ArticlePDF AvailableLiterature Review

Genetics and intelligence differences: Five special findings

September 2014
Molecular Psychiatry 20(1)

DOI:10.1038/mp.2014.105

Source
PubMed

License
CC BY 3.0

Authors:

Robert Plomin

King's College London

Ian Deary

University of Edinburgh

Intelligence is a core construct in differential psychology and behavioural genetics, and should be so in cognitive neuroscience. It is one of the best predictors of important life outcomes such as education, occupation, mental and physical health and illness, and mortality. Intelligence is one of the most heritable behavioural traits. Here, we highlight five genetic findings that are special to intelligence differences and that have important implications for its genetic architecture and for gene-hunting expeditions. (i) The heritability of intelligence increases from about 20% in infancy to perhaps 80% in later adulthood. (ii) Intelligence captures genetic effects on diverse cognitive and learning abilities, which correlate phenotypically about 0.30 on average but correlate genetically about 0.60 or higher. (iii) Assortative mating is greater for intelligence (spouse correlations ~0.40) than for other behavioural traits such as personality and psychopathology (~0.10) or physical traits such as height and weight (~0.20). Assortative mating pumps additive genetic variance into the population every generation, contributing to the high narrow heritability (additive genetic variance) of intelligence. (iv) Unlike psychiatric disorders, intelligence is normally distributed with a positive end of exceptional performance that is a model for 'positive genetics'. (v) Intelligence is associated with education and social class and broadens the causal perspectives on how these three inter-correlated variables contribute to social mobility, and health, illness and mortality differences. These five findings arose primarily from twin studies. They are being confirmed by the first new quantitative genetic technique in a century-Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis (GCTA)-which estimates genetic influence using genome-wide genotypes in large samples of unrelated individuals. Comparing GCTA results to the results of twin studies reveals important insights into the genetic architecture of intelligence that are relevant to attempts to narrow the 'missing heritability' gap.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 16 September 2014; doi:10.1038/mp.2014.105.

A meta-analysis of 11000 pairs of twins shows that the heritability of intelligence increases significantly from childhood (age 9) to adolescence (age 12) and to young adulthood (age 17). (Adapted from Haworth et al.49).Download Power Point slide (152 KB)

…

Multivariate (common pathway) genetic analysis in which each latent variable is indexed by three or four tests and the twin method is used to estimate additive genetic (A), shared (common) environmental (C) and nonshared environmental (E) contributions to the variance and covariance among the latent variables. Squares represent measured traits; circles represent latent factors. The lower tier of arrows represents factor loadings; the second tier represents genetic and environmental path coefficients. The curved arrows at the top represent correlations between genetic and environmental latent factors, although only the genetic correlations are shown here. (From Davis et al.62).Download Power Point slide (334 KB)

…

Figures - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

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Available via license: CC BY 3.0

Content may be subject to copyright.

Fourteenth Annual Conference of the

International Society for Intelligence Research (ISIR)

Melbourne, Australia

December 12-14, 2013

Julian C. Stanley

Swinburne University of Technology

Hawthorn Campus, Advanced Technology Centre

PO Box 218, Hawthorn

Victoria, Australia 3122

Phone: +613 9214 8000

Fax: +613 9819 5454

Acknowledgements

2013 ISIR Board of Directors

David Lubinski, President

Vanderbilt University

Aljoscha Neubauer, President Elect

University of Graz

Linda Gottfredson, Past President

University of Delaware

Keith Widaman, Board Member (exp. 2013)

University of California, Davis

Richard Haier, Board Member (exp. 2014), Secretary-Treasurer

University of California, Irvine

Yulia Kovas, Board Member (exp. 2015)

Goldsmiths, University of London

The Board would like to thank all the ISIR committees for their hard work

in making this conference possible.

We also thank Elsevier for helping to sponsor the Reception.

