Although a number of analyses have addressed whether initial cognitive ability level is associated with age-related cognitive decline, results have been inconsistent. Latent growth curve modeling was applied to two aging cohorts, extending previous analyses with a further wave of data collection, or as a more appropriate analytical methodology…

Working memory (WM) has been predominantly studied in adults. The insights provided by these studies have led to the development of competing theories on the structure of WM and conflicting conclusions on how strongly WM components are related to higher order thinking skills such as fluid intelligence. However, it remains unclear whether and to…

Many aspects of cognition decline from middle to late adulthood, but the dimensionality and generality of this decline have rarely been examined. We analyzed 20-year longitudinal data of 6203 middle-aged to very old adults from Greater Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Participants were assessed up to eight times on 20 tasks of fluid…

Converging findings in psychology, neuroscience, education, and economics suggests that child persistence in learning represents an important determinant of academic success during the school years. Nevertheless, the developmental origins of productive learning behaviors are not well understood. Some findings suggest that executive function skills…

The present study had two aims: First, to investigate the joint and specific roles of working memory (WM) and intelligence as predictors of school achievement. And second, to replicate and extend earlier findings (Spinath, Spinath, Harlaar, & Plomin, 2006) on the incremental validity of non-cognitive over cognitive abilities in the prediction…

In this study, cross-cultural differences in cognitive test scores are hypothesized to depend on a test's cultural complexity (Cultural Complexity Hypothesis: CCH), here conceptualized as its content familiarity, rather than on its cognitive complexity (Spearman's Hypothesis: SH). The content familiarity of tests assessing short-term memory,…

To estimate Flynn effects (FEs) on forms of declarative memory (episodic, semantic) and visuospatial ability (Block Design) time-sequential analyses of data for Swedish adult samples (35-80 years) assessed on either of four occasions (1989, 1994, 1999, 2004; n = 2995) were conducted. The results demonstrated cognitive gains across occasions,…

Tested 133 college students in Germany with new tasks and 6 working memory marker tasks. Results reveal three working memory functions: simultaneous storage and processing; supervision; and coordination of elements into structures. Each function could be subdivided into distinct components of variance. (SLD)

Studied the role of olfactory processes within the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence by testing 107 Australian college students with a battery of psychometric and olfactory tests. Results indicate the likely existence of an olfactory memory ability that is structurally independent of established higher-order abilities and not related…

Studied the relationship of recognition memory, as evidenced by novelty preference in infancy, and characteristics of the home environment, measured by parental socioeconomic status, to children's later intellectual competence. Results for 69 Norwegian children, all born prematurely, show that visual recognition memory makes a significant…

We investigated sex effects and the effects of educational attainment (EA) on the covariance structure of the WAIS-III in a subsample of the Spanish standardization data. We fitted both first order common factor models and second order common factor models. The latter include general intelligence ("g") as a second order common factor.…

The paper reports on an investigation of attention and working memory as sources of intelligence. The investigation was concentrated on the relatedness of attention and working memory as predictors of intelligence and on the structure underlying the prediction. In a sample of 120 participants, intelligence was assessed by the Advanced Progressive…

The relationship between forward and backward digit span and basic cognitive processes was examined. Subjects were administered measures of sequential processing, simultaneous processing, and planning. Correlational analyses indicated the serial processing character of forward digit span, and the relationship between backward digit span and…

Speed of information processing was examined in relation to fluid and crystallized intelligence in sixth graders. Reaction time parameters (except slope) were negatively correlated with scores on intelligence tasks. Partial correlations failed to support any causal relationship between fluid and crystallized intelligence in either direction.…

Two groups of reading-disabled (RD) children were compared with controls (age- and IQ-matched competent readers), on a serial running memory task. RD children performed reliably worse than their controls due to an inability to encode serial items in the form of serial phonological patterns. (Author/RD)