Level Of Fluid Intelligence Research Articles

Age-related cognitive changes and distributed leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the evidence for age-related changes in cognition and the implications for leadership styles. In particular, a case is argued for distributed forms of leadership that encourage contribution across the age spectrum and hierarchical levels. Design/methodology/approach – This paper takes a conceptual approach, combining the psychology and management literatures in arguing the case for newer leadership forms, appropriate to an ageing workforce. Findings – Three principal components of intelligence (fluid, and crystallised intelligence and working memory) are considered and it is argued that high levels of fluid intelligence, generally higher in younger employees, should be accessed while being balanced by crystallised intelligence (experience). Distributed leadership has been mainly applied in educational settings. This paper argues for distributed leadership to maximise creativity and innovation. Practical implications – Leadership forms that maximise creative input from staff across all age levels are likely to contribute to firm innovation and sustainability. Additionally, job satisfaction and turnover among junior staff may be positively influenced through opportunities for greater participation. Social implications – The elements discussed in this paper address important leadership issues for managing a multigenerational workforce. Originality/value – Distributed leadership has been discussed in educational and health literatures for some time; however it is only recently that this approach to leadership has appeared in mainstream management literature. The discussion of age-related changes and distributed leadership introduces and important topic for further research in newer forms of leadership.

Task structure complexity and goal neglect in typically developing children

Goal neglect is a failure to enact task requirements despite being able to accurately report them. In this study, we introduce a new child-appropriate experimental paradigm to measure goal neglect in children between 7 and 11years of age and test the hypothesis that the complexity of an action plan, not real-time trial demands, increases goal neglect. A total of 66 children (Mage=9.50years) were administered a Feature Match task. Half of the children were given four rules for matching, and half were given three rules for matching. After practice, the four-rules group was told to ignore the additional rule, and both groups completed an identical three-rules task. The results showed that the extra rule increased goal neglect and its correlation with fluid intelligence. Although intermittent trial errors were correlated with fluid intelligence for both groups, only in the four-rules group were systematic rule failures (i.e., goal neglect) correlated with fluid intelligence. Task performance improved with chronological age; however, when controlling for the influence of fluid intelligence, the relationship between age and task performance was effectively removed. This suggests that a child’s current level of fluid intelligence (and not age) determines task performance. We suggest that the relationship among goal neglect, complex task instructions, and fluid intelligence is linked to the mental preparation for future events, that is, mentally compiling verbal instructions into a set of activated goal representations in working memory that represent what is to be done and under what circumstances.

Social discounting rate is negatively correlated with fluid intelligence

The purpose of the study was to verify a hypothesis, inspired by the handicap principle, of a positive relationship between subjective value of a hypothetical monetary reward shared with others and the level of fluid intelligence. Manipulation involved the amount of reward to be shared (small vs. large amount) and subject’s relationship to recipients (related vs. unrelated). As expected, a positive correlation was found between the subjective value of a reward to be shared with others, measured as the area under the curve for the discounting function and Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices scores, but the relationship was only present for rewards shared with relatives. In addition, participants who made altruistic choices in all items scored higher in RPM than those who were not as consistent. The implications of results for the evolutionary interpretation of the relationship between intelligence and altruism are discussed.

Meta-analysis of fluid intelligence tests of children from the Chinese mainland with learning difficulties.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the differences in fluid intelligence tests between normal children and children with learning difficulties in China.MethodPubMed, MD Consult, and other Chinese Journal Database were searched from their establishment to November 2012. After finding comparative studies of Raven measurements of normal children and children with learning difficulties, full Intelligent Quotation (FIQ) values and the original values of the sub-measurement were extracted. The corresponding effect model was selected based on the results of heterogeneity and parallel sub-group analysis was performed.ResultsTwelve documents were included in the meta-analysis, and the studies were all performed in mainland of China. Among these, two studies were performed at child health clinics, the other ten sites were schools and control children were schoolmates or classmates. FIQ was evaluated using a random effects model. WMD was −13.18 (95% CI: −16.50–−9.85). Children with learning difficulties showed significantly lower FIQ scores than controls (P<0.00001); Type of learning difficulty and gender differences were evaluated using a fixed-effects model (I2 = 0%). The sites and purposes of the studies evaluated here were taken into account, but the reasons of heterogeneity could not be eliminated; The sum IQ of all the subgroups showed considerable heterogeneity (I2 = 76.5%). The sub-measurement score of document A showed moderate heterogeneity among all documents, and AB, B, and E showed considerable heterogeneity, which was used in a random effect model. Individuals with learning difficulties showed heterogeneity as well. There was a moderate delay in the first three items (−0.5 to −0.9), and a much more pronounced delay in the latter three items (−1.4 to −1.6).ConclusionIn the Chinese mainland, the level of fluid intelligence of children with learning difficulties was lower than that of normal children. Delayed development in sub-items of C, D, and E was more obvious.