2013 ISIR Committees

Program Committee

Yulia Dodonova, Chair

Tom Coyle, Harrison Kell, Paul Irwing, Yulia Kovas

Conference Site Committee

Con Stough & Andrew Scholey, Co-Chairs

Distinguished Contributor Interview and Keynote Speaker Committee

Rich Haier, Chair

Buz Hunt, Jelte Wickerts, Doug Detterman, & Sherif Karama

Holden Memorial Address on Science Writing & Website Committee

Tim Bates, Chair

Jonathan Wai, Linda Gottfredson

Lifetime Achievement Award Committee

Tim Keith, Chair

Robert Plomin, Yulia Kovas, Wendy Johnson, Mike McDaniel

Nominations and Elections Committee

Aljoscha Neubauer, Chair

Heiner Rindermann, Jelte Wickerts, Rex Jung, David Schroeder

President’s Symposia Committee

David Lubinski, Chair

Student Engagement Committee

Magda Chmiel, Chair

Linda Gottfredson

Student Awards Committee

Matthew Reynolds, Chair

Keith Widaman & Roberto Colom

Graduate Student Presentation Judges

Meredith Frey, Chair

Ted Nettelbeck, Lazar Stankov, Matthew Reynolds, & Keith Widaman

Best Poster Judges

Tom Coyle, Chair

Doug Detterman

iii

In Memoriam

Joseph F. Fagan, III

1941-2013

Short schedule for ISIR 2013

(#) – Page of Abstract

DAY 1: Thursday, Dec. 12

@BA201

8:20–8:30

Opening Remarks

George Collins

8:30–9:30

Lifetime Achievement

Award:

Linda Gottfredson (90)

9:30–10:00

Break

10:00–11:20

Talks: Basic Predictors

10:00–10:20

Neubauer

(51)

Neural

Efficiency

10:20–10:40

Frey (41)

Perceived Workload

10:40–11:00

Giofrè (43)

Working Memory

11:00–11:20

Mosing (50)

Musical Discrimination&IQ

11:20–12:20

Dodonova &Dodonov (60)

Worst Performance Rule

Symp.

11:20–11:40

Dodonova (61)

Sources of WPR

11:40–12:00

Borter (62)

WPR & Task Difficulty

12:00–12:20

Dodonov (63)

WPR & Accuracy

12:20–1:50

Lunch

Luncheon for Awardees

1:50–2:50

President's Invited

Address:

Nick Martin (92)

2:50–4:10

Talks: Genetics

2:50–3:10

Bates (38)

SES & Heritability of IQ

3:10–3:30

Hill (44)

Functional SNPs & IQ

3:30–3:50

Luciano (47)

Rare Genetic Variants & g

3:50–4:10

Plomin (52)

Genetics of Low IQ

4:10–4:40

Break

4:40–5:30

Business Meeting

5:30–6:30

Interview:

Nicholas Mackintosh

6:30–9:00

Elsevier Reception,

Poster Sessions

(see the next page)

DAY 2: Friday, Dec. 13

@BA201

7:00–8:20

Student breakfast with

Lifetime Achievement

Awardee

8:20–10:00

Stankov & Nettelbeck (64)

Confidence & IQ Symp.

8:20–8:40

Stankov (65)

Non

-Cognitive Predictors

8:40–9:00

Kleitman (66)

IQ & Confidence

9:00–9:20

Jackson (67)

Decision-Making

9:20–9:40

Lee (68)

Confidence & Achievement

9:40–10:00

Welsh (69)

Anchoring

10:00–10:30

Break

10:30–11:30

Talks: g &Special Abilities

10:30–10:50

Gignac (42)

Mutualism Theory of g

10:50–11:10

Coyle (39)

Ability Tilt on SAT & ACT

11:10–11:30

Song (55)

IQ, Creativity & Processing

11:30–12:30

Pase, Stough, & Bates (70)

CHC Taxonomy Symp.

