The transition of object to mental manipulation: beyond a species-specific view of intelligence

Animal Cognition - Many attempts have been made to classify and evaluate the nature of intelligence in humans and other species (referred to as the ‘g’ factor in the former and the G...     

Emotional intelligence predicts adolescent mental health beyond personality and cognitive ability

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been reliably linked to better mental health (Martins, Ramalho, & Morin, 2010). However, critics have argued that EI may be conceptually redundant and unable to offer anything new to the prediction of key adaptational outcomes beyond known correlates of performance, i.e., personality and cognitive ability (Brody, 2004). Although sparse, extant evidence points to differential incremental contributions from ability and trait EI in the prediction of internalising vs. externalising symptomatology in adults (e.g., [Gardner and Qualter, 2010] and [Rossen and Kranzler, 2009]). However, there is a dearth of research addressing these associations in adolescents. The current study explored the incremental validity of ability and trait EI to predict depression and disruptive behaviour beyond the ‘Big Five’ personality dimensions and general cognitive ability in a sample of 499 adolescents (mean age 13.02 years). Regression analyses found that collectively, EI made a significant, incremental contribution to the prediction of disorder in youth. However, of the two, trait EI appears the stronger predictor. Findings are discussed with reference to EI theory and directions for future research.     

Associative learning predicts intelligence above and beyond working memory and processing speed

Recent evidence suggests the existence of multiple cognitive mechanisms that support the general cognitive ability factor (g). Working memory and processing speed are the two best established candidate mechanisms. Relatively little attention has been given to the possibility that associative learning is an additional mechanism contributing to g. The present study tested the hypothesis that associative learning ability, as assessed by psychometrically sound associative learning tasks, would predict variance in g above and beyond the variance predicted by working memory capacity and processing speed. This hypothesis was confirmed in a sample of 169 adolescents, using structural equation modeling. Associative learning, working memory, and processing speed all contributed significant unique variance to g, indicating not only that multiple elementary cognitive processes underlie intelligence, but also the novel finding that associative learning is one such process.     

Data management and accountability in behavioral and biomedical research.

Regulations recently enacted by the Public Health Service and the National Science Foundation to address misconduct in scientific research were designed primarily to curtail deliberate forms of misconduct, such as fabrication or falsification of findings; however, researchers may also be held accountable for inadvertent deficiencies in data management. This article examines some of the problems in data quality control, documentation, and data retention that can occur when computers are used in scientific research. It focuses on deficiencies that could make it difficult to verify the integrity of research data or to reproduce statistical analyses. Strategies for prevention of data management problems are recommended.     

Emotional intelligence predicts components of subjective well-being beyond personality: A two-country study using self- and informant reports

This study aimed to examine the ability of overall emotional intelligence (EI) to predict cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being. University students in Germany and Turkey responded to self-report measures of EI, Big Five personality traits, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect. Multiple informant ratings on subjective well-being measures were obtained to further support the validity of the findings. Results indicated a positive relationship between EI and affective as well as cognitive facets of well-being, with a closer association on part of the affective aspect. The incremental validity of EI was established in that EI predicted both affect balance and life satisfaction when controlling for the Big Five. Whereas participants in Germany reported better well-being than those in Turkey, personality traits and EI explained more variance in well-being measures in Germany than in Turkey. However, the relationship between EI and well-being did not appear to be culturally bound.     

Intervention-based school psychology services: Training for child-level accountability; preparing for program-level accountability

This research evaluated the outcomes of a school psychology training practicum by replicating intervention-based service delivery procedures established in prior research. The key components include describing a service delivery model, teaching the model, deriving practice guidelines that fit the model, supporting trainees in carrying out the steps, and evaluating the outcomes. Procedures to determine outcomes were based on single-case design facets including accountability design (A-B), visual analysis of graphic data, and social validity ratings. Meta-analysis techniques included calculation of effect sizes and percent of nonoverlapping data (PND). Goal attainment scaling (GAS) also was used to summarize outcomes. The analyses indicated that the interventions led to positive changes for most children. For example, the median effect size was 1.42 across cases. Social validity evidence showed that consumers judged the outcomes positively. Achieving ideal baseline and technical adequacy checks (e.g., observer agreement, intervention adherence) represented challenges for many consultations. The contributions of the study include describing methods for child- and program-level accountability in training and areas for improvement including further supporting the completion of technical checks for intervention services.     