Complementary cognitive capabilities, economic decision making, and aging.

Fluid intelligence decreases with age, yet evidence about age declines in decision-making quality is mixed: Depending on the study, older adults make worse, equally good, or even better decisions than younger adults. We propose a potential explanation for this puzzle, namely that age differences in decision performance result from the interplay between two sets of cognitive capabilities that impact decision making, one in which older adults fare worse (i.e., fluid intelligence) and one in which they fare better (i.e., crystallized intelligence). Specifically, we hypothesized that older adults' higher levels of crystallized intelligence can provide an alternate pathway to good decisions when the fluid intelligence pathway declines. The performance of older adults relative to younger adults therefore depends on the relative importance of each type of intelligence for the decision at hand. We tested this complementary capabilities hypothesis in a broad sample of younger and older adults, collecting a battery of standard cognitive measures and measures of economically important decision-making "traits"--including temporal discounting, loss aversion, financial literacy, and debt literacy. We found that older participants performed as well as or better than younger participants on these four decision-making measures. Structural equation modeling verified our hypothesis: Older participants' greater crystallized intelligence offset their lower levels of fluid intelligence for temporal discounting, financial literacy, and debt literacy, but not for loss aversion. These results have important implications for public policy and for the design of effective decision environments for older adults.

The Getting of Wisdom: Fluid Intelligence Does Not Drive Knowledge Acquisition

The investment hypothesis proposes that fluid intelligence drives the accumulation of crystallized intelligence, such that crystallized intelligence increases more substantially in individuals with high rather than low fluid intelligence. However, most investigations have been conducted on adolescent cohorts or in two-wave data sets. There are few longitudinal representative studies with which to observe the growth of intelligence in young adulthood. A large community representative sample of 20- to 24-year-olds was recruited in 1999 and followed in 2003 and 2007. The Spot-the-Word Test Version A, a lexical decision task, was used to assess crystallized intelligence. The Symbol–Digit Modalities Test, a test of perceptual speed, was used as a measure of fluid intelligence. Latent growth models were used to examine whether growth in fluid intelligence drives the acquisition of crystallized intelligence. Fluid and crystallized intelligence are coupled; crystallized intelligence accrues in the 20s, but the rate of increase of crystallized intelligence is not associated with the level of fluid intelligence. Although young adulthood is associated with “the getting of wisdom,” accelerated development of crystallized intelligence in those with high fluid intelligence was not observed. Hence, no support was found for the investment hypothesis.

Empathy, sex and fluid intelligence as predictors of theory of mind

Individual differences in theory of mind (ToM) are affected by a variety of factors. We investigated the relationship between empathy, sex and fluid intelligence (FI) as predictors of ToM in a random probabilistic sample of secondary students. First, we explored whether sex, as well as high, average or low levels of empathy and FI affect ToM performance. Furthermore, we assessed the contribution of empathy, sex and FI in predicting ToM by using a path analysis. This method allows testing of causal models of directed dependencies among a set of variables. The causal dependencies of empathy, sex and fluid intelligence were confirmed and identified. In addition, the model confirmed the direct effect of empathy, sex and fluid intelligence on ToM; and the indirect effect of sex mediated by empathy. Thus, individual differences in ToM levels are partially attributable to sex, empathy and fluid intelligence variability, raising important considerations for clinical research as well as ToM’s theoretical models of domain specificity.

