attention and sometimes led to contradictions with the scientific literature. The current review synthesizes a broad set of results related to non-cognitive specificities of intellectual gifted in children and adolescents. This synthesis of scientific research on giftedness and its associated non-cognitive features does not support the conclusion that there is a stable profile across gifted individuals that would consistently separate them from non-gifted individuals. A few specificities in some areas are noted, but they are not necessarily being systematic. These specificities often turn out to be in favor of gifted youth, contrary to the view sometimes defended in the general public that gifted individuals suffer from major everyday difficulties. Finally, methodological issues are listed regarding the designs of existing studies, with recommendations for future research in the field.

Effect of Chinese young children's epidemic cognition on their coping behavior: mediating role of emotion

INTRODUCTION

Young children's epidemic awareness and risk prevention about public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 are issues of great importance deserving research.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the effect of young children's epidemic cognition on their coping behavior, and the mediating role of emotion.

METHOD

An online anonymous survey was administrated on 2221 Chinese parents of young children aged three to six during the COVID-19 overwhelming period.

RESULTS

(1) The epidemic cognition (M = 4.17, SD = 0.73), the coping behavior (M = 4.16, SD = 0.65), and the emotion (M = 3.99, SD = 0.81) were at a relatively high level. (2) Young children's epidemic cognition significantly predicted their coping behavior (β = 0.71, t = 45.29, P < 0.001). The positive prediction effect of epidemic cognition on young children's emotion was significant (β = 0.19, t = 8.56, P < 0.001), and emotion had a significant positive predictive effect on young children's coping behavior (β = 0.20, t = 4.89, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Young children's epidemic cognition can significantly predict their coping behavior, and emotion plays a significant mediating role in their relation. It is necessary for practitioners to optimize the contents and methods of epidemic education on young children.

The Roles of Fluid Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence in Affective Decision-Making During the Transition to Early Adolescence

The current study mainly explored the influence of fluid intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EI) on affective decision-making from a developmental perspective, specifically, during the transition from childhood into early adolescence. Meanwhile, their age-related differences in affective decision-making were explored. A total of 198 participants aged 8-12 completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), the Cattell's Culture Fair Intelligence Test and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Child Form. Based on the net scores of IGT, the development of affective decision-making ability did not increase monotonically with age, and there was a developmental trend of an impaired IGT performance in early adolescence (aged 11-12), especially in the early learning phase (first 40 trials) of the IGT. More importantly, IQ and EI played different roles for children and early adolescents: IQ and EI jointly predicted the IGT performance for 8-10 years old children, whereas only EI contributed to the IGT performance of 11-12 years old early adolescents. The present study extends the evidence how cognitive processing and emotional processing interact in affective decision-making from the developmental perspective. Furthermore, it provides insights of future research and intervention with early adolescents' poor affective decision-making.

Measurement of Executive Functioning and High Intellectual Ability in Childhood: A Comparative Meta-Analysis

From a neuroconstructivist approach and a developmental model of high intellectual ability (HIA), it is argued that the management of intellectual resources through executive functioning (EF) is one of the factors influencing the expression of high potential. The main objective is to determine the effectiveness of measures of executive functioning used comparing schoolchildren with HIA and those of average intelligence. A meta-analysis was carried out on a selection of 17 studies for a total sample of 1518 children with either HIA or an average level of intelligence. Pooled estimates of effect size revealed a significant difference favoring the HIA individuals in the two components of EF related with WM verbal (d = 1.015), and WM visual-spatial (d = 0.709). Other components did not show significant differences: inhibition (d = −0.014), flexibility (d = 0.068), and planification (d = −0.038). The empirical heterogeneity was very high. It is concluded that these instruments show a degree of measurement impurity, which condition their validity and reliability, and that schoolchildren with HIA display better executive functioning in the components of verbal and visual-spatial working memory.

The role of intelligence in decision-making in early adolescence

This study investigated the role of intelligence and its development across childhood in decision‐making in adolescence (age 11 years). The sample was 12,514 children from the UK's Millennium Cohort Study, followed at ages 3, 5, 7, and 11 years. Decision‐making (risk‐taking, quality of decision‐making, risk adjustment, deliberation time, and delay aversion) was measured with the Cambridge Gambling Task. Even after adjustment for confounding, intelligence was positively associated with risk adjustment and quality of decision‐making in both boys and girls. Furthermore, in girls risk adjustment was related positively to IQ gains. Our findings suggest that there are important, substantively, associations between intelligence and adapting behaviour to risk at the cusp of adolescence, the period when the response to risk can shape life trajectories.