Academic performance, career potential, creativity, and job performance: can one construct predict them all?

Widening the Gates: Redefining Excellence in Selection for Health Professions Education for a Diverse Future Workforce

To ensure diversity in the healthcare workforce selection committees must select a cohort of students who collectively possess the wide variety of qualities necessary to serve societal needs. In practice, selection procedures primarily focus on predicting academic outcomes, which are currently based on a limited set of qualities, restricting the definition of excellence in healthcare. The authors propose a shift in the design of selection procedures by including additional considerations - student diversity and applicant perception - to select talented students who can fulfil societal needs. The authors explain the importance of incorporating these considerations into the design of selection procedures and challenges that may arise. To overcome the challenges of incorporating student diversity and applicant perception in the design of selection procedures, a new view on alignment between the profession, training and selection is needed. This starts with redefining excellence in the profession with more explicit attention to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). The authors argue that by employing an EDI-adjusted model of alignment, selection procedures can enhance academic outcomes, properly recognize the talents of and acknowledge the needs for a diverse future workforce and be perceived as fair by applicants.

Hope and its associations with academic-related outcomes and general wellbeing among college students: the importance of measurement specificity

BACKGROUND

Hope has been extensively studied as a predictor of college students' academic success. Most previous studies used domain-general, global hope measures to gauge the association between hope and academic performance among college students. However, a few studies have suggested that hope is domain-specific and domain-specific academic hope measures should be included in related research to better assess the influence of hope on academic outcomes. In this study, we aimed to further examine this issue to ascertain if there is value in including academic hope measures when studying the link between hope and academic outcomes in college students.

METHODS

Two samples of Hong Kong college students (total N = 1321) were recruited. Each participant completed a set of self-reported online questionnaires.

RESULTS

In both samples, global hope and academic hope emerged as related but separate factors in confirmatory factor analyses. Academic hope had consistently stronger unique explanatory power on academic performance and goal setting than global hope did. On the other hand, global hope explained more variance in general wellbeing than academic hope did, but its explanatory role in academic performance was not significant.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings support domain-specificity and show that hope measures explain more variance in outcomes in the matched domains. Therefore, academic hope measures should more routinely be included in related research to better evaluate the role of hope in academic pursuit among college students. Possible implications for hope interventions are also discussed.

Interplay of socioeconomic status, cognition, and school performance in the ABCD sample

Coming from a disadvantaged background can have negative impact on an individual's educational trajectory. Some people however seem unaffected and cope well with the demands and challenges posed by school education, despite growing up in adverse conditions, a phenomenon termed academic resilience. While it is uncertain which underlying factors make some people more likely to circumvent unfavorable odds than others, both socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability have robustly been linked to school performance. The objective of the present work is to investigate if individual cognitive abilities and SES interact in their effect on grades. For this purpose, we analyzed SES, cognitive, and school performance data from 5001 participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Ordinal logistic regression models suggest similar patterns of associations between three SES measures (parental education, income-to-needs ratio, and neighborhood deprivation) and grades at two timepoints, with no evidence for interaction effects between SES and time. Parental education and income-to-needs ratio were associated with grades at both timepoints, irrespective of whether cognitive abilities were modeled or not. Neighborhood deprivation, in contrast, was only a statistically significant predictor of reported grades when cognitive abilities were not factored in. Cognitive abilities interacted with parental education level, meaning that they could be a safeguard against effects of SES on school performance.

Improved estimation of general cognitive ability and its neural correlates with a large battery of cognitive tasks

Elucidating the neural mechanisms of general cognitive ability (GCA) is an important mission of cognitive neuroscience. Recent large-sample cohort studies measured GCA through multiple cognitive tasks and explored its neural basis, but they did not investigate how task number, factor models, and neural data type affect the estimation of GCA and its neural correlates. To address these issues, we tested 1,605 Chinese young adults with 19 cognitive tasks and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) and collected resting state and n-back task fMRI data from a subsample of 683 individuals. Results showed that GCA could be reliably estimated by multiple tasks. Increasing task number enhances both reliability and validity of GCA estimates and reliably strengthens their correlations with brain data. The Spearman model and hierarchical bifactor model yield similar GCA estimates. The bifactor model has better model fit and stronger correlation with RAPM but explains less variance and shows weaker correlations with brain data than does the Spearman model. Notably, the n-back task-based functional connectivity patterns outperform resting-state fMRI in predicting GCA. These results suggest that GCA derived from a multitude of cognitive tasks serves as a valid measure of general intelligence and that its neural correlates could be better characterized by task fMRI than resting-state fMRI data.

Funny Date, Creative Mate? Unpacking the Effect of Humor on Romantic Attraction

Extensive research shows that people are attracted to funny dating partners, with several competing, sometimes conflicting, explanations for why humor is strongly desired in a mate. The present research asks whether humor is interpreted as a reliable, hard-to-fake indicator of some other, valuable trait. Across six experiments, we manipulated humor in a hypothetical date, online dating profile, or video profile and asked which of several traits statistically linked to humor are reliably inferred about funny partners. Humor-specifically partners producing humor-consistently led to higher ratings of partner creative ingenuity. This effect was not moderated by gender, and mediated desirability for different types of partnership. Results further revealed stronger preference for a first-date activity requiring creative ingenuity with a funny versus non-funny partner. Humor may signal that a potential partner is skilled at creative problem-solving, which may be particularly important when considering various forms of partnership.

