Attentional WM is not necessarily specifically related with fluid intelligence: the case of smart children with ADHD symptoms

Executive functions and, in particular, Attentional (active) Working Memory (WM) have been associated with fluid intelligence. The association contrasts with the hypothesis that children with ADHD exhibit problems with WM tasks requiring controlled attention and may have a good fluid intelligence. This paper examines whether children who are intelligent but present ADHD symptoms fail in attentional WM tasks. The latter result would be problematic for theories assuming the generality of a strict relationship between intelligence and WM. To study these issues, a battery of tests was administered to a group of 58 children who all displayed symptoms of ADHD. All children were between the age of 8 and 11 years, and were described by their teachers as smart. Children were compared to a control group matched for age, schooling, and gender. The battery included a test of fluid intelligence (Raven’s Coloured Matrices), and a series of visuospatial WM tasks. Results showed that children with ADHD were high in intelligence but significantly lower than the controls in WM tasks requiring high attentional control, whereas there was no difference in WM tasks requiring low attentional control. Furthermore, only high attentional control WM tasks were significantly related to Raven’s performance in the control group, whereas all WM tasks were similarly related in the ADHD group. It is concluded that performance in high attentional control WM tasks may be related to fluid intelligence, but also to a specific control component that is independent of intelligence and is poor in children with ADHD.     

Age and schooling effects on early literacy and phoneme awareness

Previous research on age and schooling effects is largely restricted to studies of children who begin formal schooling at 6 years of age, and the measures of phoneme awareness used have typically lacked sensitivity for beginning readers. Our study addresses these issues by testing 4 to 6 year-olds (first 2 years of formal schooling in the United Kingdom) on a sensitive dynamic measure of phoneme awareness and tests of early literacy. There were significant effects of both age and schooling on the dynamic measure of phoneme awareness, word reading, spelling, and letter name knowledge, but there were no significant Age × Time interactions. This indicates that older children within this age group generally outperform their younger classmates (although they do not make faster progress) and that this advantage is developed prior to the start of school.     

Influences of item organizability and semantic retrieval cues on word recall in very old age

Abstract

This research investigated the influence of organizational structure in the materials and category cues at retrieval on episodic memory performance in very old age. A community-based sample of healthy, very old adults (N = 224) between 75 and 96 years was presented with two lists of words: a list of semantically unrelated words and a list of words from four taxonomic categories randomly intermixed. Free recall was assessed for both tasks and, for the organizable list, subjects received a cued recall test as well. Results showed an overall age-related deterioration of memory performance, although the ability to utilize item organizability and retrieval cues remained intact across age. Evidence from data on memory performance, as well as analyses of the nature of organizable free recall, suggests that problems at both encoding and retrieval may underlie the age-related performance deficit. In addition, there were age-related increases in (a) forgetting between free and cued recall, and (b) intrusion errors. Finally, regression analyses indicated that, in addition to age, level of schooling as well as markers of general cognitive status (the Mini-Mental State Examination) and fluid intelligence (Block Design) accounted for performance variation across all memory tasks.     

The malleability of executive function in early childhood: Effects of schooling and targeted training

Executive function (EF), its importance for scholastic achievement and the question of whether or not EF is malleable, have become a topic of intense interest. Education or schooling is often seen as effective approaches to enhance EF due to the specific school‐related requirements as compared to kindergarten or pre‐school. However, no study to date has investigated whether targeted training focusing on those domains might be comparable with regular schooling in improving EF and fluid intelligence (Gf). The aim of the present study was to replicate and extend the previously demonstrated schooling effects on EF by using a school‐cutoff design, and to further investigate whether a theoretically motivated intervention targeting specific EF, i.e., working memory (WM) or inhibitory control (IC), could achieve comparable effects with schooling in both, WM and IC, as well as Gf. 91 6‐year‐old kindergarteners and first‐graders with similar chronological age participated the study. We compared the performance of a first‐grade schooling group with that of two kindergarten training groups as well as a business‐as‐usual kindergarten control group. Participants were assessed in WM, IC and Gf at baseline, immediately after the intervention (posttest), as well as 3 months after training completion (follow‐up). The results showed that the schooling group indeed outperformed the kindergarten groups at baseline in several cognitive tasks. Furthermore, both the WM and IC training showed pronounced gains in the trained tasks, as well as varying degrees of improvement in non‐trained outcome measures. Most importantly, both training groups achieved comparable performance with the schooling group, which was especially apparent in Gf at follow‐up. Our findings provide further evidence for the malleability of EF demonstrating that both, long‐term and short‐term interventions can facilitate the acquisition of those important skills, and as such, our work has important implications for educational practice.     

