Abstract
The definition of human intelligence and its underlying psychological constructs have long been debated. Although previous studies have investigated the fundamental cognitive functions determining intellectual abilities, such as the broadly defined executive functions including working memory, the core process has yet to be identified. A potential candidate for such a role might be cognitive control, a psychological construct for the coordination of thoughts and actions under conditions of uncertainty. In this study, we tested a cognitive control model of intellectual ability by examining the association between cognitive control, measured by a perceptual decision-making task and by the attention network test, and general intelligence including components of fluid intelligence (Gf, concerning the ability to solve problems by abstraction) and crystalized intelligence (Gc, related to learning from prior knowledge and experience) measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. We also examined the potential role of cognitive control as a core process involved in another determinant of intellectual abilities, the working memory, measured by the N-back tasks and the working memory complex span tasks. The relationship among intelligence, cognitive control, and working memory was examined using structural equation modeling. Results showed that cognitive control shared a large amount of variance with working memory and both measures were strongly associated with Gf and Gc, with a stronger association with Gf than Gc. These findings suggest that cognitive control, serving as a core construct of executive functions, contributes substantially to general intellectual ability, especially fluid intelligence.
Highlights
Intelligence has been thought of as the most prominent property that makes humans unique in the history of biological evolution[1,2], the challenges associated with capturing its ultimate nature[3] have had a significant impact on the consensus regarding its definition
An additional 22 participants were excluded from further analysis due to the following performance-related reasons: (1) the proportion of trials with valid responses across all conditions was less than 95% in the Majority Function Task - Masked (n = 8); (2) the overall response accuracy in the Attention Network Test – Revised (n = 4), or in the 0-back condition in any of the N-back tasks was lower than 90% (n = 5); (3) the response accuracy in the distracting task in any of the working memory complex span tasks was lower than 85% (n = 5)
The two measures used to estimate cognitive control, the executive control (EC) and the capacity of cognitive control (CCC), tap on participants’ ability to simultaneously select and prioritize visual inputs that are behaviorally relevant and to coordinate mental operations under uncertainty. This core component is involved in the performance of subtests of the WAIS-IV, especially in those tapping on Gf such as Matrix Reasoning which requires examinees to select a reasonable geometric pattern from a set of options to complete a matrix or a series, giving a measure of classification and spatial ability, simultaneous processing, and perceptual organization[77,78,79]
Summary
Intelligence has been thought of as the most prominent property that makes humans unique in the history of biological evolution[1,2], the challenges associated with capturing its ultimate nature[3] have had a significant impact on the consensus regarding its definition. The process of planning involves executive functions to control and organize behaviors by selecting and constructing strategies, and monitoring performance; the attention-arousal process requires maintaining arousal levels and alertness, and selectively focusing on relevant information; the simultaneous processing and successive processing are responsible for encoding, transforming, and recollecting information Both the triarchic theory of intelligence and the PASS theory constitute the attempts to embrace both qualitative and quantitative perspectives, and to emphasize the mental processes and operations involved in the intellectual behaviors. If cognitive control and working memory share a common process, as the core of intelligence, their estimates should share a large amount of variance and should be significantly correlated, as well as correlated to the measures of intellectual abilities We proposed that the latter case would be true, and predicted that the shared component between these constructs would be related to the coordination of thoughts and actions, rather than memory. Cognitive control should be more related to the construct of the Gf, rather than the Gc because the function of mental coordination is at the core of the Gf
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