Role Of Cognitive Abilities Research Articles

Predicting Educational Attainment: Does Grit Compensate for Low Levels of Cognitive Ability?

This study examined the role of cognitive ability in moderating grit’s predictive effect on educational outcomes. Using a large, representative sample of young adults, we estimated multivariate regression models for the probability of graduating from high school, enrolling in college, earning any college degree, and earning a college degree. For each outcome, the effect of grit (and, alternatively, consistency of interest and perseverance of effort) was allowed to differ for students in each quartile of the cognitive ability distribution. We found that the predicted effect of grit—which is dominated by the effect of perseverance—is almost entirely concentrated among students at both the high and low ends of the cognitive ability distribution. We also found that grit’s predictive power increases with each successive educational outcome for high-ability students, but not for low-ability students. The findings are consistent with the notion that high-ability students adopt self-regulated learning processes that exploit their grit, especially as educational tasks become more challenging. For low-ability students, it appears that grit plays a compensatory role. Relatively few low-ability students attain each educational outcome, but those who do appear to benefit from the effective substitution of grit for cognitive ability.

Performance-based everyday functional competence measures across the adult lifespan: the role of cognitive abilities

The effects of age on the ability to manage everyday functioning, crucial to ensure a healthy aging process, have been rarely examined and when, self-report measures have been used. The aim of the present study was to examine age effects across the adult lifespan in everyday functioning with two performance-based measures: the Everyday Problems Test (EPT), and the Timed Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (TIADL) tasks. The role of some crucial cognitive abilities, i.e. working memory (WM), processing speed, reasoning, vocabulary, and text comprehension in the EPT and the TIADL were also assessed to see whether or not they have a similar influence (and to what extent) in accounting for age-related effects in these two performance-based measures. Two hundred and seventy-six healthy participants, from 40 to 89 years of age were presented with the EPT, the TIADL, as well as WM, processing speed, reasoning, text comprehension, and vocabulary tasks. Path models indicated an indirect effect of age and education on the EPT, which was mediated by all the cognitive variables considered, with WM and reasoning being the strongest predictors of performance. An indirect quadratic effect of age, but not of education, was found on the TIADL score, and an accelerated decline in processing speed mediated the relationship between age and the TIADL score. This study revealed age-related effects in performance-based measures, which are mediated by different cognitive abilities depending on the measure considered. The findings highlight the importance of assessing everyday functioning even in healthy older adults.

Human Capital and Reemployment Success: The Role of Cognitive Abilities and Personality.

Involuntary periods of unemployment represent major negative experiences for many individuals. Therefore, it is important to identify factors determining the speed job seekers are able to find new employment. The present study focused on cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of job seekers that determine their reemployment success. A sample of German adults (N = 1366) reported on their employment histories over the course of six years and provided measures on their fluid and crystallized intelligence, mathematical and reading competence, and the Big Five of personality. Proportional hazard regression analyses modeled the conditional probability of finding a new job at a given time dependent on the cognitive and personality scores. The results showed that fluid and crystallized intelligence as well as reading competence increased the probability of reemployment. Moreover, emotionally stable job seekers had higher odds of finding new employment. Other personality traits of the Big Five were less relevant for reemployment success. Finally, crystallized intelligence and emotional stability exhibited unique predictive power after controlling for the other traits and showed incremental effects with regard to age, education, and job type. These findings highlight that stable individual differences have a systematic, albeit rather small, effect on unemployment durations.

Cognitive Mediators of Reading Comprehension in Early Development

Although the empirical relationship between general intelligence and academic achievement is well established, that between specific cognitive abilities and achievement is less so. This study investigated the relationships between specific Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) cognitive abilities and reading comprehension across a large sample of children (N = 835) at different periods of reading development (grades 1–5). Results suggest select cognitive variables predict reading comprehension above and beyond basic reading skills. However, the relative importance of specific cognitive abilities in predicting reading comprehension differs across grade levels. Further analyses using mediation models found specific cognitive abilities mediated the effects of basic reading skills on reading comprehension. Implications for the important and dynamic role of cognitive abilities in predicting reading comprehension across development are discussed.

Multimodal investigation of triple network connectivity in patients with 22q11DS and association with executive functions.