Do Patterns of Early Disease Severity Predict Grade 12 Academic Achievement in Youths With Childhood-Onset Chronic Rheumatic Diseases?

OBJECTIVE

To test the association of early disease severity with grade 12 standards test performance in individuals with childhood-onset chronic rheumatic diseases (ChildCRDs), including juvenile arthritis and systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

METHODS

We used linked provincial administrative data to identify patients with ChildCRDs born between 1979 and 1998 in Manitoba, Canada. Primary outcomes were Language and Arts Achievement Index (LAI) scores and Math Achievement Index (MAI) scores from grade 12 standards test results as well as enrollment data. The secondary outcome was enrollment in grade 12 by 17 years of age. Latent class trajectory analysis identified disease severity groups using physician visits following diagnosis. Multivariable linear regression tested the association of disease severity groups with LAI and MAI scores, and logistic regression tested the association of disease severity with age-appropriate enrollment, after adjusting for sociodemographic factors and psychiatric morbidities.

RESULTS

The study cohort included 541 patients, 70.1% of whom were female. A 3-class trajectory model provided the best fit; it classified 9.7% of patients as having severe disease, 54.5% as having moderate disease, and 35.8% as having mild disease. After covariate adjustment, severe disease was associated with poorer LAI and MAI scores but not with age-appropriate enrollment.

CONCLUSION

Among patients with ChildCRDs, those with severe disease performed more poorly on grade 12 standards tests, independent of sociodemographic and psychiatric risk factors. Clinicians should work with educators and policy makers to advocate for supports to improve educational outcomes of patients with ChildCRDs.

Aptitude measurement: is measurement validity compromised in the morning

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the General Aptitude Test (GAT), a national instrument for the measurement of aptitude/achievement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a function of daytime testing. Participants were 722 students who took on the GAT across morning and evening administrations in a within-person pre-post design. Participants were matched for gender, parental education, and test center characteristics (i.e., size). The GAT was tested for its psychometric properties and its measurement invariance across time of day. Results pointed to a significant misfit using an exact invariance protocol. Specifically, there was a large number of non-invariant items pointing to Differential Item Functioning (DIF). Second, internal consistency reliabilities were consistently lower during morning testing compared to evening testing as evidenced using both statistical and visual means. Concerns about dimensionality were also raised for the morning compared to the evening administration. Last, comparison of performance levels indicated that morning testing was associated with significant decrements in performance across all domains compared to performance levels during evening testing. The results have implications for the validity of measurement and public testing policy if test validity during morning administration is compromised.

Motivation to succeed is not enough: motivated students need to know how to plan/organize their steps on their way to success

The study is based on dispositional (career motivation) and social-cognitive (generalized self-efficacy) theories of personality, further on the expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation and future time perspective theory (task value, time, and study environment). The study aimed to explain the mechanism of the prediction relationship between motivation and students' performance. It was assumed that skills of planning and organizing (operationalized as generalized self-efficacy and learning strategies) mediate the prediction of motivation (career motivation and task value) on students' success (operationalized as academic achievement and employability). In two studies (N = 313, N = 219), the hypotheses of the mediation models were supported by structural equation modeling. Generally, the skills of organizing/planning fully mediated the students' performance, measured as academic achievement and employability (number of employers). The results show the importance of combining dispositional motivation characteristics with dynamic planning skills on the way to students' success. Traditional psychological predictors of performance, like general mental ability and conscientiousness, were not controlled. Higher education institutions could support motivated students on their way to success by teaching them how to plan and organize specific steps on their way to success.

Multiple mini-interviews is a predictor of students' academic achievements in early undergraduate medical years: a retrospective study

BACKGROUND

Our study determined Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) effectiveness in evaluating specific skill sets based on medical students' performances during the undergraduate years and compared the academic performances of medical students who appeared for onsite/online MMI.

METHODS

A retrospective study of 140 undergraduate medical students between 2016 and 2020 included data on age, gender, pre-university results, MMI scores, and examination results. Appropriate non-parametric tests were applied to compare the students' MMI and academic performances.

RESULTS

Ninety-eight students from cohorts 12 to 15 had an overall MMI score of 69.0(IQR: 65.0-73.2)/100 and an overall Cumulative Grade Point Average(GPA) of 3.64 (3.42-3.78)/5.0. Spearman's correlation revealed a significantly positive relationship between MMI and cGPA (rho = 0.23) and GPA from the first 2 semesters (GPA1 rho = 0.25, GPA2 rho = 0.27). This observation was similar to that for station A in the first year (cGPA rho = 0.28, GPA1 rho = 0.34, GPA2 rho = 0.24), and in station B (GPA4 rho = 0.25) and D (GPA3 rho = 0.28, GPA4 rho = 0.24) in the second year. Of twenty-nine cohort16 students, 17(58.6%) underwent online and 12(41.4%) offline modes of MMI assessment, respectively. The overall median MMI score was 66.6(IQR: 58.6-71.6)/100, and the overall median cGPA was 3.45 (3.23-3.58)/5.0. When comparing the median marks of cohort16 groups, the online group scored significantly higher marks for station D than the offline group (p = 0.040).

CONCLUSION

Correspondence between MMI scores and cGPA predicted MMI scoring during student selection and entry process might ensure the success of their academic performance in medical school.