11:30–11:50

Pase (71)

Cattell-Horn-Caroll Model

11:50–12:10

Stough(72)

Smart Drug Effects

12:10–12:30

Scholey (73)

Natural Medicines & CHC

12:30–2:00

Lunch

2:00–2:40

Talks: Life Outcomes

2:00–2:20

de Manzano (49)

Creative Achievement

2:20–2:40

Kell (45)

Life Outcomes in Gifted

2:40–3:40

Talks: Health & Aging

2:40–3:00

Sörberg (56)

IQ, Health & Mortality

3:00–3:20

Macpherson (48)

Dietary Interventions

3:20–3:40

Ritchie (54)

Alcohol

Consumption

3:40–4:10

Break

4:10–5:30

Arden & Plotnik (74)

IQ in Non-Humans Symp.

4:10–4:30

Arden (

75)

in Dogs

4:30–5:10

Plotnik (76)

The Elephant Model

5:10–5:30

Taylor (77)

Tool-Making Crows

5:30-6:30

Keynote Address

Randall Engle (93)

6:30-9:00

Conference Banquet

DAY 3: Saturday, Dec. 14

@ATC101

8:20–8:40

Talk: Survey of Expert

Opinion

Rindermann (53)

8:40–9:40

Holden Memorial

Address on Science

Writing:

Elizabeth Finkel (94)

9:40–10:10

Break

10:10–12:00

President's Symposium

(83)

10:10–10:35

Lubinski (84)

SMPY 40 Years Later

10:35–10:50

Makel (85)

Profound Intellectual Talent

10:50–11:10

Plomin (86)

Genetics of High Abilities

11:10–11:30

Tellier (87)

DNA Sequencing

11:30–11:50

Lee (88)

Fourth Law of Behavior

Genetics

11:50–12:00

Q&A

12:00–1:30

Lunch

1:30–2:50

Kovas & Malykh (78)

Self-Concept, Motivation

& Achievement Symp

1:30–1:50

Kovas (79)

Motivation to Learn

1:50–2:10

Morosanova (80)

Self-Regulation

2:10–2:30

Ovcharova (81)

Abilities in Different School

Populations

2:30–2:50

Voronin (82)

Academic Self

-Concept

2:50–3:20

Break

3:20–4:20

Talks: Other Associations

3:20–3:40

Ledovaya (46)

Metaphors & IQ

3:40–4:00

Findlay (40)

Emotional Intelligence

4:00–4:20

Woodley (57)

Selection & Dysgenics

4:20–4:40

Carroll Student Award

ISIR Student Award

Best Poster Award

International Society for Intelligence Research (ISIR)

2013 Program: Posters

Thursday. December 12

6:30 – 9:00 P.M.

(#) – Page of Abstract

P1: Posters, generally about Structure and Measurement

P1.1:

What one intelligence test measures: The distinct roles of working memory and rule

induction in matrix reasoning. Patrick Loesche* & Marcus Hasselhorn (23)

P1.2:

Does education

boost general intelligence (g) or specific cognitive abilities?

Stuart J. Ritchie* et al. (29)

P1.3:

Structure of the Woodcock

Johnson III Cognitive in a

Clinical Sample.

Marley W.

Watkins & Tracy Strickland (35)

P1.4:

Cross

Cultural Validity of

IQ Tests among African Children: Artificial or Accurate

Measure of Intelligence? Cissé Dramé* (20)

P1.5:

Investigating causal direction in neuroimaging studies of cognitive ability; an

application of non-normal structural equation modelling. Tom Booth et al. (17)

P1.

Outliers Matter, Distance

Based Weighting Helps:Some

Examples Based on Speed

Ability Associations. Yury S. Dodonov & Yulia A. Dodonova (19)

P2: Posters, generally about

Effects of Substances on Cognition

P2.1:

Low levels of lead exposure

may impact children

's general

intelligence

Rachel M. Earl et al.(21)

P2.2:

Bacopa monnieri in child and adolescent populations with and without developmental

dysfunction. James D Kean* et al. (22)

P2.3:

The chronic

effects of Bacopa, Pycnogenol

and an antioxidant/micronutrient

combination formula on cognitive and cardiovascular function in a healthy older

population. Con Stough et al. (33)

P2.4:

An investigation of the

influence of antioxidant defense genes on cognitive ability in

older individuals. Karen J. Nolidin* et al. (28)

P2.5:

The cognitive enhancing effects of acute and chronic curcumin supplementation in a

healthy elderly population. Katherine H. M. Cox* et al. (18)

P2.

