A multitrait–multimethod study of assessment instruments for complex problem solving

Recently published studies on Complex Problem Solving (CPS) suggest that assessments of CPS using multiple complex systems are only moderately related to tests of classical cognitive abilities. Further, CPS assessments show incremental validity beyond tests of other cognitive abilities when predicting relevant outcomes. However, these empirical accounts have relied on single CPS assessment instruments. We do not know whether these findings will generalize to the construct level across different CPS assessment instruments. To answer this question, we tested a sample of N = 339 German university students who completed three CPS assessment instruments based on multiple complex systems (MicroDYN, the Genetics Lab, and MicroFIN) and the matrices subtest of the Intelligence Structure Test as measure of reasoning. Students further reported their school grades. Analyses including latent multitrait–multimethod models provided support for the conceptualization of CPS as a complex cognitive ability. Results indicated that different CPS assessment instruments showed sufficient convergent validity (with a consistency mostly between .50 and .60). In addition, we found evidence for the divergent validity of CPS from reasoning (reasoning predicted two CPS facets, knowledge and control, β_KNOW = .49 and β_CON = .53, respectively). In the prediction of academic achievement, CPS explained variance in natural science grades after we controlled for reasoning (β_CPS = .22), whereas social science grades were not predicted. Our findings suggest that the validity of CPS generalizes across different measurement instruments.     

The interrelationship between speeded and unspeeded divergent thinking and reasoning, and the role of mental speed

The relationship between intelligence and creativity is still subject to substantial debate in the research literature. In the present study, we focused on core dimensions of both constructs, that is divergent thinking and reasoning. We hypothesized their relationship to depend both on the speededness of test tasks and on the subject's mental speed, positing that with increasing speededness of the tasks, mental speed would have a stronger impact on task outcomes. We disentangled the effects of task speededness and mental speed experimentally, testing 261 participants (mean age 14.48 years) with 12 divergent thinking and 12 reasoning tasks, 6 of each under power conditions, 6 time-constrained. In addition, we assessed mental speed with 6 tasks. We analyzed the data through structural equation modeling. Results confirmed our expectations: test speededness contributed significantly to mental speed variance in divergent thinking task performance. Divergent thinking assessed under time constraints was fully explained by divergent thinking assessed under power conditions and by mental speed. Divergent thinking and reasoning showed no correlation when controlling for mental speed. Our findings suggest that the correlations between divergent thinking and reasoning are mainly the result of variance both constructs share with mental speed, and that timed versus untimed test-taking plays a minor role.     

Storage and non-storage components of working memory predicting reasoning: A simultaneous examination of a wide range of ability factors

The current study examined basic cognitive abilities that are related to or included in the concept of working memory (WM): different WM components, three executive functions, simple short-term storage (STM), and sustained attention. Tasks were selected from well-established models and balanced in terms of content. The predictive power of storage and non-storage components of WM was examined. The same analyses were conducted with mental speed as an additional predictor of reasoning. Finally, we investigated whether the identified predictors of reasoning remain relevant when a general factor is considered in the analysis. The analyses revealed that short-term memory accounted for the relationship between complex span measures of WM and reasoning but not for the relationship between coordination and reasoning. These findings remained stable in the context of a mental speed and a general factor. The mental speed factor did not add an incremental contribution to the prediction of reasoning above and beyond short-term memory and coordination. The general factor was mainly built by mental speed tasks and acted as an additional predictor of reasoning besides STM and coordination. Thus, we concluded that reasoning ability can be explained by coordination, STM, and mental speed.     

Exploring the Relations between Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) Cognitive Abilities and Mathematics Achievement

As standardized measures of cognitive abilities and academic achievement continue to evolve, so do the relations between the constructs represented in these measures. A large, nationally representative sample of school‐aged children and youth between 6 and 19 years of age (N = 4,194) was used to systematically evaluate the relations between cognitive abilities and components of academic achievement in mathematics. The cognitive abilities of interest were those identified from the Cattell–Horn–Carroll model of intelligence. Specific areas of mathematics achievement included math calculation skills and math problem solving. Results suggest that fluid reasoning (Gf), comprehension‐knowledge (Gc), and processing speed (Gs) have the strongest and most consistent relations with mathematics achievement throughout the school years.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing mental flexibility with a new word recognition test

This paper presents the development and preliminary evaluation of a new word recognition test (WRT) designed to measure individual differences in mental flexibility, defined as the ability to solve novel problems in unfamiliar settings. Conceptually designed to simulate problem solving in real world performance situations, the test was developed to recruit fluid and reproductive abilities and the interplay between convergent and divergent thinking. It is based on a framework that integrates and extends previous theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of cognitive ability and creative cognition. The WRT was administered with various cognitive ability and criterion measures to an undergraduate student sample (n = 266). Results provide preliminary evidence of construct validity. WRT scores correlated as expected with reference measures of cognitive ability, creative performance, and college performance (GPA). Regression analyses showed the WRT explained an additional 4.5% of variance in college performance over and above traditional cognitive ability measures that take up to five times as long to administer. Results suggest further study is warranted given the potential for its contribution to basic research and applied use.     

