We investigated time-related patterns in levels of cognitive performance during the period from 1970 to 1993 based on data from Swedish draft boards. The conscripts, including more than a million 18-19-year old men, had taken one of two versions of the Swedish enlistment battery (SEB67; 1970-1979 or SEB80; 1980-1993), each composed of four…

Criticisms advanced by Felice and Giugliano (2011) of the thesis that IQs in Italy are higher in the north than in the south are answered and new data confirming the thesis are given from the PISA 2009 study and for math and reading abilities in the recent INVALSI study. New genetic data are given showing higher frequency of blond hair the…

Lynn and Vanhanen (2012) have convincingly established that national IQs correlate positively with GDP, education, and many other social and economic factors. The direction of causality remains debatable. The present study re-examines data from military psychological assessments of the German federal army that show strong IQ gains of 0.5 IQ point…

The current study tests if the type of children's daily main meal (slow versus fast food) mediates the association of socioeconomic status (SES) with cognitive ability and cognitive growth in childhood. A Scottish birth cohort (Growing Up in Scotland) was assessed at ages 3 (N = 4512) and 5 years (N = 3833) on cognitive ability (i.e. vocabulary…

In his article "In Italy, North-South differences in IQ predict differences in income, education, infant mortality, stature, and literacy," Richard Lynn claims to have found the reason causing the divergence between the Northern and the Southern regions of Italy. This article identifies the four main hypotheses formulated in his paper…

Though mental ability tends to be relatively stable throughout the lifespan, many still argue that late life cognitive function largely reflects education, social class, and environmental circumstances. Instead, it may be that early life cognitive function contributes to each of these in turn, as well as to late life cognitive function. This paper…

Recent literature suggests a causal link between malnutrition and impaired cognitive development. A selective literature review indicates that the presence or absence of such a link cannot be established. A reanalysis of an experiment indicated after four years of treatment there was no association between cognitive and nutritional status.…

Raven's Progressive Matrices test items were analyzed for M demand (Pascual-Leone's developmental construct). Data on second- and third-grade subjects were analyzed for extent of absolute agreement of Raven and Figural Intersection Test (FIT) scores. Raw scores on the Raven could be deduced on the basis of FIT performance. (Author/RD)

Change in cognitive functioning is an important aspect of human aging and a key outcome in many medical conditions. However, cognitive change can rarely be measured directly, since prior cognitive data do not exist for most people. We examined the criterion validity and one-year stability of the difference between National Adult Reading Test…

The current and future state of intelligence testing of educable retarded children are discussed in terms of prediction, diagnosis, and remediation. Individual testing formats, task analysis, transfer of training, social nature of testing, degree of contextual support, and Neisser's distinction between academic intelligence and everyday thinking…

The working memory hypothesis that the development of span in children is related to increasing proficiency in the use of an articulatory loop was tested in two studies with 120 Canadian children in grades 5 and 6 and 11 and 12. Some support was found for the hypothesis. (SLD)