Speed of processing predicts academic achievement beyond general cognitive ability

Brazilian listeners ( N = 303) were asked to identify emotions conveyed in 1-min instrumental excerpts from Wagner’s operas. Participants included musically untrained 7- to 10-year-olds and university students in music (musicians) or science (nonmusicians). After hearing each of eight different excerpts, listeners made a forced-choice judgment about which of eight emotions best matched the excerpt. The excerpts and emotions were chosen so that two were in each of four quadrants in two-dimensional space as defined by arousal and valence. Listeners of all ages performed at above-chance levels, which means that complex, unfamiliar musical materials from a different century and culture are nevertheless meaningful for young children. In fact, children performed similarly to adult nonmusicians. There was age-related improvement among children, however, and adult musicians performed best of all. As in previous research that used simpler musical excerpts, effects due to age and music training were due primarily to improvements in selecting the appropriate valence. That is, even 10-year-olds with no music training were as likely as adult musicians to match a high- or low-arousal excerpt with a high- or low-arousal emotion, respectively. Performance was independent of general cognitive ability as measured by academic achievement but correlated positively with basic pitch-perception skills.

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The Genetic and Environmental Relationship Between General and Specific Cognitive Abilities in Twins Age 80 and Older

Psychological Science ◽

10.1111/1467-9280.00035 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 183-189 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Stephen A. Petrill ◽

Robert Plomin ◽

Stig Berg ◽

Boo Johansson ◽

Nancy L. Pedersen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Ability ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Memory Performance ◽

General Cognitive Ability ◽

Speed Of Processing ◽

Processing Abilities ◽

Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽

Performance Results ◽

The Relationship ◽

Specific Cognitive Abilities

In the first twin study of the old-old, individuals 80 years old and older, we examined the relationship between general and specific cognitive abilities from a genetic perspective. That is, we examined the extent to which genetic and environmental factors influence major group factors of cognitive abilities, independent of general cognitive ability. As part of the OctoTwin project in Sweden, general and specific cognitive abilities were assessed in 52 monozygotic and 65 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs 80 years old and older using a battery of seven tests that assess verbal, spatial, speed-of-processing, and memory performance. Results suggest that genetic effects associated with general cognitive ability (g) account for the correlation between g and verbal, spatial, and speed-of-processing abilities. No genetic influences were found for these specific cognitive abilities separate from g. In contrast, memory ability appears to be more distinct genetically from g than are other cognitive abilities. Comparison with younger samples suggests that cognitive abilities relating to speed of processing may be genetically dedifferentiated in the old-old.

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What We Know, Are Still Getting Wrong, and Have Yet to Learn about the Relationships among the SAT, Intelligence and Achievement

Journal of Intelligence ◽

10.3390/jintelligence7040026 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 26 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Meredith C. Frey

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Academic Administrators ◽

General Cognitive Ability ◽

Future Directions ◽

Proxy Measure

Fifteen years ago, Frey and Detterman established that the SAT (and later, with Koenig, the ACT) was substantially correlated with measures of general cognitive ability and could be used as a proxy measure for intelligence (Frey and Detterman, 2004; Koenig, Frey, and Detterman, 2008). Since that finding, replicated many times and cited extensively in the literature, myths about the SAT, intelligence, and academic achievement continue to spread in popular domains, online, and in some academic administrators. This paper reviews the available evidence about the relationships among the SAT, intelligence, and academic achievement, dispels common myths about the SAT, and points to promising future directions for research in the prediction of academic achievement.

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Learning strategies and general cognitive ability as predictors of gender- specific academic achievement

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01238 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Stephanie Ruffing ◽

F. -Sophie Wach ◽

Frank M. Spinath ◽

Roland Brünken ◽

Julia Karbach

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Learning Strategies ◽

General Cognitive Ability ◽

Gender Specific

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Parental involvement and general cognitive ability as predictors of domain-specific academic achievement in early adolescence

Learning and Instruction ◽

10.1016/j.learninstruc.2012.09.004 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 23 ◽

pp. 43-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 65

Author(s):

Julia Karbach ◽

Juliana Gottschling ◽

Marion Spengler ◽

Katrin Hegewald ◽

Frank M. Spinath

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Parental Involvement ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Early Adolescence ◽

General Cognitive Ability ◽

Domain Specific

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Sex Differences in Childhood Associations between DNA Markers and General Cognitive Ability

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001.28.3.161 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 161-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rosalind Arden ◽

Nicole Harlaar ◽

Robert Plomin

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Dna Markers ◽

Community Sample ◽

Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽

General Cognitive Ability ◽

Single Nucleotide ◽

The Difference

Abstract. An association between intelligence at age 7 and a set of five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has been identified and replicated. We used this composite SNP set to investigate whether the associations differ between boys and girls for general cognitive ability at ages 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, and 10 years. In a longitudinal community sample of British twins aged 2-10 (n > 4,000 individuals), we found that the SNP set is more strongly associated with intelligence in males than in females at ages 7, 9, and 10 and the difference is significant at 10. If this finding replicates in other studies, these results will constitute the first evidence of the same autosomal genes acting differently on intelligence in the two sexes.

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