Verbal fluency and creativity: General and specific contributions of broad retrieval ability (Gr) factors to divergent thinking

The Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence views creativity as a first-level factor within the second-level factor of broad retrieval ability (Gr), alongside other first-level abilities such as ideational fluency and word fluency. Traditional methods of measuring creativity, however, confound idea quality with idea quantity, which might exaggerate the relationship between creativity scores and verbal fluency factors. Participants (n = 131 adults) completed two divergent thinking tasks (unusual uses for a rope and a box), which were scored using newer methods that effectively separate creativity (scored via subjective ratings) and fluency (scored as number of responses). They then completed 16 verbal fluency tasks that assessed six lower-order Gr factors: word fluency, associational fluency, associative flexibility, ideational fluency, letter fluency, and dissociative ability. Viewed singly, many of the lower-order factors significantly predicted creative quality and fluency. General Gr had substantial effects on creative quality (standardized β = .443) and fluency (β = .339) in a higher-order model as well as in a bifactor model (quality β = .380, fluency β = .327). Moreover, general Gr was the only significant predictor in the bifactor model, suggesting that it, not the specific factors, was most important. All effects were essentially the same after controlling for typing speed and vocabulary knowledge. The findings thus support the CHC view of creativity/originality as a lower-order component of Gr, illuminate the relationships between creativity and first-level Gr factors, extend the study of creativity and intelligence beyond fluid intelligence, and further indicate that creativity is more closely tied to cognitive abilities than creativity research has yet recognized.     

Background Television as an Inhibitor of Cognitive Processing

Proposed and tested is a causal process that could account for empirical relationships between television viewing and academic achievement. It is argued that television, when used as a secondary activity, interferes with performance on otherwise intellectually demanding tasks. Performance on seven different cognitive processing tests were examined for respondents in four television-viewing conditions and a no-TV control group. Dependent variables included measures of short-term memory, linguistic processing speed, reading comprehension, complex problem-solving abilities, and mental flexibility. Predictions based on four mechanisms were tested. Significant performance decrements in television conditions occurred for measures of reading comprehension, spatial problem solving, and cognitive flexibility. Results were most consistent with the idea that background television influences performance by causing cognitive processing capacity limits to be exceeded on difficult and complex tasks.     

Processing speed, intelligence, creativity, and school performance: Testing of causal hypotheses using structural equation models

According to mental speed theory of intelligence, the speed of information processing constitutes an important basis for cognitive abilities. However, the question, how mental speed relates to real world criteria, like school, academic, or job performance, is still unanswered. The aim of the study is to test an indirect speed-factor model in comparison to rivaling models explaining the relationships between different mental abilities and performance. In this speed-factor model, basic cognitive processing is assumed to influence higher mental abilities (IQ and creativity). Intelligence and creativity themselves should be valid predictors of school performance. We computed bivariate correlations and structural equation models to test this hypothesis, using indicators of processing speed [Zahlen-Verbindungs-Test (ZVT) and Coding Test], psychometric intelligence [Kognitiver Fähigkeits-Test (KFT) and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM)], creativity [Verbaler Kreativitäts-Test (VKT) and Verwendungs-Test (VWT)] and school performance (grades). In a sample of 271 students from German gymnasiums (Class Levels 9 to 11) the speed-factor model can reproduce at best the empirical relationships between processing speed, intelligence, creativity, and school performance: It assumes that processing speed influences higher mental abilities (intelligence and creativity), which, in the sequel, influence school performance. Therefore, processing speed seems to have no direct effect on school performance; the effect is indirect as it operates via mediation through higher cognitive abilities.     

Cognitive Abilities Involved in Insight Problem Solving: An Individual Differences Model

This study investigated individual differences in cognitive abilities that contribute to solving insight problems. A model is proposed describing three types of cognitive ability that contribute independently to insight: convergent thinking, divergent thinking, and breaking frame. The model was tested in a large sample (N = 108) by regressing insight problem solving performance on measures of these three abilities. This analysis demonstrated that all three abilities predicted insight independently. Convergent thinking was further broken down into verbal intelligence and working memory, which also predicted insight independently of each other and of divergent thinking and breaking frame. Finally, when pitted against noninsight problem solving as a predictor in regression, only insight problem solving was uniquely associated with divergent thinking and breaking frame. The model is suggested as a potentially useful taxonomy for the study of ill-defined problems and cognitive abilities.     