A Preliminary Study

Investigating the Effects of

Resveratrol on Cognitive Function.

Andrew Scholey et al. (31)

P2.

Neurocognitive effects of

multivitamin supplementation: A behavioural and fMRI

study. David J. White et al. (36)

Posters

cont.

P2.8:

Cognitive Performance Following Alcohol and

Energy Drink

Sarah Benson* et al. (15)

P2.

Effects of alcohol consumption on academic performance

Joris C. Verster

et al.

(

)

P3: Posters, generally about

Emotional

Intelligence

, Personality and

Metacognition

P3.1:

Emotional

Intelligence and

Scholastic Achievement in Preadolescent Children

Clare E W Billings et al. (16)

P3.2:

Adolescent Peer

Relations and Emotional

Intelligence

Justine

E. Lomas

al.

)

P3.3:

Emotional Intelligence, victimisation,

bullying behaviours and attitud

es: a

replication

and extension. Chantelle M. Schokman et al. (30)

P3.4:

Challenging the intelligence compensation theory: Are conscientiousness and

intelligence really negatively correlated? Aja L. Murray* et al. (27)

P3.5:

Cognitive abilities,

self

regulation and academic achievements of gifted students

Varvara I. Morosanova et al. (26)

P3.

Knowing the knowing: Exploring the relationship between metacognition and

intelligence. John H. Song & Brooke Nickeas (32)

: Posters, generally about Intelligence

in a Broader Context

.1:

The role of Intelligence on the human development Tatiana A. Badaró* (13)

.2:

Expert opinion on the causes of international differences in intelligence

–

2013 survey

of expert opinion on intelligence. David Becker* et al. (14)

.3:

The Rule

Dependence Model: a New Model for Secular IQ Gains

Elijah Z. Armstrong & Michael A. Woodley (12)

.4:

Investigating relationships between cognition and life history in a sample of 6364

individuals. Guy Madison et al. (25)

Reception and poster sessions will be held at Hawthorn/Library Atrium

International Society for Intelligence Research (ISIR)

2013 Program: Talks

(#) – Page of Abstract

Thursday, December 12 (Day 1), BA201

–

0 AM

Opening

Ceremony

Professor George Collins, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research, Swinburne

University

8:30

–

9:30 AM

Lifetime Achievement Award:

Linda

Gottfredson

Empirical Treasure, Lost and Found (90)

9:30

–

10:00 AM

Coffee Break

10:00

–

11:20 AM

T1: Talks, generally about basic predictors

Chair:

Aljoscha C. Neubauer

10:00

–

10:20 AM

T1.1: Neural efficienc

y as a function of task demands

Aljoscha C. Neubauer et al. (51)

10:20

–

10:40 AM

T1.2:

Perceived workload and performance in difficult nonverbal cognitive

tasks predict academic achievement. Meredith C. Frey & Cynthia Laurie-Rose

(41)

10:40

–

11:00 AM

T1.3:

The structure of working memory and how it relates to intelligence in

children. David Giofrè et al. (43)

11:00

–

11:20 AM

T1.4: Genetic and environmental influences on the relationship between

musical discrimination tasks and IQ. Miriam A. Mosing et al. (50)

11:20

–

12:2

0 AM

Symposium 1:

Worst performance rule: sources, moderating variables

and implications for intelligence research (60)

Organizers: Yulia A. Dodonova & Yury S. Dodonov

11:20

–

11:40 AM

S1.

Are slowest response times more g

loaded

than fastest reactions?

Evidence, hypotheses and implications of worst performance rule.

Yulia A. Dodonova et al. (61)

11:40

–

12:00 AM

S1.

Cognitive tasks with increasing complexity: should worst performance

rule be taken into account? Natalie Borter* et al. (62)

–

0 AM

S1.