Large-scale brain networks play a prominent role in cognitive abilities and their activity is impaired in psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. Patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) are at high risk of developing schizophrenia and present similar cognitive impairments, including executive functions deficits. Thus, 22q11DS represents a model for the study of neural biomarkers associated with schizophrenia. In this study, we investigated structural and functional connectivity within and between the Default Mode (DMN), the Central Executive (CEN), and the Saliency network (SN) in 22q11DS using resting-state fMRI and DTI. Furthermore, we investigated if triple network impairments were related to executive dysfunctions or the presence of psychotic symptoms. Sixty-three patients with 22q11DS and sixty-eighty controls (age 6-33 years) were included in the study. Structural connectivity between main nodes of DMN, CEN, and SN was computed using probabilistic tractography. Functional connectivity was computed as the partial correlation between the time courses extracted from each node. Structural and functional connectivity measures were then correlated to executive functions and psychotic symptom scores. Our results showed mainly reduced structural connectivity within the CEN, DMN, and SN, in patients with 22q11DS compared with controls as well as reduced between-network connectivity. Functional connectivity appeared to be more preserved, with impairments being evident only within the DMN. Structural connectivity impairments were also related to executive dysfunctions. These findings show an association between triple network structural alterations and executive deficits in patients with the microdeletion, suggesting that 22q11DS and schizophrenia share common psychopathological mechanisms. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2177-2189, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Strategic and unpressured within-task planning and their associations with working memory

This study investigated the comparative effects of strategic and unpressured within-task planning on second language (L2) Chinese oral production and the role of working memory in mediating the effects of the two types of planning. Twenty-nine L2 Chinese learners at a large New Zealand university performed a narrative task after watching a 6-minute silent movie, followed by an operation span test gauging the learners’ working memory capacity. The results revealed that (1) strategic planning enhanced fluency and unpressured within-task planning led to greater accuracy and syntactic complexity, (2) strategic planning facilitated the production of a syntactically transparent structure, while unpressured within-task planning showed an advantage for opaque, complex structures, and (3) working memory was drawn upon in unpressured within-task planning, but barely so in strategic planning. The data show that strategic planning benefits the Conceptualizer while unpressured within-task planning favors the Formulator. The data also suggest that the role of cognitive abilities in task performance is contingent upon the processing demands of different task conditions.

The relationship between EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability and their fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and processing speed

AbstractThe general purpose of the current study was to clarify the role and estimate the correlation of specific cognitive abilities with Second Language (L2) reading achievement of English Foreign Language (EFL) university students. Since there are not ample available studies about the cognitive correlates of reading comprehension in a second language, we put our attention on the role of cognitive abilities of individuals to investigate second language reading comprehension’s nature. To this aim, the relationship between fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and speed of processing with second language reading comprehension as three different kinds of tests was examined to predict participants’ reading achievement. The results revealed a significant correlation of fluid intelligence with second language reading comprehension.

Investigating the Interaction between Dichotic Deficits and Cognitive Abilities Using the Dichotic Digits difference Test (DDdT) Part 2.

The Dichotic Digits difference Test (DDdT) was developed to investigate the relationship between dichotic processing and cognitive abilities and, through the use of differential test scores, to provide professionals with a clinical tool that could aid in differentiation of clients with genuine dichotic deficits from those where cognitive disorders affect test performance. The DDdT consists of four subtests: dichotic free recall (FR), dichotic directed left ear, dichotic directed right ear, and diotic. Scores are calculated for six conditions: FR left ear (LE), right ear (RE), and total, as well as the directed left ear, directed right ear, and diotic, and four difference measures: dichotic advantage, RE advantage FR, RE advantage directed, and attention advantage. To investigate the role of cognitive abilities on DDdT test performance. Correlational analysis between the various DDdT conditions and difference measures, as well as between dichotic, diotic, and cognitive factors (memory, intelligence, and attention). Fifty typically developing children (aged 7 yr 0 mo to 12 yr 1 mo, mean = 9 yr 2 mo) and ten children recruited from the Australian Hearing CAPD Service who were diagnosed with a memory or dichotic deficit (aged 7 yr 0 mo to 15 yr 0 mo, mean = 9 yr 5 mo) took part in the study. The Pearson product moment correlations were used to determine the strength of relationships between DDdT conditions as well as relationships between scores on these conditions and performance on the various cognitive assessment tools, which included the number memory forward and reversed subtests of the Test of Auditory Processing Skills - Third Edition, IVA + Plus Continuous Performance Test, and the Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence-4 (TONI-4). A parent questionnaire (Fisher's Auditory Checklist) and a participant questionnaire (Listening Inventory for Education) were also administered. Diotic performance was significantly correlated with performance on all the DDdT dichotic FR conditions (r = 0.6-0.8; p < 0.00001). Further, significant correlations were found between the FR LE, total, and diotic conditions, and the cognitive measures of attention and memory, with r ranging from 0.4 to 0.5 (p < 0.01-0.001). Right-ear performance was not significantly correlated to any cognitive measure, except for FR RE and number memory forward (r = 0.35; p = 0.006). The DDdT dichotic advantage measure was investigated in a subset of clinical children and found to aid in differentiating true dichotic from spurious results. As found in the DDdT normative data study that precedes in the companion paper (DDdT Study Part 1; Cameron et al, 2016), the high correlation between dichotic and diotic performances by the clinical and typically developing participants suggests that factors other than dichotic performance play a substantial role in a child's ability to perform a dichotic listening task. Indeed, 61% of the variance in FR total scores for the children in this study was accounted for by factors that do not involve the perception of dichotic stimuli. This view is supported by the correlations between measures of attention and memory and dichotic scores. This result has wide-spread implications in respect to interpretation of central auditory processing disorder test results and further investigation of the use of the DDdT in a clinical population is warranted.