Are Speedy Brains Needed when Divergent Thinking is Speeded—or Unspeeded?

In this study, we focus on mental speed and divergent thinking, examining their relationship and the influence of task speededness. Participants (N = 109) completed a set of processing speed tasks and a test battery measuring divergent thinking. We used two speeded divergent-thinking tasks of 2 minutes and two unspeeded tasks of 8 minutes to test the influence of task speededness on creative quality and their relation to mental speed. Before each task, participants were instructed to be creative in order to optimally measure creative quality. We found a large main effect of task speededness: less creative ideas were generated when tasks were speeded as compared to unspeeded (Cohen's d = −1.64). We could also replicate a positive relationship of mental speed with speeded divergent thinking (r = .21) and mental speed with unspeeded divergent thinking (r = .25). Our hypothesis that the relation is higher for the speeded divergent-thinking tasks was not confirmed. Importantly, variation in creative quality scores under speeded conditions was not explained by mental speed beyond the predictive power of unspeeded creative quality. The latter finding implies that measurement of creative quality under speeded conditions is not confounded by mental speed.     

Basic Information Processing Abilities at 11 years Account for Deficits in IQ Associated with Preterm Birth

Although it is well established that preterms as a group do poorly relative to their full-term peers on tests of global cognitive functioning, the basis for this relative deficiency is less understood. The present paper examines preterm deficits in core cognitive abilities and determines their role in mediating preterm/full-term differences in IQ. The performance of 11-year-old children born preterm (birth weight < 1750 g) and their full-term controls were compared on a large battery of 15 tasks, covering four basic cognitive domains — memory, attention, speed of processing and representational competence. The validity of these four domains was established using latent variables and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Preterms showed pervasive deficits within and across domains. Additionally, preterm deficits in IQ were completely mediated by these four cognitive domains in a structural equation model involving a cascade from elementary abilities (attention and speed), to more complex abilities (memory and representational competence), to IQ. The similarity of findings to those obtained with this cohort in infancy and toddlerhood suggests that preterm deficits persist — across time, across task, and from the non-verbal to the verbal period.     

The Contributions of Memory and Attention Processes to Cognitive Abilities

In two experiments, the contributions of memory and attention processes to the cognitive abilities of reasoning and perceptual speed were investigated. Two measures of speed of information retrieval from long-term and short-term memory (Posner paradigm, Sternberg paradigm) and two attention measures (continuous attention test, attention switching test) were included in the first experiment (N = 220). The memory tests led to correlations with the measures of cognitive abilities, whereas the attention test did not. The same tests as well as one additional memory test and one attention test (working memory test, test of covert orientation) were administered in the second experiment (N = 116). Again, the memory tests led to the larger correlations with the measures of cognitive abilities. Two components were obtained in components analysis, of which the first was characterized by high loadings of the memory tests and the second by high loadings of the attention tests. Only the memory component contributed to the prediction of cognitive abilities.     

The contributions of memory and attention processes to cognitive abilities

In two experiments, the contributions of memory and attention processes to the cognitive abilities of reasoning and perceptual speed were investigated. Two measures of speed of information retrieval from long-term and short-term memory (Posner paradigm, Sternberg paradigm) and two attention measures (continuous attention test, attention switching test) were included in the first experiment (N = 220). The memory tests led to correlations with the measures of cognitive abilities, whereas the attention test did not. The same tests as well as one additional memory test and one attention test (working memory test, test of covert orientation) were administered in the second experiment (N = 116). Again, the memory tests led to the larger correlations with the measures of cognitive abilities. Two components were obtained in components analysis, of which the first was characterized by high loadings of the memory tests and the second by high loadings of the attention tests. Only the memory component contributed to the prediction of cognitive abilities.     

Predispositional Engagement,Activity Engagement,and Cognition among Older Adults

ABSTRACT

We investigated interrelationships between the predisposition toward approaching experiences in a mindful and creative way, participation in specific activities, and cognition among older adults. Participants were administered a battery measuring cognition (i.e., working memory, processing speed, divergent thinking, inductive reasoning, visuo-spatial processing), activity level, and the predisposition towards mental engagement (Need for Cognition, Mindfulness, and Openness to Experience). Results indicated that predispositional engagement and activity engagement are distinct constructs that independently contribute to different aspects of fluid ability, highlighting the importance of considering both the predisposition toward mental engagement as well as the habitual tendency to participate in activities when exploring principles of cognitive optimization.     