Slowest and fastest responses are not equally good predictors of

intelligence, but does accuracy matter? Yury S. Dodonov et al. (63)

12:20

–

1:50 PM

Lunch

Luncheon hosted by ISIR officers for Lifetime Achievement Awardee,

Distinguished Contributions Awardee, Keynote Speaker, President's

Invited Speaker and Holden Science Writer

Glenferrie Hotel

324 Burwood Road

Thursday

cont.

1:50

–

2:50 PM

President's Invited Address:

Nick Martin

)

Emerging Evidence on the Molecular Genetics of Cognition

–

:10

T2:

Talks, generally about genetic

Chair:

Yulia Kovas

–

T2.1:

When does socioeconomic status moderate the heritability of IQ? Data

from Australia and the USA. Timothy C. Bates et al. (38)

–

T2.

Do functional SNPs show an enriched association for intelligence?

W. David Hill* et al. (44)

3:30

–

3:50 P

T2.3:

A pilot study of rare genetic variants and g.

Michelle Luciano

et al.

(

)

3:50

–

4:10 PM

T2.4:

The

genetics of low IQ and diagnosed mental retardation: 370,000

sibling pairs and 9000 twin pairs. Robert Plomin et al. (52)

–

40 PM

Coffee Break

–

5:30 PM

Business Meeting

5:30

–

6:30 PM

Interview with recipient of Distinguished Contributor

Award:

Nicholas Mackintosh

6:30

–

0 PM

Elsevier Reception and Posters (11

)

Hawthorn/Library Atrium

Friday, December 13 (Day 2), BA201

7:00

–

8:20 AM

Student breakfast with Lifetime Achievement Awardee

Linda Gottfredson

Quest Hawthorn 616 Glenferrie Road

8:20

–

10:00 AM

Symposium 2:

The relationship between confidence, intelligence,

academic achievement and decision-making (64)

Organizers: Lazar Stankov & Ted Nettelbeck

8:20

–

:40 AM

S2.1:

Noncognitive

predictors of intelligence and academic achievement

Lazar Stankov (65)

8:40

–

9:00 AM

S2.2:

Intelligence and confidence in relationship to competence, arrogance

and close-mindedness. Sabina Kleitman (66)

9:00

–

9:20 AM

S2.3:

Intelligence and

confidence as respective predictors of quality and

erroneous decision-making.

Simon A Jackson* & Sabina Kleitman (67)

9:20

–

9:40 AM

S2.4:

Confidence: a better predictor of academic achievement than self

efficacy, self-concept and anxiety?

Lazar Stankov, Jihyun Lee et al.(68)

9:40

–

10:00 AM

S2.5:

Individual differences in anchoring: Traits and experience

Matthew B

Welsh et al. (69)

10:00

–

10:30 AM

Coffee Break

10:30

–

11:30 AM

: Talks, generally about

g and special abilities

Chair: Linda Gottfredson

10:30

–

10:50 AM

.1:

An Empirical Test of the Dynamic Mutualism Theory of g

Gilles E. Gignac (42)

10:50

–

11:10 AM

.2:

Validity of Ability Tilt on the SAT and ACT

Thomas R. Coyle et al. (39)

11:10

–

11:30 AM

.3:

Exploring

the relationship between intelligence, creativity, inspection

time, and inhibition. John H. Song & John G. Chetwynd (55)

11:30

–

12:30 AM

Symposium 3:

Contemporary applications of the Cattell

Horn

Carroll

cognitive taxonomy (70)

Organizers: Mathew Pase, Con Stough & Timothy C Bates

11:30

–

11:50 AM

S3.1:

An overview of the Cattell

Horn

Caroll model of cognition:

implications for contemporary use. Mathew Pase* & Con Stough (71)

11:50

–

12:10 AM

S3.2:

Understanding smart drug effects using the Cattell

Horn

Caroll model

of cognition. Con Stough et al. (72)

12:10

–

12:30 AM

S3.3:

Understanding the effects of natural medicines and substances using

the Cattell-Horn-Caroll model of cognition.