Doctor, what does my positive test mean? From Bayesian textbook tasks to personalized risk communication.

Most of the research on Bayesian reasoning aims to answer theoretical questions about the extent to which people are able to update their beliefs according to Bayes' Theorem, about the evolutionary nature of Bayesian inference, or about the role of cognitive abilities in Bayesian inference. Few studies aim to answer practical, mainly health-related questions, such as, “What does it mean to have a positive test in a context of cancer screening?” or “What is the best way to communicate a medical test result so a patient will understand it?”. This type of research aims to translate empirical findings into effective ways of providing risk information. In addition, the applied research often adopts the paradigms and methods of the theoretically-motivated research. But sometimes it works the other way around, and the theoretical research borrows the importance of the practical question in the medical context. The study of Bayesian reasoning is relevant to risk communication in that, to be as useful as possible, applied research should employ specifically tailored methods and contexts specific to the recipients of the risk information. In this paper, we concentrate on the communication of the result of medical tests and outline the epidemiological and test parameters that affect the predictive power of a test—whether it is correct or not. Building on this, we draw up recommendations for better practice to convey the results of medical tests that could inform health policy makers (What are the drawbacks of mass screenings?), be used by health practitioners and, in turn, help patients to make better and more informed decisions.

Fitness to Stand Trial in One Australian Jurisdiction: The Role of Cognitive Abilities, Neurological Dysfunction and Psychiatric Disorders

In Australia, limited research of the factors determining fitness to stand trial (FST) has been conducted. In particular, the relevance of cognitive abilities and neurological dysfunction in accordance with the legal standard of R v. Presser (1958) has not been comprehensively explored. In the largest known sample of court-determined FST cases in Australia examined to date, expert reports for 153 unfit and 91 fit defendants in New South Wales (NSW) over a five-year period were retrospectively reviewed. Data related to cognitive assessment, psychiatric disorders, neurological dysfunction, demographic factors and expert opinion were extracted. The results showed that cognitive abilities, in particular verbal memory, nonverbal skills, and executive functioning, were influential in differentiating between fit and unfit groups and determining FST. However, quantitative analysis was limited as few reports contained test scores or comprehensive psychometric analysis. Defendants with neurological dysfunction alone or with a dual diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder or intellectual disability were more likely to be found unfit to stand trial. Expert opinion was biased toward the referring agent and psychologists were less likely than psychiatrists to examine all of the relevant legal criteria. Comprehensive cognitive assessment in specific cases and more standardised assessment practices are indicated.

The Role of Cognitive Ability and Preferred Mode of Processing in Students’ Calculus Performance

Background:This study has explored the relationships between cognitive abilities, preferred mode of processing, and calculus performance.Materials and methods:This is a quantitative study which sought to design calculus tasks to determine students’ preference for visual or analytic processing as well as examine the role of preferred mode of processing in calculus performance and its relationship to spatial ability and verbal-logical reasoning ability. Data were collected from 150 high school students who were enrolled in Advanced Placement calculus courses.Results:The measures of preferred mode of processing did not correlate with the measures of spatial ability and verbal-logical reasoning ability, suggesting that cognitive abilities did not predict the students’ preference for visual or analytic processing. Multiple regression analysis revealed that spatial visualization ability, verbal-logical reasoning ability, preference for visual processing contributed significantly to the variance in calculus performance.Conclusions:This study contributes to the existing research on factors affecting mathematics performance by generating new information about the relationships between measures of spatial ability, verbal-logical reasoning ability, calculus performance, and preferred mode of processing mathematical information. The calculus tasks and corresponding questionnaires, which were used in this study, have the potential to be used as a measure of students’ visual and analytic tendencies in calculus.