Book review section: Computer intelligence and human intelligence

Great Ideas in Information Theory, Language, and Cybernetics Jagjit Singh New York: Dover Publications, 1966 pp. viii + 338, Paperbound, $2.00     

Predicting psychological health: assessing the incremental validity of emotional intelligence beyond personality,Type A behaviour,and daily hassles

Although some research has linked emotional intelligence (EI) and psychological health, little research has examined EI's ability to predict health outcomes after controlling for related constructs, or EI's ability to moderate the stressor–strain relationship. The present study explored the relationships among EI (as assessed by a trait‐based measure, the EQ‐i), Big Five personality factors, Type A Behaviour Pattern (TABP), daily hassles, and psychological health/strain factors (in terms of perceived well‐being, strain, and three components of burnout). The EQ‐i was highly correlated with most aspects of personality and TABP. After controlling for the impact of hassles, personality, and TABP, the five EQ‐i subscales accounted for incremental variance in two of the five psychological health outcomes. However, the EQ‐i scales failed to moderate the hassles–strain relationship. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

IJPR: beyond the limit and limiting the beyond

It is now almost 20 years since Janicaud’s critique of the ‘theological turn in French phenomenology’ (Janicaud 1991, 2000), with its emphasis on phenomenology and theology as two and never one. Yet since that time there been an explosion of phenomenologies which are, if not overtly, implicitly religious and phenomenology. Thus, we have phenomenologies of prayer, or love, or hope, and the possibilities of further phenomenologies. The challenge of these emerging phenomenologies is that there seems to be no noematic correlate to a noesis in intentionality. To the fore in the reconsideration of this phenomenological challenge is Jean-Luc Marion (although there are others such as Levinas, Jean-Louis Chrétien, and Michel Henry): all aspects of lived experience appear now to belong to the proper scope of phenomenology. Marion considers the relation in Husserl between intentions and intuitions which fulfil these intentions, and suggests a reversal. In Marion, although intentionality is not rejected, the phenomenological flow which the reduction brings to light is from the object as such as it gives itself in intuition, and then from intuition to intention. For Marion, phenomena are saturated—they give too much. Religion becomes a test-case for all phenomenology. This bearing, drawing mainly on The Visible and the Revealed, offers some of the key things in Marion’s phenomenology.     

Family size and intelligence revisited: the role of emotional intelligence.

Studies examining the link between family size and intelligence have consistently found a negative relationship. Children born into larger families tend to score lower on intelligence tests than children raised in smaller families. One recurrent but unexplained finding is that the relation between intelligence and number of siblings is consistently significant for verbal intelligence but inconsistent for nonverbal intelligence. Here, we conceptualize emotional intelligence as one facet of nonverbal intelligence. The research develops a measure of emotional intelligence and uses it to test the hypothesis that emotional intelligence is positively correlated with family size. The results, based upon a sample of graduate students, support the hypothesized relationship. Implications for the study of family size and intelligence, for refining the conceptualizations and measures of nonverbal intelligence, and for leadership theory, are discussed.     

Reactions to youth crime: perceptions of accountability and competency

Recent changes in juvenile justice policies have stimulated debate among legal professionals and social scientists. As such, public opinion concerning juvenile offenders is an important and timely topic for empirical study. In the present study, respondents read a scenario about a juvenile who committed a crime, and then decided on a sentence and rated perceptions of the juvenile's accountability and legal competence. Four between-subject factors were manipulated: age of the defendant (11 versus 14 versus 17 years), type of crime (shooting versus arson), crime outcome (victim injured versus died), and time delay between the instigating incident and the crime (immediately versus one day). The type and outcome of the crime were major motivating factors in sentencing decisions and perceptions of legal competence, and, although younger offenders were seen as less accountable and less competent than older offenders, sentence allocation and attitudes towards punishment were not significantly affected by offender age.     

Patients' rights and physician accountability: Problems with PSROs

The author examines the ethical underpinnings of the Professional Standard Review Organizations (PSROs). Four normative problems are explored in order of their importance: the problem of bureaucracy incapable of responding sensitively to individual cases; the problem of cost consciousness overcoming the commitment to quality; the problem of commitment to highest quality interfering with other social values and goals; and the problem of value judgments being made by professionals rather than patients whose rights and interests are most directly at stake. Though physicians may indeed be able to balance qualitative and cost considerations with prudence, they, nevertheless, approach medical problems with their own value system. Deciding between marginal health care and alternative courses with a given amount of funds involves subtle value judgments that will vary depending on the value systems of the decision-makers. Because of their unique composition, PSROs cannot adequately reflect the social consensus about what constitutes a reasonable limit to health care.     

About spatial intelligence: I

Spatial intelligence is characterized in terms of a continuum of research perspectives which range from a physiological or sensory awareness to a complex thought and cultural emphasis.