Andrew Scholey et al. (73)

Friday

–

cont.

12:30

–

2:00 PM

Lunch

2:00

–

40 PM

T4: Talks, generally about life outcomes

Chair:

Aljoscha C. Neubauer

2:00

–

2:20 PM

.1:

Associations between creative achievement in scientific and artistic

domains, intelligence, personality and sex. Örjan de Manzano et al. (49)

2:20

–

2:40 PM

.2:

"Wrecked by Success?" No! Linkages of Career Accomplishment,

Health, and Relationship Satisfaction among the Gifted.

Harrison J. Kell et al. (45)

2:40

–

3:40 PM

T5: Talks, generally about health and aging

Chair:

Aljoscha C.

Neubauer

2:40

–

3:00 PM

Intelligence and somatic health in early adulthood, and mortality up to

age 59 -a longitudinal study of 49 000 men. Alma Sörberg* et al. (56)

3:00

–

3:20 PM

Dietary interventions to offset cognitive decline.

Helen N. Macpherson et al. (48)

3:20

–

3:40 PM

T5.3:

Alcohol consumption and lifetime change in cognitive ability: A

Mendelian randomization study. Stuart J. Ritchie* et al. (54)

–

10 PM

Coffee Break

–

5:30 PM

Intelligence in non human

animals

(

)

Organizers: Rosalind Arden & Joshua Plotnik

4:10

–

4:30 PM

S4.

Fetch! g in dogs

Rosalind Arden

et al.

(

)

4:30

–

0 PM

S4.

Big Brains, Big Smarts? The Elephant Model for The Study of

Convergent Cognitive Evolution Across Species

Joshua M. Plotnik (76)

5:10

–

5:30 PM

S4.3:

What can tool

making crows teach us about our minds?

Alex H Taylor (77)

5:30

–

6:30 PM

Keynote Speaker:

Randall W. Engle

)

Working memory capacity as a mediating variable.

6:30

–

7:00 PM

Pre

inner

rinks

Deck HawthornCommon 302 Burwood Road

7:00

–

9:00 PM

Conference Banquet

HawthornCommon 302 Burwood Road

Saturday, December 14 (Day 3), ATC101

–

0 AM

Talk, Survey of Expert Opinion

T6.1: 2013 survey of expert opinion on intelligence.

Heiner Rindermann et al. (53)

–

0 AM

Holden Memorial Address on Science Writing:

Elizabeth Finkel (94) Navigating the Straits: when Scientists Disagree

9:40

–

10:10 AM

Coffee Break

–

00 AM

President's Symposium

(

)

The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, DNA Sequencing,

Genetics, and the Phenotypic Accomplishments of Profound Intellectual

Talent at Midlife

10:10

–

.1:

Forty Years Later:What

Happens to Mathematically Precocious Youth

Identified at Age 12? David Lubinski et al. (84)

10:

–

.2:

Profound Intellectual Talent:

A Compelling Phenotype for Behavioral

Genetics and Neuroscience Inquiry. Matthew C. Makel et al. (85)

10:50

–

11:10 AM

PS.

The Genetics of High Cognitive Abilities.

Robert Plomin et al.

(

)

11:10

–

11:30 AM

PS.

Petaflop Computer Clusters Crunch Genomes of Giant Minds:

Collection, Sequencing, Analysis of the World’s Largest Extreme-IQ

Genomic Cohort. Laurent Tellier et al. (87)

11:30

–

11:50 AM

PS.5: The Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics.

James J. Lee & Christopher F. Chabris (88)

–

0 AM

Questions & Answers

12:00

–

1:30 PM

Lunch

–

Symposium

Sources of individual differences in academic self

concept, motivation, and achievement in different cultures and ability

groups (78)

Organizers: Yulia Kovas & Sergey Malykh

1:30

–

1:50 PM

.1:

Why

do children differ in motivation to learn? Insights from a large

twin study. Yulia Kovas et al. (79)

1:50

–

2:10 PM

.2:

Individual differences in conscious self

regulation and cognitive

characteristics as predictors of academic achievement

Varvara Morosanova et al. (80)

2:10

–

2:30 PM

.3:

Is the structure of interrelationships among intelligence, cognitive

abilities and achievement different in selected, self-selected, and unselected

school populations? Olga Ovcharova* et al. (81)

2:30

–

2:50 PM

.4:

Testing internal/external frame of reference model across academic

domains and school years. Ivan Voronin* et al. (82)

Saturday

–

cont.