Integrative analyses of RNA editing, alternative splicing, and expression of young genes in human brain transcriptome by deep RNA sequencing.

Next-generation RNA sequencing has been successfully used for identification of transcript assembly, evaluation of gene expression levels, and detection of post-transcriptional modifications. Despite these large-scale studies, additional comprehensive RNA-seq data from different subregions of the human brain are required to fully evaluate the evolutionary patterns experienced by the human brain transcriptome. Here, we provide a total of 6.5 billion RNA-seq reads from different subregions of the human brain. A significant correlation was observed between the levels of alternative splicing and RNA editing, which might be explained by a competition between the molecular machineries responsible for the splicing and editing of RNA. Young human protein-coding genes demonstrate biased expression to the neocortical and non-neocortical regions during evolution on the lineage leading to humans. We also found that a significantly greater number of young human protein-coding genes are expressed in the putamen, a tissue that was also observed to have the highest level of RNA-editing activity. The putamen, which previously received little attention, plays an important role in cognitive ability, and our data suggest a potential contribution of the putamen to human evolution.

Registered Reports, Advance Articles Online, and the Way Ahead

EditorialRegistered Reports, Advance Articles Online, and the Way AheadRolf van Dick Editor-in-ChiefRolf van Dick Editor-in-ChiefSearch for more papers by this authorPublished OnlineJune 17, 2015https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000140PDFView Full Text ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit SectionsMoreReferences Korunka, C., & Kubicek, B. (Eds.). (2015). New approaches to job demands [Special issue]. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 14(1). First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Krumm, S., Schmidt-Atzert, L., & Lipnevich, A. A. (Eds.). (2014). Insights beyond g: Specific cognitive abilities at work [Special issue]. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 13(3). First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar McLarnon, M. J. W., & Rothstein, M. G. (2013). Development and initial validation of the Workplace Resilience Inventory. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 12, 63–73. doi: 10.1027/1866-5888/a000084 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Moser, K. S., & Axtell, C. M. (Eds.). (2013). The role of norms in virtual work [Special issue]. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 12(1). First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Ohly, S., Sonnentag, S., Niessen, C., & Zapf, D. (2010). Diary studies in organizational research: An introduction and some practical recommendations. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 9, 79–93. doi: 10.1027/1866-5888/a000009 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Pearce, C. L., Hoch, J. E., Jeppesen, H. J., & Wegge, J. (Eds.). (2010). Shared leadership [Special issue]. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 9(4). First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Rojon, C., McDowall, A., & Saunders, M. N. K. (2011). On the experience of conducting a systematic review in industrial, work and organizational psychology: Yes, it is worthwhile. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 10, 133–138. doi: 10.1027/1866-5888/a000041 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Stouten, J., van Dijke, M., & De Cremer, D. (Eds.). (2012). Leading with integrity: Current perspectives on the psychology of ethical leadership [Special issue]. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 11(1). First citation in articleLink, Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byKommentare zu Bermeitinger, C. et al. (2016). Positionspapier zur Lage der Allgemeinen Psychologie12 July 2016 | Psychologische Rundschau, Vol. 67, No. 3A Goodbye, a Welcome, and a Look AheadBernd Marcus12 April 2016 | Journal of Personnel Psychology, Vol. 15, No. 1 Volume 14Issue 1May 2015ISSN: 1866-5888eISSN: 2190-5150 tabs.informationJournal of Personnel Psychology (2015), 14, pp. 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000140.© 2015Hogrefe PublishingPDF download

The role of cognitive abilities in decisions from experience: Age differences emerge as a function of choice set size

People seldom enjoy access to summarized information about risky options before making a decision. Instead, they may search for information and learn about environmental contingencies—thus making decisions from experience. Aging is associated with notable deficits in learning and memory—but do these translate into poorer decisions from experience? We report three studies that used a sampling paradigm to investigate younger (M=24years) and older (M=71years) adults’ decisions from experience. In Study 1 (N=121) participants made 12 decisions between pairs of payoff distributions in the lab. Study 2 (N=70) implemented the same paradigm using portable devices, collecting 84 decisions per individual over a week. Study 3 (N=84) extended the sampling paradigm by asking participants to make 12 decisions between two, four, and eight payoff distributions (in the lab). Overall, the behavioral results suggest that younger and older adults are relatively similar in how they search and what they choose when facing two payoff distributions (Studies 1 and 2). With an increasing number of payoff distributions, however, age differences emerged (Study 3). A modeling analysis on the level of individual participants showed that a simple delta-learning rule model best described the learning processes of most participants. To the extent that ongoing updating processes unfold relatively automatically and effortlessly, older adults may be liberated from the detrimental consequences of cognitive aging in the case of decisions from experience with few decision options. We discuss implications for research on decisions from experience and choice performance over the lifespan.