The role of emotional quotients and adversity quotients in career success

Career success has been considered equally important for both personal and organizational development. The purpose of the current study was to examine how trait emotional quotient (EQ) and adversity quotient (AQ) contribute to individuals' objective career success (job position) and subjective career success (organizational commitment). Participants included 256 Chinese adults who completed four measurements-the Self-Reported Emotional Intelligence Test, Resilience Scale, Grit Scale, and the Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment Scale-and provided demographic information. After validating the four scales used in this study, multiple regression analysis revealed that only one aspect of trait EQ (regulation of emotion) positively predicted one component of organizational commitment (affective commitment). Adversity quotient was measured on two dimensions: resilience and grit. Only consistency of interest (grit) positively predicted affective commitment. Perseverance of effort (grit) and acceptance of self and life (resilience) positively predicted normative commitment. Personal competence (resilience) positively predicted continuance commitment but negatively predicted normative commitment. Only acceptance of self and life (resilience) positively predicted job position. Overall, these findings demonstrate the specific influence of trait EQ and AQ on career success for organizational professionals who want to improve organizational productivity as well as individuals who want to achieve success at work.

Does intelligence predict development of investment traits from mid to late adolescence? Evidence from a 3-year longitudinal study

INTRODUCTION

Investment theories have claimed reciprocal relations between intelligence and investment traits (i.e., personality traits related to seeking out, and dealing with, cognitive challenges). However, previous research has primarily addressed the effects of investment traits on intellectual development (environmental enrichment hypothesis) and often focused on either childhood or later adulthood. The present study investigated the effects of intelligence on investment traits (environmental success hypothesis) from mid to late adolescence.

METHOD

In a 3-year longitudinal survey (2008-2011) covering four measurement occasions, the predictive effects of both fluid and crystallized intelligence on intraindividual change in both the achievement motive (i.e., hope for success and fear of failure) and need for cognition were examined. Overall, 476 adolescents (t₁ : M_age  = 16.43, SD = 0.55; 51.3% girls) from Germany participated.

RESULTS

Second-order latent growth models indicated that fluid intelligence predicted a steeper growth in hope for success (β = .40), but was unrelated to change in the other investment traits. Crystallized intelligence had no effects on the investment traits under study.

CONCLUSIONS

The results contribute to the research on the bidirectionality of intelligence and investment traits and add to our understanding of personality development from mid to late adolescence. Specifically, they underline the importance of nurturing hope for success especially in individuals with lower intelligence, but also show that support for the environmental success hypothesis seems to be limited to certain investment traits.

Cognitive Coaching in Special Operations: Design Principles and Best Practices

Cognitive enhancement platforms have received growing interest as a means to improve workplace performance. Among the many commercial and professional organizations exploring cognitive training, the United States military has begun exploring the potential added value of cognitive enhancement tools. Whereas most platforms offer automated or algorithm-based solutions to support cognitive training, special operations have developed the role of a cognitive coach to support training. The current discussion provides several lessons learned when trying to bridge cognitive systems and enhancement tools within military operations that should apply to any organization seeking to improve cognitive performance among already high-performing personnel.

Types of Intelligence and Academic Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The concept of intelligence has been extensively studied, undergoing an evolution from a unitary concept to a more elaborate and complex multidimensional one. In addition, several research studies have focused their efforts for decades on the study of intelligence as a predictor of academic performance of students at different educational stages, being a stable and highly relevant predictor along with other variables such as executive functions, social context, culture or parental guardianship. Thus, the present study, based on a systematic review and meta-analysis, includes 27 studies with a total sample of 42,061 individuals. The main objective was to analyse the relationship between intelligence and academic performance using different predictive models that include moderating variables such as country of origin, type of intelligence, gender and age. The findings of this research highlight the significant, positive and moderate relationship between intelligence and academic performance (r = 0.367; p < 0.001), highlighting the predictive capacity on school performance when the type of intelligence (general and implicit; 35%) or the country of origin (45%) is taken as a moderating variable, with the explanatory models on age or sex not being significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that intelligence, in addition to being a good predictor of academic performance, is influenced depending on the type of intelligence or theoretical model taken as a reference, and also depending on the country or culture of origin.

Brain structural parameters correlate with University Selection Test outcomes in Chilean high school graduates

How well students learn and perform in academic contexts is a focus of interest for the students, their families, and the entire educational system. Although evidence has shown that several neurobiological factors are involved in scholastic achievement (SA), specific brain measures associated with academic outcomes and whether such associations are independent of other factors remain unclear. This study attempts to identify the relationship between brain structural parameters, and the Chilean national University Selection Test (PSU) results in high school graduates within a multidimensional approach that considers socio-economic, intellectual, nutritional, and demographic variables. To this end, the brain morphology of a sample of 102 students who took the PSU test was estimated using Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Anthropometric parameters, intellectual ability (IA), and socioeconomic status (SES) were also measured. The results revealed that, independently of sex, IA, gray matter volume, right inferior frontal gyrus thickness, and SES were significantly associated with SA. These findings highlight the role of nutrition, health, and socioeconomic variables in academic success.

