Higher-Order Structure-Of-Intellect Abilities

Using data available from the published reports of factor analyses performed by the Aptitudes Research Project at the University of Southern California, investigations were made into the possibility of demonstrating higher-order factorial abilities latent in those data. Since the policy in those analyses had been to rotate axes orthogonally rather than obliquely, there was no direct information regarding intercorrelations among first-order or basic factors. By combining salient tests for each basic factor, and using their loadings on the obtained factors, correlations were estimated among representatives of those factors. Several methods were devised for factoranalyzing those intercorrelations, applying experimental controls that seemed to be needed, in view of the three-faceted nature of each basic ability. Evidence was found for a large number of second-order abilities and a smaller number of third-order factors, connected with many parts of the structure-of-intellect model, within the limits of available data. In general, the results provide excellent support for the model and for its oblique nature, and for relative discriminability of its categories. Implications for higher-order factorial procedures, for the testing of intelligence, for research, both bivariate and multivariate, and for general psychological theory are suggested.     

Agents' self‐esteem moderates the effectiveness of negative‐direct partner regulation strategies

Prior research suggests that trying to change partner's attitudes and behaviors in hostile and demanding ways can successfully produce desired changes in targeted partners. The current research investigated whether the effectiveness of negative‐direct partner regulation strategies depends on the self‐esteem of regulation agents. Two longitudinal studies, involving individuals (N = 156) and couples (N = 174) in ongoing relationships, assessed agents' partner regulation attempts, the regulation strategies agents enacted, and the success of regulation attempts across time. Regulation agents who were low in self‐esteem and engaged in negative‐direct regulation strategies experienced lower regulation success over time. Lower regulation success in turn predicted decreases in relationship quality. These results indicate that negative‐direct regulation strategies are not beneficial when engaged by agents low in self‐esteem.     

On General and Non-General Abilities

I distinguish two ways an ability might be general: (i) an ability might be general in that its possession doesn't entail the possession of an opportunity; (ii) an ability might be general in virtue of pertaining to a wide range of circumstances. I argue that these two types of generality – I refer to them with the terms ‘general’ and ‘generic’, respectively – produce two orthogonal distinctions among abilities. I show that the two types of generality are sometimes run together by those writing on free will and argue that both types of generality are relevant to understanding the modality of abilities.     

Cognitive Processing of Drawing Abilities

This critical review examines constructional apraxia from a cognitive neuropsychological perspective. To our knowledge, van Sommers (1989) is the only researcher to present a global cognitive model of drawing abilities. He organizes it into two hierarchical systems: Marr's model of visual perception and a graphic production system. The latter comprises four hierarchically organized components: depiction decisions, production strategy, contingent planning, and articulatory and economic constraints. Van Sommers' model will be discussed in light of other models and on the basis of empirical neuropsychological studies (Farah, 1984; Kosslyn & Koenig, 1992; Roncato, Sartori, Masterson, & Rumiati, 1987; van Sommers, 1989). We find that: (1) the Kosslyn and Koenig visual perception model describes more accurately the perceptual components underlying copying than the visual perception system of van Sommers' drawing model, (2) Van Sommers' arguments in favor of a depiction processing as opposed to visual imagery are not convincing, (3) Van Sommers' assumption that a production strategy is a component is unclear, and (4) articulatory and economic constraints are not cognitive components, but constraints imposed during action programming. This literature review leads to a discussion of future research topics and the specificity of constructional apraxia.     

Special Abilities Assessment in Children

The faking-detection validity and incremental validity of response latencies to Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory (MMPI) items was investigated using an analog research design. One hundred undergraduates were assigned at random to five groups: each group received different faking instructions (standard, fake good, fake bad, fake good with incentive, fake bad with incentive). All subjects completed a computer-administered version of the MMPI. Content-determined response deviance scores and latencies of responses to Subtle and Obvious scale items were determined for each subject. The principal findings suggest that response latencies may have greater faking good detection ability than responses deviance scores, and that response latencies have statistically significant incremental validity for both the detection of faking good and faking bad, when latencies are used with response deviance scores obtained from Subtle and Obvious scales.     

Variations on Guilford's Creative Abilities

The creative abilities discussed by Guilford are related to recent work on variability. Emphasis is placed on learned variability theory, which assumes that, along with domain-specific skills, individuals acquire domain-specific variability levels, and that these levels are acquired early in exposure to a domain. Suggestions for training, especially the early use of divergent thinking procedures to establish stable high-variability levels in a domain, are made.     

Developing Mental Abilities By Representing Intentionality

Communication by shared meaning, themastery of word semantics,metarepresentation and metamentation aremental abilities, uniquely human, that share a sense ofintentionality or reference. The latteris developed by a naive psychology or interpretation – acompetence dedicated to representingintentional relations between conspecifics and the world. Theidea that interpretation builds new mentalabilities around a sense of reference is based on three linesof analysis – conceptual, psychological andevolutionary. The conceptual analysis reveals that a senseof reference is at the heart of the abilitiesin question. Psychological data track tight developmentalcorrelations between interpretation and theabilities it designs. Finally, an evolutionary hypothesislooks at why interpretation designed thosenew abilities around a sense of reference.     

Knowledge-How,Abilities, and Questions

The debate about the nature of knowledge-how is standardly thought to be divided between intellectualist views, which take knowledge-how to be a kind of propositional knowledge, and anti-intellectualist views, which take knowledge-how to be a kind of ability. In this paper, I explore a compromise position—the interrogative capacity view—which claims that knowing how to do something is a certain kind of ability to generate answers to the question of how to do it. This view combines the intellectualist thesis that knowledge-how is a relation to a set of propositions with the anti-intellectualist thesis that knowledge-how is a kind of ability. I argue that this view combines the positive features of both intellectualism and anti-intellectualism.     

Metaphonological Abilities of Spanish Illiterate Adults

The metaphonological abilities of illiterate Spanish-speaking people were evaluated. A group of rudimentary readers who have had deficient schooling was taken as control. The subjects were asked to discriminate between pairs of syllables that are minimally different in terms of phonetic features, to evaluate rhyme relations, to judge whether or not a particular phoneme or syllable was present in an utterance, and to delete and reverse phonemes and syllables. The results show that illiterates are quite good at phonetic discrimination. Almost half of them demonstrated an unequivocal ability to appreciate rhyme. However, their performance on the syllable tasks, and especially on the phoneme tasks, was very poor. There was almost no overlap between the scores of illiterates and rudimentary readers in the phonemic tasks. The present study confirms previous indications that phonemic awareness does not develop as a mere consequence of cognitive or linguistic maturation. It extends this claim to languages that, like Spanish, possess only a small set of vowels. On the other hand, the lack of phonemic awareness does not imply any substantial inferiority in phonemic sensitivity, i.e. the ability to discriminate between minimal pairs.     

Relations Among Sociocognitive Abilities and Prosocial Behavior

To further the understanding of the relations among sociocognitive abilities and social behavior, the current study examined theory of mind (ToM), social information processing (SIP), and prosocial behavior in 116 preschoolers (M age = 58.88 months) in Turkey. False belief tasks were utilized to test ToM and cartoons were used to assess SIP patterns. Prosocial behavior was measured with mother-reports and individual assessments. ToM was not related with the attribution of intent and was the only sociocognitive predictor of prosocial behavior, but just in boys. Results also pointed at sex differences in levels of sociocognitive development; girls showed greater ToM and more non-hostile attribution. Findings imply that SIP patterns might be less closely related to positive than antisocial behaviors, and understanding others’ minds might be less needed for positive acts in Turkish girls, who may learn to engage in such behavior as part of their gender role more strongly.