Word learning by naïve non-native speakers may not be predictable by cognitive test scores

The role of cognitive abilities in learning of words with two types of novel sounds—lexical tones and coronal consonants—was compared. Individual differences were expected to play a larger role in implicit learning of tones than consonants. Twenty-two English speakers took tests assessing working memory, attention, executive function, and processing speed (NIH & Northwestern University, 2006–2012, NIH Toolbox: Cognition). Then, they learned twelve Vietnamese words varying in their initial consonants [m, t, ʈ, ʐ] and tones (high level, falling, and rising). After training with feedback, the learning was assessed in a 12-word alternative identification test (N = 792). The range of accuracy scores was 11.1–80.6%, with the mean accuracy of 43.6% (SD = 18.5). The proportion of tonal errors was significantly larger than the proportion of consonantal errors [χ(1) = 174.68, p < 0.001]. Mixed-effect regression analyses showed, however, that cognitive test scores did not explain the variance in the word identification accuracy. These results suggests that although lexical tones are more challenging than consonants for speakers of non-tone languages, adult beginning learners may be able to learn words with different types of novel sounds equally efficiently, regardless of individual differences in cognitive abilities.

Education and health: The role of cognitive ability

We aim to disentangle the relative impact of (i) cognitive ability and (ii) education on health and mortality using a structural equation model suggested by Conti et al. (2010). We extend their model by allowing for a duration dependent variable (mortality), and an ordinal educational variable. Data come from a Dutch cohort born between 1937 and 1941, including detailed measures of cognitive ability and family background in the final grade of primary school. The data are linked to the mortality register 1995–2011, such that we observe mortality between ages 55 and 75. The results suggest that at least half of the unconditional survival differences between educational groups are due to a ‘selection effect’, primarily on the basis of cognitive ability. Conditional survival differences across those having finished just primary school and those entering secondary education are still substantial, and amount to a 4 years gain in life expectancy, on average.

"Individual differences in frequency and saliency of speech-accompanying gestures: The role of cognitive abilities and empathy": Correction to Chu et al. (2013).

"Individual differences in frequency and saliency of speech-accompanying gestures: The role of cognitive abilities and empathy": Correction to Chu et al. (2013).

Individual differences in frequency and saliency of speech-accompanying gestures: The role of cognitive abilities and empathy.

The present study concerns individual differences in gesture production. We used correlational and multiple regression analyses to examine the relationship between individuals’ cognitive abilities and empathy levels and their gesture frequency and saliency. We chose predictor variables according to experimental evidence of the functions of gesture in speech production and communication. We examined 3 types of gestures: representational gestures, conduit gestures, and palm-revealing gestures. Higher frequency of representational gestures was related to poorer visual and spatial working memory, spatial transformation ability, and conceptualization ability; higher frequency of conduit gestures was related to poorer visual working memory, conceptualization ability, and higher levels of empathy; and higher frequency of palm-revealing gestures was related to higher levels of empathy. The saliency of all gestures was positively related to level of empathy. These results demonstrate that cognitive abilities and empathy levels are related to individual differences in gesture frequency and saliency.

The role of cognitive abilities in children's inferences about social atypicality and peer exclusion and inclusion in intergroup contexts

Children aged 6-7 years judged a loyal and a partially disloyal member of a school in terms of how typical they are within the school group and their likely acceptance by peers from the same school and a different school. Second-order mental-state understanding (SOMSU) predicted whether children thought atypical members would be included differently in the two groups. Counterfactual reasoning ability, multiple classification ability, and working memory ability did not predict children's judgements of group members. Moreover, as predicted by the developmental subjective group dynamics model, only children with higher levels of SOMSU and who discerned differences in the typicality of normative and deviant ingroup members inferred that peers would differently include atypical individuals from the same and different groups.

The moderator role of cognitive ability in processing emotional facial expressions

The moderator role of cognitive ability in processing emotional facial expressions