Sport Participation and Academic Performance in Young Elite Athletes

Strong evidence supports physical activity and fitness levels being positively associated with cognitive performance and overall academic performance in youth. This also applies to sports participation. However, whether participation in sports at the elite level is associated with greater academic performance remains unknown. Thus, the present study aimed to compare the academic performance of young elite athletes to that of control students, as well as to analyze whether the type of sport mediates these results. Between 2010 and 2019, all students from the last Baccalaureate course of the Spanish Elite Sport High School-which also includes non-elite athletes and recreational athlete students, who were categorized as controls-participated in this study. Academic performance was assessed through both the grade point average of the two last Baccalaureate courses and through the average grades from the University Entrance Examinations. Athletes were categorized attending to different sport classifications. A total of 1126 adolescents (570 girls, 18.2 ± 0.6 years) participated in the study, of which 483 and 643 were categorized as elite athletes and control students, respectively. Elite athletes attained a lower overall academic performance than controls (p < 0.001), which was confirmed for both sexes (p < 0.001). These differences were separately confirmed for most academic subjects (p < 0.05), as well as when attending to different sport classifications (all p > 0.05). Young elite athletes attained a lower academic performance than their non-elite peers, regardless of their type of sport. These findings highlight the importance of programs aimed at facilitating dual careers among young elite athletes.

The effect of cognitive ability on academic achievement: The mediating role of self-discipline and the moderating role of planning

In this study, 572 secondary school students aged 15–18 years old stage were selected to study the effect of their cognitive ability and self-discipline and planning on academic achievement. Cognitive ability was classified into memory ability, representational ability, information processing ability, logical reasoning ability, and thinking conversion ability, and analyzed the effects of these five ability values on academic achievement. The mediating effect of self-discipline ability between cognitive ability and academic achievement was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), and the moderating role of planning in the mediating effect was analyzed using planning as a moderating variable. The results showed that cognitive ability can have a significant positive effect on academic achievement, while self-discipline plays a partially mediating role between cognitive ability and academic achievement, and the moderating effect of Planning is significant in the second half of the mediating effect, i.e., the effect of self-discipline on academic achievement changes as the level of planning increases, and the mediating effect is stronger in the condition of higher planning, and the mediating model with moderating effect holds.

Conscientiousness and Cognitive Ability as Predictors of Academic Achievement: Evidence of Synergistic Effects From Integrative Data Analysis

Cognitive ability is the most powerful predictor of academic achievement. However, increasing attention is being paid to the role of personality traits in students’ academic achievement. Results indicate incremental effects beyond cognitive ability, especially for conscientiousness. Investigating the interplay of conscientiousness and cognitive ability can increase understanding of students’ academic achievement and learning. This study examined whether there are interaction effects of a synergistic or compensatory nature. We applied the approach of integrative data analysis, using four highly powered data sets with a total of 18,637 upper secondary school students in Germany to investigate this research question across four different achievement measures and three educational domains (i.e., school subjects). We used an integrative approach and pooled the results across the four samples to obtain an average estimate of the hypothesized interaction effects. Findings support a small synergistic interaction, indicating that conscientiousness moderates the association between cognitive ability and achievement. This means conscientiousness can enhance the positive effects of cognitive ability. In conclusion, results highlight the role of the type of academic measure used and the domain investigated in understanding how personality and achievement are related, providing evidence of the interplay between effort-related traits such as conscientiousness and cognitive ability.

Analysis of the effect of cognitive ability on academic achievement: Moderating role of self-monitoring

In this study, cognitive ability was classified into memory ability, representational ability, information processing ability, logical reasoning ability, and thinking conversion ability, and analyzed the effects of these five ability values on academic achievement. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the moderating effect of Self-monitoring between cognitive ability and Academic Achievement, using students' Self-monitoring as moderating variables. The results of the study showed that cognitive ability can significantly and positively affect academic achievement, while Self-monitoring can significantly moderate the effect of cognitive ability on academic performance, with a significant moderating effect on math subjects and English subjects among achievement subjects, and the higher the value of cognitive ability, the stronger the moderating effect.

Bipolar spectrum traits and the space between Madness and Genius: The Muse is in the Dose

Creativity has long been associated with the bipolar spectrum, particularly among unaffected first-degree relatives and those with milder expressions of bipolar traits, suggesting that some aspects of the bipolar spectrum may confer advantages for creativity. Here we took a multifaceted approach to better define the shared vulnerability between creativity and bipolar disorder. We recruited 135 individuals with bipolar disorder, 102 creative controls, and 103 non-creative controls for a total of 340 participants. All participants completed a comprehensive assessment battery that included several self-report temperament and personality questionnaires, a computerized test of cognitive function across multiple domains, and an evaluation of creative performance and achievement. Significant group differences were observed for the hypothesized shared vulnerability traits of hypomanic personality, cyclothymic temperament, impulsivity, and positive schizotypy. While both the creative and bipolar groups demonstrated superior creative ability, the creative group alone revealed enhanced cognitive performance. Accounting for intercorrelations between traits, a combination of openness, hypomanic personality, divergent thinking, and reasoning ability emerged as the strongest predictors of creativity, collectively explaining 34% of the variance in creative achievement and correctly classifying 85% of individuals with high achievement irrespective of diagnosis. These results confirm and extend earlier observations of a shared vulnerability between creativity and bipolar disorder and suggest that mild to moderate expressions of bipolar spectrum traits are associated with enhanced cognitive functioning and creative expression. Further investigation of these traits is needed to clarify the nature of this shared vulnerability and suggest individualized treatment strategies to improve clinical outcomes in bipolar disorder.

The role of attention control in complex real-world tasks

Working memory capacity is an important psychological construct, and many real-world phenomena are strongly associated with individual differences in working memory functioning. Although working memory and attention are intertwined, several studies have recently shown that individual differences in the general ability to control attention is more strongly predictive of human behavior than working memory capacity. In this review, we argue that researchers would therefore generally be better suited to studying the role of attention control rather than memory-based abilities in explaining real-world behavior and performance in humans. The review begins with a discussion of relevant literature on the nature and measurement of both working memory capacity and attention control, including recent developments in the study of individual differences of attention control. We then selectively review existing literature on the role of both working memory and attention in various applied settings and explain, in each case, why a switch in emphasis to attention control is warranted. Topics covered include psychological testing, cognitive training, education, sports, police decision-making, human factors, and disorders within clinical psychology. The review concludes with general recommendations and best practices for researchers interested in conducting studies of individual differences in attention control.