Ontogeny of the Ponzo illusion: Effects of age,schooling, and environment(1)

Subjects were 384 Moroccan males (age range 6–22 yrs.), divided into 16 equal groups, according to the factorial design: age (4) × schooling (2) × environment (2). Subjects were tested on four Ponzo configurations (differing in contextual information) from Leibowitz et al. (1969), the Ponzo perspective stimulus from Segall et al. (1966), the CEFT from Witkin et al. (1971), and a measure of pictorial depth perception. Individual measures of contact with mass-media and urban life were collected on each subject. Analyses indicated that all main factors of age, schooling, and environment played important, and differing, roles in inducing illusion susceptibility. Piaget's (1969) theory of primary and secondary illusions was found useful in understanding the results of the Ponzo configurations used in the study. Primary illusion configurations were found to be relatively insensitive to experiential variables, and illusion susceptibility decreased with chronological age. In contrast, secondary illusion configurations were affected by many experiential factors, and illusion susceptibility was mediated through perceptual development and pictorial depth perception rather than chronological age. It was concluded that single-factor theories of ontogenetic change in illusion susceptibility were inadequate to explain the complex interactions found in this study.     

Practice and Coaching on IQ Tests: Quite a Lot of g

In the present research two studies are used to investigate the relation between g loading of tests and practice (test‐retest) and coaching (active teaching) effects. The data on practice do not support the hypothesis that the higher a test’s g loading, the less susceptible it is to preparation, but the data on coaching support the hypothesis. There is evidence that practice and coaching reduce the g‐loadedness of a collection of tests. The implications of these results for predictive validity, practical usability of the tests, the relevance of traditional intelligence taxonomies, and for future research are discussed.     

Intelligence and executive functioning in adult age: Effects of sibship size and birth order

Several studies have demonstrated that social influences from having been brought up in a family with few siblings and early in birth order result in higher scores on intelligence tests in childhood and adolescence as compared to having been brought up in large sibships. The present study examined whether influences of such social factors would have long-lasting effects on intelligence (block design and word comprehension) and executive functions (working memory and verbal fluency) in adulthood and old age, i.e., long after the individuals had moved out of the family structure they were born in. After having controlled for socioeconomic status and a variety of health conditions affecting cognition in adult life, a sibship size effect was demonstrated for executive functions but not for intelligence. The social influences of birth order affected only executive functions and working memory in particular; earlier born individuals performed better than later born individuals in tests assessing executive function but not in tests assessing intelligence. Implications for the relationship between executive functioning and intelligence, and implications for the Confluence and Resource Dilution Models (Blake, 1981; Downey, 1995, 2001; Zajonc, 1976) are discussed.     

Biological factors and psychometric intelligence: a review.

Results from a synthesis of correlations between psychometric intelligence and two physical traits, head size and body size, are reported. Within-family studies are reviewed for evidence of pleiotropy, the effect of a single genetic factor on two traits. Studies are also reviewed to determine whether prenatal effects bias twin studies, leading to underestimates of genetic influence. An N-weighted mean partial correlation (controlling height) of .10 between intelligence and head size was found. Using a method developed by Van Valen (1974), the correlation of intelligence and brain size was estimated as .29 based on all the intelligence/head-size studies of adults and adolescents, and .44 based on studies measuring intelligence with IQ tests. The N-weighted mean partial correlations (controlling age) of intelligence and height were .18 for children and .22 for adults. The within-family studies indicated that pleiotropy may contribute to the correlation of intelligence with head size and to the correlation of intelligence with body size. Prenatal effects are not an important source of bias in twin studies or for heritability estimates based on them.     