Fluid insight moderates the relationship between psychoticism and crystallized intelligence

To elucidate potential relationships between personality and intelligence it is necessary to move beyond the ad hoc reporting of correlation coefficients and focus instead on testing deductions from well-established theories. To this end the present paper references Eysenck’s (1995) theoretical work linking the dimension of psychoticism to both psychosis and creative genius. Drawing on this theory it was argued that the relationship between psychoticism and crystallized ability will be conditional on the level of fluid intelligence. Participants ( N = 100) completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R) and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT). Moderated multiple regression revealed a significant interaction effect. Crystallized ability (K-BIT vocabulary) was negatively related to psychoticism at low levels of fluid ability (K-BIT matrices) and positively related to psychoticism at high levels of fluid ability. These findings highlight the potential importance of psychoticism within GfGc investment theory.

Aging and flexible remembering: Contributions of conceptual span, fluid intelligence, and frontal functioning.

Aging attenuates the capacity to adaptively and flexibly use episodic memory at different levels of specificity. Older and younger adults were tested on a picture recognition task that required them to make episodic memory decisions at an item-specific (verbatim) versus category-based (gist-based) level on randomly intermixed trials. Specificity modulation was assessed using a measure of the likelihood that participants retrieved verbatim information in order to reject test items that were categorically related to studied items under item-specific recognition instructions (recollection rejection). We found that this measure positively correlated with conceptual span (an index of short-term semantic memory) and with level of fluid intelligence in older and younger adults. However, when we simultaneously considered each of four possible contributors (age, conceptual span, fluid intelligence, and frontal function), the only significant predictor of recollection rejection was the composite fluid intelligence measure (assessed by the Culture Fair Intelligence Test [Cattell & Cattell, 1960] and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised Block Design subtest [Wechsler, 1981]). These findings suggest that interventions that facilitate adaptive specificity modulation in episodic memory may enhance the flexibility of thinking, and vice versa, in both older and younger adults.

Lifespan development of stimulus-response conflict cost: similarities and differences between maturation and senescence.

Age gradient of the mechanism of stimulus-response conflict cost was investigated in a population-based representative sample of 291 individuals, covering the age range from 6 to 89 years. Stimulus-response conflict cost, indicated by the amount of additional processing time required when there is a conflict between stimulus and response options, follows a U-shaped function across the lifespan. Lifespan age gradient of conflict cost parallels closely those of processing fluctuation and fluid intelligence. Individuals at both ends of the lifespan displayed a greater amount of processing fluctuation and at the same time a larger amount of conflict cost and a lower level of fluid intelligence. After controlling for chronological age and baseline processing speed, conflict cost continues to correlate significantly with fluid intelligence in adulthood and old age and with processing fluctuation in old age. The relation between processing fluctuation and conflict cost in old age lends further support for the neuromodulation of neuronal noise theory of cognitive aging as well as for theories of dopaminergic modulation of conflict monitoring.

Neuroanatomical Correlates of Fluid Intelligence in Healthy Adults and Persons with Vascular Risk Factors

The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of regional brain changes on cognitive decline and the modifying influence of vascular risk (VR) factors. We present latent difference score analyses of associations among 5-year changes in 12 regional brain volumes and age-sensitive cognitive functions in 87 adults (32 with identifiable VR factors). We found reliable individual differences in volume change for 11 of the 12 brain regions but not in the cognitive measures that showed average longitudinal decline. Thus, associations between rates of change in fluid intelligence and brain volumes could not be assessed. We observed, however, that lower levels of fluid intelligence were associated with smaller prefrontal and hippocampal volumes. Lower fluid intelligence scores were also linked to greater longitudinal shrinkage of the entorhinal cortex (EC). After accounting for the effects of age, sex, and VR factors, the orbitofrontal cortex and the prefrontal white matter (PFw) volumes as well as the 5-year change in the EC volume predicted fluid intelligence level. VR was independently associated with smaller prefrontal volumes and lower fluid intelligence. Thus, prefrontal and medial-temporal systems may play different roles in age-related differences and changes in cognitive performance.

Aging and strategic retrieval in a cued-recall test: The role of executive functions and fluid intelligence

Cued-recall in episodic memory was investigated in relation to low and high cognitive support at retrieval, executive function level and fluid intelligence level in 81 healthy adults divided first into two age groups (young and elderly adults). The first analyses showed that age-related differences were greater when a low cognitive support was provided to recall the words. An individual index of loss of performance when the number of cues was decreased was then calculated. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the executive functions measure (perseverative errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) was a better candidate than the fluid intelligence measure (Cattell’s culture fair test) to account for the age-related variance of the size of performance loss. These findings suggest that age differences in implementing strategic retrieval may be mainly due to a decline in executive functions.