The Effects of Sustained Literacy Engagement on Cognition and Sentence Processing Among Older Adults

Considerable evidence suggests that language processing depends on memory processes, which are vulnerable to declines with aging. Yet little is known about the effects of language processing in the form of sustained literacy engagement on memory and other aspects of cognition. In the current study, adults (60-79 years of age) were randomly assigned to an 8-week program of leisure reading (n = 38) or to an active puzzle control (n = 38). Relative to the control, the experimental group showed differential improvement in verbal working memory and episodic memory. The experimental group also showed evidence of enhanced conceptual integration in sentence processing. These effects did not vary as a function of personality characteristics (e.g., openness) hypothesized to be compatible with literacy engagement. These findings support the idea that the exercise of cognitive capacities in the context of everyday life may offset age-related impairment in areas of cognition engaged by the activity, regardless of dispositional fit.

Intelligenzdiagnostik der Zukunft

Zusammenfassung. Die menschliche Intelligenz ist eines der am besten erforschten und validierten Konstrukte innerhalb der Psychologie. Dennoch wird die Validität von Intelligenztests im gruppen- und insbesondere kulturvergleichenden Kontext regelmäßig und berechtigterweise kritisch hinterfragt. Obwohl verschiedene Alternativen und Weiterentwicklungen der Intelligenzdiagnostik vorgeschlagen wurden (z. B. kulturfaire Tests), sind fundamentale Probleme in der vergleichenden Intelligenzdiagnostik noch immer ungelöst und die Validitäten entsprechender Verfahren unklar. In dem vorliegenden Positionspapier wird diese Thematik aus der Perspektive der Kognitionspsychologie und der kognitiven Neurowissenschaften beleuchtet und eine prozessorientierte und biologisch inspirierte Form der Intelligenzdiagnostik als potentieller Lösungsansatz vorgeschlagen. Wir zeigen die Bedeutung elementarer kognitiver Prozesse auf (insbesondere Arbeitsgedächtniskapazität, Aufmerksamkeit, Verarbeitungsgeschwindigkeit), die individuellen Leistungsunterschieden zu Grunde liegen, und betonen, dass der Unterscheidung zwischen Inhalten und Prozessen eine zentrale, jedoch oft vernachlässigte Rolle in der Diagnostik allgemeiner kognitiver Leistungsunterschiede zukommt. Während aus kognitions- und neuropsychologischer Sicht davon ausgegangen werden kann, dass sich insbesondere Prozesse für interkulturelle Vergleiche eignen, sollten Inhalte als stärker kulturspezifisch verstanden werden. Darauf aufbauend diskutieren wir drei verschiedene Ansätze zur Verbesserung interkultureller Vergleichbarkeit der Intelligenzdiagnostik sowie deren Grenzen. Wir postulieren, dass sich die Intelligenzforschung im Austausch mit verschiedenen Disziplinen stärker auf die Identifikation von generellen kognitiven Prozessen fokussieren sollte und diskutieren das Potenzial zukünftiger Forschung hin zu einer prozessorientierten und biologisch inspirierten Intelligenzdiagnostik. Schließlich zeigen wir derzeitige Möglichkeiten auf, gehen aber auch auf etwaige Herausforderungen ein und beleuchten Implikationen für die zukünftige Intelligenzdiagnostik und -forschung.

Academic Achievements, Satisfaction with Studies and Risky Behaviours among First-Year Students of Kaunas (Lithuania) Universities, 2000-2017

Risky behaviours are prevalent among university students and may affect academic achievements. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between academic achievements, satisfaction with studies and risky behaviours among first-year students of Kaunas (Lithuania) universities. Three cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2000, 2010, and 2017. The self-administered questionnaires were filled in during lectures and assessed frequency and amount of alcohol consumption, drinking problems (CAGE test), smoking and drug use frequency, and academic achievements. The associations between risky behaviours and academic achievements were analysed using multivariable logistic regression analysis. Altogether 3325 students (1341 men and 1984 women) aged 20.0 (1.5) years participated in the survey. The proportion of students who consumed alcohol at least once a week and drank 11 or more standard alcoholic units (SAU) a week decreased. Every fifth student reported a drinking problem. Daily smoking prevalence declined, and drug use increased among male students. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that frequent alcohol consumption and problem drinking were associated with low importance of good grades. Students who rated their academic performance below average and were dissatisfied with studies were more likely to consume ≥11 SAU a week. Daily smoking was more common among students who reported low importance of good grades and academic performance below average. A higher prevalence of drug use was found only in male students who declared low importance of good grades. Health promoting interventions at the individual and student community level are required to reduce the prevalence of substance use and improve the academic achievements of students.