Aging, attention, and intelligence

The aims of this study were (a) to find out if attentional ability factors that are separate from the well-established ability factors (e.g., fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and short-term acquisition and retrieval function) can be identified, and (b) to establish, through the use of part correlations, whether attentional abilities play a role in the changes in fluid and crystallized intelligence that occur with increasing age. A battery of 36 tests (19 psychometric tests and 17 measures of attentional processes) were given to 100 people. 20 of whom were in each age decade between 20 and 70. Results indicated that three attentional factors--Search, Concentration, and Attentional Flexibility--exist at the primary-ability level and that all three define fluid intelligence at the second-order level. Results also indicate that the decline in fluid intelligence with increasing age disappears if attentional factors are parted-out. Similarly, the increase in crystallized intelligence with increasing age becomes even greater if one controls for attentional processes. I conclude that changes in attentional processes play an important part in changes in human intelligence with age.     

Timed performance weaknesses on computerized tasks in pediatric brain tumor survivors: A comparison with sibling controls

With more children surviving a brain tumor, insight into the late effects of the disease and treatment is of high importance. This study focused on profiling the neurocognitive functions that might be affected after treatment for a pediatric brain tumor, using a broad battery of computerized tests. Predictors that may influence neurocognitive functioning were also investigated. A total of 82 pediatric brain tumor survivors (PBTSs) aged 8–18 years (M = 13.85, SD = 3.15, 49% males) with parent-reported neurocognitive complaints were compared to a control group of 43 siblings (age M = 14.27, SD = 2.44, 40% males) using linear mixed models. Neurocognitive performance was assessed using measures of attention, processing speed, memory, executive functioning, visuomotor integration (VMI), and intelligence. Tumor type, treatment, tumor location, hydrocephalus, gender, age at diagnosis, and time since diagnosis were entered into regression analyzes as predictors for neurocognitive functioning. The PBTSs showed slower processing speeds and lower intelligence (range effect sizes .71–.82, p < .001), as well as deficits in executive attention, short-term memory, executive functioning, and VMI (range effect sizes .40–.57, p < .05). Older age at assessment was associated with better neurocognitive functioning (B = .450, p < .001) and younger age at diagnosis was associated with lower intelligence (B = .328, p < .05). Medical risk factors, e.g., hydrocephalus, did not show an association with neurocognitive functioning. Late effects in PBTSs include a broad range of neurocognitive deficits. The results suggest that even PBTSs that were traditionally viewed as low risk for neurocognitive problems (e.g., surgery only, no hydrocephalus) may suffer from decreased neurocognitive functioning.     

Influences of schooling and urban-rural residence on gender differences in cognitive abilities and academic achievement

A total of 1151 children from indigenous Quechua-speaking families residing in squatter settlements of the city and in two remote rural environments in Peru was given a battery of 16 tests of academic achievement and cognitive abilities. The former tests assessed reading and mathematics achievement and the latter tapped a broad range of cognitive functions. Children were enrolled in first, second, or third grade or did not attend school. “Younger” children were from 6 to 8 years old, and “older” children were from 9 to 12 years old. Large differences in cognitive functioning were associated with attendance at school, grade in school, age, and urban-rural residence. Gender was found to account for less than 5% of the variance in children's performance on cognitive and academic tasks. Gender effects appeared to decline with increased amount of schooling. This was reflected in interactions involving gender and schooling and in a greater number of significant gender effects for children who did not attend school or were in first grade. The results present a complicated picture of various interactional effects of task, location, age, and schooling on the detected gender differences in cognitive abilities and academic achievement.     

A moderate financial incentive can increase effort,but not intelligence test performance in adult volunteers

A positive correlation between self-reported test-taking motivation and intelligence test performance has been reported. Additionally, some financial incentive experimental evidence suggests that intelligence test performance can be improved, based on the provision of financial incentives. However, only a small percentage of the experimental research has been conducted with adults. Furthermore, virtually none of the intelligence experimental research has measured the impact of financial incentives on test-taking motivation. Consequently, we conducted an experiment with 99 adult volunteers who completed a battery of intelligence tests under two conditions: no financial incentive and financial incentive (counterbalanced). We also measured self-reported test-taking importance and effort at time 1 and time 2. The financial incentive was observed to impact test-taking effort statistically significantly. By contrast, no statistically significant effects were observed for the intelligence test performance scores. Finally, the intelligence test scores were found to correlate positively with both test-taking importance (r_c = .28) and effort (r_c = .37), although only effort correlated uniquely with intelligence (partial r_c = .26). In conjunction with other empirical research, it is concluded that a financial incentive can increase test-taking effort. However, the potential effects on intelligence test performance in adult volunteers seem limited.     