Latent profile analysis of working memory capacity and thinking styles in adults and adolescents

This study of adults (n = 269) and adolescents (n = 308) applied latent profile analysis to preference for rational and/or experiential cognition, coupled with working memory capacity (WMC). A 4-profile solution comprising rationally dominant, experientially dominant, dual preference, and disengaged groups was retained for both adult and adolescent samples. Our solution indicated that high WMC was associated with both preference and ability to engage in rational processing. Profile membership significantly discriminated both adults and adolescents on several reasoning tasks and measures of cognitive biases. Overall our results indicate that cognitive processing styles and WMC can be combined to create a typology that distinguishes between four types of thinkers who significantly differ in their performance on reasoning tasks.     

Counterfactual thinking and false belief: the role of executive function

The purpose of the current study was to examine further the relationship between counterfactual thinking and false belief (FB) as examined by Guajardo and Turley-Ames (Cognitive Development, 19 (2004) 53-80). More specifically, the current research examined the importance of working memory and inhibitory control in understanding the relationship between counterfactual thinking and FB. Participants were 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds (N = 76). Counterfactual thinking statements generated accounted for significant variance in FB performance beyond age and language. Working memory and inhibitory control each partially mediated the relationship between counterfactual thinking and FB performance. The maturation of executive functioning skills is important in children’s developing understanding of counterfactual reasoning and FB.     

Intelligence indexes generalist genes for cognitive abilities

Twin research has supported the concept of intelligence (general cognitive ability, g) by showing that genetic correlations between diverse tests of verbal and nonverbal cognitive abilities are greater than 0.50. That is, most of the genes that affect cognitive abilities are highly pleiotropic in the sense that genes that affect one cognitive ability affect all cognitive abilities. The impact of this finding may have been blunted because it depends on the validity of the twin method. Although the assumptions of the twin method have survived indirect tests, it is now possible to test findings from the twin method directly using DNA alone in samples of unrelated individuals, without the assumptions of the twin method. We applied this DNA method, implemented in a software package called Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis (GCTA), to estimate genetic variance and covariance for two verbal tests and two nonverbal tests using 1.7 million DNA markers genotyped on 2500 unrelated children at age 12; 1900 children also had cognitive data and DNA at age 7. Because each of these individuals is one member of a twin pair, we were able to compare GCTA estimates directly to twin study estimates using the same measures in the same sample. At age 12, GCTA confirmed the results of twin research in showing substantial genetic covariance between verbal and nonverbal composites. The GCTA genetic correlation at age 12 was 1.0 (SE = 0.32), not significantly different from the twin study estimate of 0.60 (SE = 0.09). At age 7, the genetic correlations were 0.31 (SE = 0.32) from GCTA and 0.71 (SE = 0.15).from twin analysis. The results from the larger sample and stronger measures at age 12 confirm the twin study results that the genetic architecture of intelligence is driven by pleiotropic effects on diverse cognitive abilities. However, the results at age 7 and the large standard errors of GCTA bivariate genetic correlations suggest the need for further research with larger samples.     

Openness to Experience and Intellect Differentially Predict Creative Achievement in the Arts and Sciences

The Big Five personality dimension Openness/Intellect is the trait most closely associated with creativity and creative achievement. Little is known, however, regarding the discriminant validity of its two aspects—Openness to Experience (reflecting cognitive engagement with perception, fantasy, aesthetics, and emotions) and Intellect (reflecting cognitive engagement with abstract and semantic information, primarily through reasoning)—in relation to creativity. In four demographically diverse samples totaling 1,035 participants, we investigated the independent predictive validity of Openness and Intellect by assessing the relations among cognitive ability, divergent thinking, personality, and creative achievement across the arts and sciences. We confirmed the hypothesis that whereas Openness predicts creative achievement in the arts, Intellect predicts creative achievement in the sciences. Inclusion of performance measures of general cognitive ability and divergent thinking indicated that the relation of Intellect to scientific creativity may be due at least in part to these abilities. Lastly, we found that Extraversion additionally predicted creative achievement in the arts, independently of Openness. Results are discussed in the context of dual‐process theory.     

认知老化模型的研究

以２３２名２０－７９岁成人为被试和５项认知能力测验为指标,应用结构方程建模方法建立了认知老化模型。     

A preliminary investigation of sex differences in associations between emotion regulation difficulties and higher-order cognitive abilities

The present study sought to clarify the cognitive correlates of emotion regulation difficulties (ERD). Further, because prior evidence suggests sex differences in emotion regulation, sex was examined as a moderator of associations between cognitive abilities and ERD. Participants (N = 154) completed self-report measures of ERD, and were administered neuropsychological tests assessing crystallized and fluid intelligence, as well as various components of executive functioning. Bivariate correlations and results from regression analyses suggested sex-dependent associations among cognitive processes and ERD. For men, inhibition of dominant response tendencies was associated with lower ERD, whereas for women, a host of executive abilities (e.g., greater inhibition, cognitive flexibility, semantic processing, abstract reasoning) were associated with greater ERD. Implications for the neurocognitive conceptualization of emotion dysregulation will be discussed.