Counterproductive Academic Behaviors and Academic Performance: A Meta-Analysis and a Path Analysis Model

Counterproductive academic behaviors (CAB) are a complex phenomenon that affects academic institutions in multiple geographical areas with different cultures, values, and social norms. The high incidence of CAB causes problems of critical importance that transcend the educational domain. The current study aims to contribute to the knowledge of the CAB consequences by focusing on its impact on academic performance (AP). For this purpose, a meta-analysis was conducted in order to examine the relationship between CAB, its facets, and AP. The results show that overall CAB and students' performance are negatively related with a true effect size of ρ = −0.40 (K = 231, N = 127,269). Particularly, absenteeism appeared to be the facet most strongly related to AP (ρ = −0.48, K = 117, N = 69,453). A meta-analytic path analysis model was carried out in order to test the predictive validity of CAB, students' personality characteristics, and intelligence on AP. Results show that conscientiousness and cognitive intelligence have a negative relationship with CAB (β = −0.28 and β = −0.20, respectively), and that conscientiousness, openness to experience, intelligence, and CAB can explain 58% of AP true variance. Meta-analyses of moderator variables and hierarchical meta-analyses are also presented. The implications for research and practice are discussed at the end.

Genetic basis of job attainment characteristics and the genetic sharing with other SES indices and well-being

Job attainment is an important component of socioeconomic status (SES). There is currently a paucity of genomic research on an individual's job attainment, as well as how it is related to other SES variables and overall well-being at the whole genome level. By incorporating O*NET occupational information into the UK Biobank database, we performed GWAS analyses of six major job attainment characteristics-job complexity, autonomy, innovation, information demands, emotional demands, and physical demands-on 219,483 individuals of European ancestry. The job attainment characteristics had moderate to high pairwise genetic correlations, manifested by three latent factors: cognitive, emotional, and physical requirements. The latent factor of overall job requirement underlying the job attainment traits represented a critical genetic path from educational attainment to income (P < 0.001). Job attainment characteristics were genetically positively correlated with positive health and well-being outcomes (i.e., subject well-being, overall health rating, number of non-cancer illnesses etc. (|r_g|: 0.14-0.51), similar to other SES indices; however, the genetic correlations exhibited opposite directions for physical demands (|r_g|: 0.14-0.51) and were largely negligible for emotional demands. By adopting a finer-grained approach to capture specific job attainment phenotypes, our study represents an important step forward in understanding the shared genetic architecture among job attainment characteristics, other SES indices, and potential role in health and well-being outcomes.

Systematic Literature Review: Professional Situation of Gifted Adults

A person's intelligence level positively influences his or her professional success. Gifted and highly intelligent individuals should therefore be successful in their careers. However, previous findings on the occupational situation of gifted adults are mainly known from popular scientific sources in the fields of coaching and self-help groups and confirm prevailing stereotypes that gifted people have difficulties at work. Reliable studies are scarce. This systematic literature review examines 40 studies with a total of 22 job-related variables. Results are shown in general for (a) the employment situation and more specific for the occupational aspects (b) career, (c) personality and behavior, (d) satisfaction, (e) organization, and (f) influence of giftedness on the profession. Moreover, possible differences between female and male gifted individuals and gifted and non-gifted individuals are analyzed. Based on these findings, implications for practice as well as further research are discussed.

Selecting for Learning Potential: Is Implicit Learning the New Cognitive Ability?

For decades, the field of workplace selection has been dominated by evidence that cognitive ability is the most important factor in predicting performance. Meta-analyses detailing the contributions of a wide-range of factors to workplace performance show that cognitive ability’s contribution is partly mediated by the learning of task-relevant skills and job-specific declarative knowledge. Further, there is evidence to suggest that this relationship is a function of task complexity, and partially mediated by learning performance in workplace induction and training activities. Simultaneously, evidence is mounting that stable individual differences in implicit learning exist, which are at least partially independent of traditional measures of intelligence. In this article we provide an overview of recent advances in our understanding of implicit learning, outline some of the advantages offered by its measurement, and highlight some of the challenges associated with its adoption as a measure of interest.

Processes Underlying the Relation between Cognitive Ability and Curiosity with Academic Performance: A Mediation Analysis for Epistemic Behavior in a Five-Year Longitudinal Study

Cognitive ability and curiosity are significant predictors of academic achievement; yet the processes underlying these relations are not well understood. I drew on ideas from the environmental enrichment hypothesis and the differential preservation hypothesis and hypothesized that epistemic behavior acts as a mediator. Longitudinal data were collected from 1964 individuals in three waves, spanning five years: cognitive ability and curiosity were assessed at time 1; epistemic behavior at time 2; at time 3, grade point average and highest degree of both secondary and tertiary academic education (if applicable) were obtained retrospectively via self-report. I found expected bivariate relations between all study variables, including a significant relation between cognitive ability and curiosity and significant relations of both of these variables with secondary academic performance. Epistemic behavior was related to curiosity and academic performance but, at odds with the hypothesis, did not mediate the relation between cognitive and personality variables and academic performance. It is concluded that the process underlying the behavioral consequences of cognitive ability and curiosity is not environmental enrichment.

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.

Association Between Consumption of Fermented Food and Food-Derived Prebiotics With Cognitive Performance, Depressive, and Anxiety Symptoms in Psychiatrically Healthy Medical Students Under Psychological Stress: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background

Gut microbiota-based therapeutic strategies, such as probiotic and prebiotic preparations, may benefit mental health. However, commonly consumed fermented and prebiotic-containing foods have not been well-tested. The aim of the present study was to determine whether consumption of fermented food and food-derived prebiotics is associated with cognitive performance, depressive, and anxiety symptoms in psychiatrically healthy medical students under psychological stress.

Methods

The study protocol with data analysis plan was prospectively registered. Food consumption was evaluated with a 7-day dietary record. Cognitive performance was modeled with academic examination performance in relation to subject knowledge. Pre-exam depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, respectively.

