Abstract

Process-Overlap Theory (POT) suggests that measures of cognitive abilities sample from sets of independent cognitive processes. These cognitive processes can be separated into domain-general executive processes, sampled by the majority of cognitive ability measures, and domain-specific processes, sampled only by measures within a certain domain. According to POT, fluid intelligence measures are related because different tests sample similar domain-general executive cognitive processes to some extent. Re-analyzing data from a study by De Simoni and von Bastian (2018), we assessed domain-general variance from executive processing tasks measuring inhibition, shifting, and efficiency of removal from working memory, as well as examined their relation to a domain-general factor extracted from fluid intelligence measures. The results showed that domain-general factors reflecting general processing speed were moderately and negatively correlated with the domain-general fluid intelligence factor (r = −.17–−.36). However, domain-general factors isolating variance specific to inhibition, shifting, and removal showed only small and inconsistent correlations with the domain-general fluid intelligence factor (r = .02–−.22). These findings suggest that (1) executive processing tasks sample only few domain-general executive processes also sampled by fluid intelligence measures, as well as (2) that domain-general speed of processing contributes more strongly to individual differences in fluid intelligence than do domain-general executive processes.

Highlights

  • Process-Overlap Theory (POT) proposes that Gf primarily represents the shared executive processes sampled by different Gf measures (Kovacs and Conway 2016)

  • Our results showed that factors isolating domain-general executive processes were only moderately related to individual differences in Gf

  • We found the largest overlap between Gf measures with domain-general processing speed factors, processing speed in inhibition and shifting tasks

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Summary

Introduction

POT is a reformulation of sampling theory of intelligence 1916) in its assumption that all intelligence measures sample from a set of cognitive processes that are required for performing well in the respective measures. POT builds upon multi-dimensional item-response theory (IRT) to implement individual differences in intelligence as a composite of domain-general and domainspecific cognitive processes. POT assumes that limitations in one domain-specific process can be compensated by other cognitive processes operating within the same domain. Limitations in one domain-general process cannot be compensated by other domain-general processes. Performing well in a given task requires a certain level of ability in all the domain-general cognitive

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