Development of concrete operational thought and information coding in schooled and unschooled children

In this study, we examine the influence of schooling and age on the development of concrete and operational thought and information processing as measured by non-Piagetian tasks. One hundred schooled and 100 non-schooled children in the age brackets of 6–8 and 10–12, and 50 4–6-year-old preschool children from a relatively homogeneous socio-demographic background in a rural part of India were given four tests for information-coding processes. Half of the subjects in each group were also given four Piagetian concrete operational tasks. As predicted, performance on Piagetian tasks increased as a function of age only, whereas the effects of schooling, age, and their interaction were clearly observed for coding processes. It is concluded that information-processing modes rather than concrete operational skills are more sensitive to cognitive consequences of schooling.     

Season of birth and childhood intelligence: Findings from the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s cohort study

Background. In this study, 2 main hypotheses have been put forward to explain the variation in childhood intelligence or school performance by season of birth. In the first hypothesis, it is suggested that it is due to school policy concerning school entry, whereas the second suggests that a seasonally patterned exposure such as temperature, maternal nutrition, or infection during critical periods of brain development have a lasting effect on intelligence. Aims. To determine whether childhood performance on tests of different domains of intelligence is patterned by season of birth and to examine possible mechanisms for any associations. Sample. 12,150 individuals born in Aberdeen, Scotland between 1950 and 1956. Methods. Birth cohort study in which the variation in different domains of childhood intelligence measured at ages 7, 9, and 11 by season of birth were examined. Results. Reading ability at age 9 and arithmetic ability at age 11 varied by season of birth, with lowest scores among those born in autumn or early winter (September–December) and highest scores among those born in later winter or spring (February–April); p = .002 for joint sine‐cosine functions for reading ability at age 9 and p = .05 for sine‐cosine function for arithmetic ability at age 11. The child's perception and understanding of pictorial differences at age 7, verbal reasoning at 11, and English language ability at 11 did not vary by season of birth. Age at starting primary school and age relative to class peers were both associated with the different measurements of childhood intelligence and both attenuated the association between month of birth and reading ability at age 9 and arithmetic ability at age 11 towards the null. Both adjusted and unadjusted differences in reading ability at age 9 and arithmetic ability at age 11 between those born from September to December compared with other times of the year were less than 0.1 of a standard deviation of the test scores. Ambient temperature around the time of conception, during gestation, and around the time of birth did not affect intelligence. Conclusion. Any variation in mean childhood intelligence by season of birth is weak and largely explained by age at school entry and age relative to class peers.     

Further analyses of the effects of practice,dropout, sex,socio-economic advantage,and recruitment cohort differences during the University of Manchester longitudinal study of cognitive change in old age

A sample of 4,314 volunteers who, when first recruited, were aged from 41 to 93 years were quadrennially tested from 2 to 4 occasions during the next 4 to 20 years on the Cattell Culture Fair intelligence test, 2 tests of information-processing speed, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) vocabulary test, and 3 memory tests. After significant effects of practice, sex, demographics, socio-economic advantage, and recruitment cohort had been identified and considered, performance on all tests declined with age. These age-related declines accelerated for the Cattell and WAIS, 2 tests of information speed, and 2 of the memory tests. For all tests individuals' trajectories of age-related change diverged with increasing age but, unexpectedly, were not affected by demographic factors. Practice gains from an initial experience of the cognitive tests remained undiminished as the interval before the second experience increased from 4 to 8 + years.     

Typical intellectual engagement,Big Five personality traits,approaches to learning and cognitive ability predictors of academic performance