Results

In total, 372 medical students (22.7 ± 1.1 years of age, 66% female) completed the study. No relationship was observed between cognitive performance under stress and either fermented food (adjusted β 0.02, 95% CI −0.07–0.11, p = 0.63) or food-derived prebiotics consumption (adjusted β −0.00, 95% CI −0.09–0.09, p = 0.99). High intake of fermented food was associated with more severe depressive (adjusted β 0.11, 95% CI 0.01–0.20, p = 0.032) and anxiety symptoms under stress (adjusted β 0.13, 95% CI 0.04–0.22, p = 0.0065); however, no such link was observed for food-derived prebiotics (adjusted β 0.03, 95% CI −0.07–0.13, p = 0.50 and −0.01, 95% CI −0.11–0.08, p = 0.83, for depression and anxiety, respectively).

Conclusions

Under psychological stress in medical students, consumption of fermented food and food-derived prebiotics appears to be not associated with cognitive performance. High intake of fermented food, but not food-derived prebiotics, may be associated with severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms. The safety of fermented food in this regard therefore requires further clarification.

Mathematics anxiety and mathematical calculation in deaf children: A moderated mediation model of mathematics self-efficacy and intelligence

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown the relationship between mathematics anxiety and math performance in deaf students, but their inner influencing mechanism remains unclear.

AIM

To examine a moderated mediation model between mathematics anxiety and mathematical calculation, with intelligence as a moderator, and mathematics self-efficacy as a mediator.

METHODS

A sample of 247 deaf children from 2 special education schools and 247 hearing children (matched in intelligence) from one mainstream school in China completed computerized tests of intelligence and mathematical calculation and self-report questionnaires of mathematics anxiety and mathematics self-efficacy. Simple mediation analyses and moderated mediation analyses were conducted using PROCESS, and a simple slopes method was employed to plot the conditional indirect effects.

RESULTS

There was a significant negative correlation between mathematics anxiety and mathematical calculation, and between mathematics anxiety and mathematics self-efficacy in deaf children and hearing children. However, mathematics self-efficacy was positively associated with mathematical calculation in deaf children but not in hearing children, and the significantly negative relationship between mathematics anxiety and intelligence was observed only in deaf children but not in hearing children. Mathematics self-efficacy partially mediated the association between mathematics anxiety and mathematical calculation in deaf children; and the indirect effect between mathematics anxiety and mathematical calculation via mathematics self-efficacy was moderated by intelligence in deaf children but not in hearing children.

CONCLUSIONS

The results were discussed to illuminate the mechanism in relation to the practical implication for the intervention and early development of mathematics performance in deaf children.

Cognitive Ability and Self-Control's Influence on High School Students' Comprehensive Academic Performance

This study uses a hierarchical linear model (HLM) to examine the effects of cognitive ability and self-control on comprehensive academic performance among students in a high school in Beijing. The study included 572 participating students, including 291 boys and 281 girls, ranging in age from 16 to 18 years old. In this study, the individual level of students’ cognitive abilities are used as the first-level variables, including memory ability (MA), information processing ability (IPA), representation ability (RA), logical reasoning ability (LRA), and thinking transformation ability (TCA). Consider self-control at the class level as the second-level variable. The research results show that the five cognitive abilities have a significant positive impact on comprehensive academic performance. Self-control plays an active role in regulating the relationship between RA, LRA, TCA, and comprehensive academic performance.

Cognition and Academic Performance: Mediating Role of Personality Characteristics and Psychology Health

This study uses personality and psychology health characteristics of high school students as intermediary variables to study how cognitive ability affects academic performance, and analyzes memory, information processing, presentation, logical reasoning, and thinking transformation ability in high school students. In this study, the structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyze the mediating effect, and the bootstrap method was used to test the significance of the mediating effect. The participants were 572 high school students from Beijing, China. They completed a survey that included questions on cognitive ability, personality characteristics, and psychology health. This study uses structural equation modeling for mediation analysis. Through the analysis of four models of comprehensive academic performance, Chinese academic performance, mathematics academic performance, and English academic performance, the results of the study showed that cognitive ability has a significant effect on academic performance, and personality characteristics and psychology health play a partially mediating role between cognitive ability and English academic performance. The mediation effect is about 40%.

Toward a Model of Personality Competencies Underlying Social and Emotional Skills: Insight From the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in social and emotional skills (SES) both in the scientific literature and in social practice. The paper presents an overview of the ways of understanding what SES are and the catalogs thereof. There are some attempts in the literature to organize these catalogs within the Big Five traits that for a long time was claimed to be the most sound model of basic orthogonal dimensions of personality. However, further research on personality structure revealed that two metatraits can be found above the Big Five traits. These two metatraits form the basis of the Two Factor Model of personality, which was later developed into the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits. It turned out that in certain aspects models based on metatraits have a greater theoretical potential than those based on the Big Five traits. The paper presents a proposal for describing SES from the perspective of the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits rather than the Big Five. In this framework, we distinguish the concept of personality competences that underlie and organize many specific SES and identify the core personality competencies on the basis of the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits model.