The meaning of life: animism in the classificatory skills of older adults.

Seventy-five participants aged from their teens to their seventies were measured on a battery of measures of personality, lifestyle, intelligence, and educational background. These measures were gauged against performance on a measure of animism, in which participants judged twenty-three items (4 alive, 19 non-living) as living or non-living. Although animism errors increased with age, all groups displayed animism errors, thereby contradicting Piaget (1965). Performance is partially explained by fluid intelligence level, but is more plausibly ascribed to progressive loss of what is essentially peripheral information to non-academic people.

Intelligence et expérience : possible contribution d'une approche pathologique

Summary : Intelligence and experience : possible contribution of a pathological approach. The influence of chronological age and family environment on the performance in crystallized intelligence markers was studied in a group of persons with mental retardation aged from 6 to 20 years. Twelve fluid and crystallized intelligence markers were administered. In order to identify underlying factors, principal components and common factors analyses were carried out. Because the tests were mainly fluid and crystallized ones, it was not surprising that the application of the Kaiser-Guttman criterion clearly indicated two factors to be extracted from the correlation matrix among raw scores. The first factor had high loadings on crystallized intelligence tests, whereas the second loaded principally fluid ones. Fluid intelligence level of each participant was then determined using the mean z scores in fluid markers, and stepwise regression analyses were performed to estimate the relative contribution of CA and family environment to the crystallized intelligence tests' variance. In these analyses, fluid intelligence level was systematically entered first in the equations to partial out at the outset its influence from those of CA and family environment. Results indicate that chronological age explains an important fraction of the crystallized intelligence markers variance (from 5 to 24 %), whereas the family environment influence appears much more modest (front 0 to 3 %). However, this result seems to be attributable to the characteristics of the family environment scale used in the present study and to the restricted range of family environments in the sample. Key words : life experience, chronological age, fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, family environment, factorial theories of intelligence.

Variation in task complexity and adult age differences in frequency-of-occurrence judgments

Young adult and elderly subjects were contrasted in performance on a relative frequency judgment task under intentional and incidental instructions and with and without performance on an ancillary case-monitoring task. In agreement with earlier studies, null effects were found for instructional variation and for the Age by Instructions interaction. Frequency judgment scores were adversely affected by ancillary task performance. However, the adverse effect was no greater for the elderly subjects than for the young subjects, in agreement with the hypothesis that the encoding of frequency information is insensitive to age changes. Unlike earlier studies, the young subjects were superior overall to the elderly subjects in frequency judgment accuracy. The age difference was attributed to an age-sensitive effortful retrieval process that is operative even on relative frequency judgment tasks and is related to level of fluid intelligence.

Fluid intelligence levels of short- and long-sleeping college students.

As a means of validating E. Hartmann's clinical observations that suggest differences in reasoning ability between habitual short and long sleepers (favoring the latter), the responses of 73 short and 56 long sleepers to a measure of fluid intelligence were compared. Congruent with Hartmann's observations, the long sleepers were significantly higher than the short sleepers in level of fluid intelligence.

Age differences in fluid and crystallized intelligence

The general purpose of this study was to describe differences in intellectual functioning associated with aging in adulthood. Estimates of broad factors identified as fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, general visualization, speediness, carefulness and fluency were obtained by combining scores on several tests found to define these factors in previous research. A sample of 297 subjects was divided into five age groupings: 14–17 year-olds, 18–20 year-olds, 21–28 year-olds, 29–39 year-olds and 40–61 year-olds. Analyses of variance and covariance were carried out on these factors and age groupings, using sex and education, as well as the factors themselves, as covariates. These analyses revealed that:(a) The mean level of fluid intelligence was systematically higher for younger adults (relative to older adults),(b) The mean level of crystallized intelligence was systematically higher for older adults (relative to younger adults),(c) The mean for the general visualization function was highest for the grouping of 21–28 year-olds and the means systematically dropped off on either side of the high value,(d) No systematic age trends were discernible for the general speediness, carefulness and fluency factors.These results provided support for the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence.