This exploratory study aimed to investigate the implicit (personal theories) of student teachers through consideration of their beliefs about the nature of ability (intelligence). By drawing on ideas of personhood and identity to investigate constructions of intelligence, the authors also hoped to begin to explore the legitimacy of a multifaceted…

This quantitative study examined year group, ability level and gender differences in mindset, social value of effort and contingencies of self-worth of 174 participants aged 13-18 years in a Scottish secondary school. The measures were Dweck's (2000) Theories of Intelligence Scale, Juvonen and Murdoch's (1995) Social Value of Effort Scale and…

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…

The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 sample is in a uniquely good position to provide relevant data on social class mobility patterns over most of the last century. These participants, with known ultimate social class attainment, took a validated mental test in the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947 and were followed up at approximately age 70. Then, besides…

The idea that information processing speed is related to cognitive ability has a long history. Much evidence has been amassed in its support, with respect to both individual differences in general intelligence and developmental trajectories. Two so-called elementary cognitive tasks, reaction time and inspection time, have been used to compile this…

People with higher general cognitive ability in early life have more favourable levels of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in adulthood and CVD itself. The mechanism of these associations is not known. Here we examine whether general cognitive ability and CVD risk factors share genetic and/or environmental aetiology. In this large,…

In a birth cohort of 6281 men from Aberdeen, Scotland, social class of origin, childhood intelligence, childhood behavior disturbance and education were examined as predictors of status attainment in midlife (46 to 51 years). Social class of origin, intelligence and behavior disturbance were conceptualized as correlated predictors, whose effects…

Previous studies have established that family social background and individual mental ability and educational attainment contribute to adult social class attainment. We propose that social class of origin acts as ballast, restraining otherwise meritocratic social class movement, and that education is the primary means through which social class…

Higher cognitive function is associated with faster choice reaction time (CRT), and both are associated with a reduced risk of mortality from all-causes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, comparison of the predictive capacity of CRT, an emerging risk factor, with that for established "classic" risk factors for mortality, such as…

Research on children's concepts of intelligence has not considered how children conceptualise specific thinking skills. This study extends previous research on the development of children's concepts of intelligence and produces novel data on children's understandings of effective thinking and thinking skills. Seventy-five children were sampled…

Tested the hypothesis that intelligence is related to the risk of mental illness by linking childhood mental ability data to registers of psychiatric contact in a stable population of 4,199 adults in Scotland. Findings show intelligence to be an independent predictor of psychiatric contact, with each standard deviation decrease in IQ resulting in…

Studied the associations between scores on a test of general mental ability and reaction time, measured with a "Hick"-style device, using a sample of 900 adults (aged 56 years) in Scotland. Results agree with literature reviews suggesting that reaction times and their variabilities are stronger correlates of mental test scores than are…

Tested 101 adults, aged 77, who had completed psychometric intelligence testing in 1932, with the same test of mental ability. Results of this study, the longest follow-up study reported to date, show substantial stability in mental ability differences from childhood to late life. (SLD)

The interrelationship between personality and intelligence was investigated in several studies using data from a survey of 210 Scottish farmers. Evidence was found for increased differentiation of neuroticism and openness at higher levels of ability. There was no support for the hypothesis that intelligence affects the correlation between…

This extensively annotated bibliography supplements an article by Zana Stein and Mervyn Susser entitled "Mutability of Intelligence and Epidemiology of Mild Mental Retardation," appearing in "Review of Educational Research," Volume 40, Number 1, February 1970, pages 29-67. Resource materials listed focus on: the fate of…