Personality Psychology

Personality psychology, which seeks to study individual differences in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that persist over time and place, has experienced a renaissance in the last few decades. It has also not been reviewed as a field in the Annual Review of Psychology since 2001. In this article, we seek to provide an update as well as a meta-organizational structure to the field. In particular, personality psychology has a prescribed set of four responsibilities that it implicitly or explicitly tackles as a field: (a) describing what personality is-i.e., what the units of analysis in the field are; (b) documenting how it develops; (c) explaining the processes of personality and why they affect functioning; and (d) providing a framework for understanding individuals and explaining their actions, feelings, and motivations. We review progress made over the last 20 years to address these four agendas and conclude by highlighting future directions and ongoing challenges to the field. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Learning With a Double-Edged Sword? Beneficial and Detrimental Effects of Learning Tests-Taking a First Look at Linkages Among Tests, Later Learning Outcomes, Stress Perceptions, and Intelligence

It has often been shown that tests as intentionally hindered and difficult learning tasks increase long-term learning compared to easier tasks. Previous work additionally indicated that higher intelligence might serve as a prerequisite for such beneficial effects of tests. Nevertheless, despite their long-term learning effects, tests were also found to be evaluated as more negative and to lead to more stress and anxiety compared to easier control tasks. Stress and anxiety, in turn, often yield detrimental effects on learning outcomes. Hence, we hypothesized that tests increase later learning outcomes but simultaneously also lead to more stress perceptions. Such increased stress was, in turn, hypothesized to reduce later learning outcomes (thus, stress might serve as a mediator of the beneficial effects of tests on learning). All these assumed effects should further be moderated by intelligence, insofar as that higher intelligence should increase beneficial effects of tests on learning, should decrease stress perceptions caused by tests, and should reduce detrimental effects of stress on learning outcomes. Higher intelligence was also assumed to be generally associated with higher learning. We conducted a laboratory study (N=89) to test these hypotheses: Participants underwent an intelligence screening, then worked on either a test or a re-reading control task, and reported their immediate stress perceptions. Later learning outcomes were assessed after 1week. The results supported all assumed main effects but none of the assumed interactions. Thus, participants using tests had higher long-term learning outcomes compared to participants using re-reading tasks. However, participants using tests also perceived more immediate stress compared to participants that only re-read the materials. These stress perceptions in turn diminished the beneficial effects of tests. Stress was also generally related to lower learning, whereas higher intelligence was linked to higher learning and also to lower stress. Hence, our findings again support the often assumed benefits of tests-even when simultaneously considering learners' intelligence and and when considering the by tests caused stress perceptions. Notably, controlling for stress further increases these long-term learning benefits. We then discuss some limitations and boundaries of our work as well as ideas for future studies.

Performance decline in a low-stakes test at age 15 and educational attainment at age 25: Cross-country longitudinal evidence

INTRODUCTION

Educational attainment is associated with important life outcomes including labour market performance, health status, well-being, civic and political participation. An important question is whether it is possible to identify early those students who lack the achievement motivation that is needed to complete a higher education degree.

METHODS

Longitudinal follow-ups of representative samples of participants in the 2000 and 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from Australia, Denmark and Switzerland (N = 3110; 1130; and 1962; age = 15 to 27; % females 51%, 51%, 49%; ethnicity/race unknown) were used to identify the association between a measure of effort on a cognitively demanding low-stake task at age 15 - performance decline during the test - and educational attainment at age 25-27.

RESULTS

A one SD difference in performance decline was associated with a 5-6 percentage point difference in the probability of obtaining tertiary-level qualifications (r = -0.15 in Australia; -0.11 in Denmark and -0.11 in Switzerland). We find no evidence of differences in this relationship across genders, socio-economic status and baseline levels of ability in the three countries. The association between performance decline and educational attainment is homogeneous across these groups. Self-reported measures of achievement motivation were not predictive of educational attainment in the three countries.

CONCLUSIONS

Our work contributes new longitudinal evidence to the body of research in education employing behavioural measures of motivation and engagement. It can be used to understand the potential long-term consequences of disparities in students' preparation to sustain effort over cognitively demanding tasks.

How Is Intelligence Test Performance Associated with Creative Achievement? A Meta-Analysis

This paper presents a meta-analysis of the links between intelligence test scores and creative achievement. A three-level meta-analysis of 117 correlation coefficients from 30 studies found a correlation of r = .16 (95% CI: .12, .19), closely mirroring previous meta-analytic findings. The estimated effects were stronger for overall creative achievement and achievement in scientific domains than for correlations between intelligence scores and creative achievement in the arts and everyday creativity. No signs of publication bias were found. We discuss theoretical implications and provide recommendations for future studies.

Identifying Student Subgroups as a Function of School Level Attributes: A Multilevel Latent Class Analysis

The purpose of the present study was to profile high school students’ achievement as a function of their demographic characteristics, parent attributes (e.g., education), and school behaviors (e.g., number of absences). Students were nested within schools in the Saudi Arabia Kingdom. Out of a large sample of 500k, participants involved 3 random samples of 2,000 students measured during the years 2016, 2017, and 2018. Randomization was conducted at the student level to ensure that all school units will be represented and at their respective frequency. Students were nested within 50 high schools. We adopted the multilevel latent profile analysis protocol put forth by Schmiege et al. (2018) and Mäkikangas et al. (2018) that account for nested data and tested latent class structure invariance over time. Results pointed to the presence of a 4-profile solution based on BIC, the Bayes factor, and several information criteria put forth by Masyn (2013). Latent profile separation was mostly guided by parents’ education and the number of student absences (being positive and negative predictors of high achievement classes, respectively). Two models tested whether the proportions of level 1 profiles to level 2 units are variable and whether level 2 profiles vary as a function of level 1 profiles. Results pointed to the presence of significant variability due to schools.