The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the dramatic consequences the application of cut-off points can have in the practice of identifying gifted individuals. The paradoxical attenuation effect describes the frequent situation in which measurements of the gifts and talents individuals possess are lower than their true values. However, in…

Neuroimaging studies, using various modalities, have evidenced a link between the general intelligence factor (g) and regional brain function and structure in several multimodal association areas. While in the last few years, developments in computational neuroanatomy have made possible the "in vivo" quantification of cortical thickness, the…

Studies on the interface between cognitive ability (intelligence) and personality in the prediction of academic performance have yielded mixed results so far. Especially an interaction between conscientiousness (and its facet achievement striving) and intelligence has been investigated. The hypothesis is that conscientiousness enhances the impact…

The working memory (WM) construct is conceptualized similarly across domains of psychology, yet the methods used to measure WM function vary widely. The present study examined the relationship between WM measures used in the laboratory and those used in applied settings. A large sample of undergraduates completed three laboratory-based WM measures…

The question regarding the appropriateness of the use of tests of intelligence and cognitive abilities developed in the United States to assess people from other countries was renewed in the debate between Suen and Greenspan (2008) and Sanchez-Escobedo and Hollingworth (2009). This controversy arose from challenges in the translation, adaptation,…

Decision-making regarding intensive instructional support for children with special needs should build from children's instructional needs, and not from diagnostic labelling and criteria for funding eligibility. Cognitive referencing, the use of results on intelligence and language quotients to decide children's academic options and funding…

Three UK studies on the relationship between a purpose-built instrument to assess the importance and development of 15 "soft skills" are reported. "Study 1" (N = 444) identified strong latent components underlying these soft skills, such that differences "between-skills" were over-shadowed by differences…

Beraldo (2010) and Cornoldi, Belacchi, Giofre, Martini, and Tressoldi (2010) (CBGMT) have eight criticisms of my paper (Lynn, 2010) claiming that the large north-south differences in per capita income in Italy are attributable to differences in the average levels of intelligence in the populations. CBGMT give results for seven data sets for IQs in…

Despite Kaufman, Raven's Progressive Matrices and the Wechsler subtest Similarities are tests whose gains call for special explanation. The spread of "scientific spectacles" is the key, but its explanatory potential has been exhausted. Three trends force us to look elsewhere: (a) gains on Wechsler subtests such as Picture Arrangement,…

Many postsecondary institutions currently administer standardized tests of general college outcomes; more than a quarter of Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) member institutions do so. Using standardized tests for accountability purposes has been contentious mainly because these tests do not measure every important…

Although more than a third of tested pre-K students (37%) entered AISD one standard deviation below the national average in receptive vocabulary, the AISD pre-K program accelerated these students' growth by nearly twice the national average by the end of the 2010-2011 school year.

Two studies tested hypotheses about differences in emotional intelligence (EI) abilities and traits between followers of different career paths. Compared to their social science peers, science students had higher scores in adaptability and general mood traits measured with the Emotion Quotient Inventory, but lower scores in strategic EI abilities…

The authors use multiple-sample longitudinal data from different test batteries to examine propositions about changes in constructs over the life span. The data come from 3 classic studies on intellectual abilities in which, in combination, 441 persons were repeatedly measured as many as 16 times over 70 years. They measured cognitive constructs…

The paper describes a cross-cultural and historical meta-analysis of Raven's Progressive Matrices. Data were analyzed of 798 samples from 45 countries (N = 244,316), which were published between 1944 and 2003. Country-level indicators of educational permeation (which involves a broad set of interrelated educational input and output factors that…

The Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 (SMS1932) provides a record of intelligence test scores for almost a complete year-of-birth group of children born in 1921. By linking UK Army personnel records, the Scottish National War Memorial data, and the SMS1932 dataset it was possible to examine the effect of childhood intelligence scores on wartime…