Background Both ability (measured by power tests) and non‐ability (measured by preference tests) individual difference measures predict academic school outcomes. These include fluid as well as crystalized intelligence, personality traits, and learning styles. This paper examines the incremental validity of five psychometric tests and the sex and age of pupils to predict their General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE) test results. Aims The aim was to determine how much variance ability and non‐ability tests can account for in predicting specific GCSE exam scores. Sample The sample comprised 212 British schoolchildren. Of these, 123 were females. Their mean age was 15.8 years (SD 0.98 years). Method Pupils completed three self‐report tests: the Neuroticism–Extroversion–Openness‐Five‐Factor Inventory (NEO‐FFI) which measures the ‘Big Five’ personality traits, ( Costa & McCrae, 1992 ); the Typical Intellectual Engagement Scale ( Goff & Ackerman, 1992 ) and a measure of learning style, the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ; Biggs, 1987 ). They also completed two ability tests: the Wonderlic Personnel Test ( Wonderlic, 1992 ) a short measure of general intelligence and the General Knowledge Test ( Irving, Cammock, & Lynn, 2001 ) a measure of crystallized intelligence. Six months later they took their (10th grade) GCSE exams comprising four ‘core’ compulsory exams as well as a number of specific elective subjects. Results Correlational analysis suggested that intelligence was the best predictors of school results. Preference test measures accounted for relatively little variance. Regressions indicated that over 50% of the variance in school exams for English (Literature and Language) and Maths and Science combined could be accounted for by these individual difference factors. Conclusions Data from less than an hour's worth of testing pupils could predict school exam results 6 months later. These tests could, therefore, be used to reliably inform important decisions about how pupils are taught.     

The differential effects of age and first grade schooling on the development of infralogical and logico-mathematical concrete operations

Using the “between-grade levels” regression discontinuity design, this study examined the hypothesized differential sensitivity of logico-mathematical (LM) and infralogical (IL) operational tasks to the effects of chronological age and first grade schooling in a sample of 580 1st and 2nd grade Israeli children. The results indicate that the development of logico-mathematical operational skills (classification, class inclusion and transitivity) is mainly attributable to schooling. In contrast, the effect of schooling on the development of conservation of mass, liquid quantity and number (clearly an infralogical task) is negligible; acquisition of conservation is almost exclusively due to maturation and out-of-school experiences. The results support the theoretical predictions derived from French-Swiss research of the last two decades and are inconsistent with claims regarding the specificity of schooling effects to tasks that are taught in school.     

Group Affiliations of University Students in the Arab Middle East

Summary

A study was undertaken in Morocco in order to separate the effects of age and formal schooling on the development of cognitive style. A total of 384 boys (age range: 6–22 years) were selected from environmental backgrounds including: urban/schooled, rural/schooled, urban/nonschooled, and rural/nonschooled. Results indicated that chronological age and schooling played major, but independent roles in promoting perceptual development (and “field independent” cognitive style), while childhood environment appeared to have little effect. It was concluded that general statements about the effects of cultural socialization practices on cognitive style should be tempered by considering particular environmental experiences (such as formal schooling) that may significantly influence cognitive assessment techniques that are said to measure cognitive style.     

Brain mechanisms and intelligence. Psychometric g and executive function

Sternberg [Sternberg, R.J. (1985). Beyond IQ: a triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.] has proposed that the general intelligence, or the g factor, obtained when batteries of mental tests are factor analyzed, is a reflection of the fact that executive functions (EF) are common to all cognitive tests. Three lines of evidence that fail to support Sternberg's formulation are presented. First, in animal problem solving studies, there is only a modest degree of overlap between brain structures that are critical for g, and brain structures that have been identified as the rodent EF system. Second, children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), characterized by EF dysfunction, do not have IQ scores that are lower, on average, than children in the test standardization populations. Third, human frontal lobe patients often have clear EF deficits, but IQ (a next-best estimate of g) may be preserved. These findings cast serious doubt on the plausibility of Sternberg's formulation. Clarifying the distinction between psychometric g and EF can be important for understanding the differences between practical and psychometric intelligence.     

Acceptability in France of Induced Abortion for Adolescents

Background: This study investigated the factors affecting the acceptability in France of abortions. Method: 80 study participants from Toulouse and 124 from Metz judged the acceptability of abortion in 64 vignettes composed of five factors: 1) the adolescent's age (15 or 17.5 years), 2) the adolescent's plans to continue schooling or not, 3) the fetus' age (1, 2, 3, or 4 months), 4) the adolescent's parents' agreement or not, and 5) the agreement or not of baby's father. Results: Three clusters were noted: 1) abortion is never acceptable (8% of participants), 2) abortion is always acceptable (23%), and 3) acceptability of abortion depends on the circumstances (63%). In the majority cluster (3), all five factors had significant effects, but the fetus's age accounted for most of the variance (78%). Conclusion: Most subjects in this study judged, in accordance with French law, that the acceptability of induced abortion in minors depends on the circumstances and, in particular, on the fetus' age.