Abstract
The current understanding of high intellectual ability (HIA) involves considering the multidimensional nature of the skills that comprise it. In addition, conceptual advances related to how individuals manage the high intellectual resources available to them may help explain the possible gap between performance and high levels of competence. Understanding the role of executive functioning and metacognition in relation to the management of these resources is essential. Nonetheless, to date, the trajectory of their study is diverse, and empirical and measured evidence in this regard is limited. Thus, the objective of this work was to understand the relationship between executive functions and metacognition (and its components), as well as the measurement of these factors and their reliability. The study sample comprised schoolchildren (n = 43) with an HIA and a control group (n = 46) of schoolchildren with typical intelligence levels. Network analysis revealed differential intergroup connections between the executive functioning components as well as between those of metacognition and for each construct. The greatest relational weight was for metacognition components, with the most robust relationship being found in the group with HIA with metacognitive regulation, flexibility, and verbal working memory versus metacognitive awareness and inhibition in the typical group. Measurement derivations and their application in educational interventions to optimise the expression of high potential are also discussed.
Highlights
Higher cognitive functions, among which executive functioning and metacognition stand out, play a fundamental role in the development and intellectual activity as regulators of available resources
Notwithstanding, considering the magnitude of the rest of the centrality indices, these results indicated that the core variable in this model was metacognition, albeit with different intergroup components; the metacognitive component of awareness was the highest in the group with high intellectual ability (HIA) versus the metacognitive regulation component in the typical group
One of the contributions of this current work was our approach to measuring the inter-relationships between executive and metacognitive components
Summary
Among which executive functioning and metacognition stand out, play a fundamental role in the development and intellectual activity (both from early childhood and throughout life) as regulators of available resources. In the differential field of development and intellectual functioning, research in high intellectual ability (HIA) highlights the importance of the management of intellectual resources as one of the most relevant endogenous modulators that conditions the expression of high intellectual potential [1] The distribution of these resources may help to explain the difference between competence and performance observed in some people to whom such resources are available, but whose achievements do not reach the expected levels of excellence. Within this framework, HIA is understood not as a static quality fixed in the mind, but as the result of various interacting factors that influence the development of elevated levels of neurobiological potential in complex functions of the brain [2] that allow its more effective and efficient use.
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