2:50

–

3:20 PM

Coffee Break

–

20 PM

: Talks, generally about associations with

other variables

Chair: Aljoscha C. Neubauer

–

40 PM

.1:

Metaphorical representations of psychological concepts in students and

their relation with verbal and nonverbal intelligence.

Yanina Ledovaya & Ksenia Mikhalchenko (46)

–

00 PM

.2:

Emotional intelligence mediates the relationship between humour

styles and psychological well-being. Bruce Findlay & Robyn Brown (40)

–

20 PM

.3:

Climatic variability, group selection and dysgenics: Testing a multi

level selection model. Michael Woodley et al. (57)

–

0 PM

Announcement of

ISIR

Best Poster Award

Announcement of ISIR Prize for Best Student Paper

Announcement of John B. Carroll Award for Research Methodology

POSTERS

Abstracts are organized in alphabetical order

The Rule-Dependence Model: a New Model for Secular IQ Gains

Elijah Z. Armstrong

, Michael A. Woodley

Independent Researcher

Umeå University

elijahlarmstrong@gmail.com; mawoodley03@gmail.com

Novelty. The audience will learn about a theory linking the ability to process rules to

the Flynn effect. Beforehand, specific proximate causes of the Flynn effect have been

understudied. This presentation identifies a plausible such proximate cause - the ability

to process, infer, reapply, and note the existence of repeated patterns or pieces of

information (for example, solution rules on the Raven's Progressive matrices). The

presentation will cover both general increases in this capacity and exposure to specific

rules that are duplicated on IQ tests.

Importance. The rule-dependence model is a possible cause of the Flynn effect,

which makes it extremely theoretically important. It also identifies specific

environmental factors that may increase rule-processing capacity, and the real-world

effects of these factors.

Methods. We found a sample of studies giving Flynn effects on 14 diverse tests and

subtests. Using the method of correlated vectors, we found that Flynn effect magnitudes

correlated to rule dependence (as rated on a 1-4 point scale) at .597, p < 0.05.

The Role of Intelligence on the Human Development

Tatiana A. Badaró

Instituto Baiano de Inteligência

badarotatiana@gmail.com

Novelty. This research has established a link between intelligence and Integral human

development. The adopted methodology was a bibliographical research from a survey of

the scientific production of the themes involved, characterized, therefore a literature

review. The State-of-the-art analysis of these two topics, led to confirmation of initial

hypothesis that there is a directly proportional relationship among intelligence and

Integral human development, demonstrating that both implicit theories about

intelligence as those relating to Human Development tend to be incorporated into the

culture as a defining aspect of reality, hence of the socio-educational setting. It is

concluded, therefore, that urges the moment that intelligence can be treated as what it

really is, a human faculty that allows 1) self-knowledge; 2) easy adaptation to the

environment into which it is inserted; and 3) creativity, to then be able to commit the

full human development.

Importance. Intelligence is a subject of the psychology of great social impact and

therefore is characterized as one of the main themes of the area. Overall, society

demonstrates to know concepts and definitions of intelligence, but there is still the

question of what intelligence really is and what its main features.

In the early days of scientific study on this topic, dualists such as Descartes, Spinoza

and Bayle defined Intelligence as a faculty inherent in the spirit, and one of its highest

forms would be the language. The emergence of intelligence is therefore a legacy of

evolution, which, again according to this stream, is not a matter of degree or quantity,

but a qualitative matter (Khalfa, 1996).

Methods. Our work aims to investigate the contributions of theoretical and practical

study of intelligence for the human development, by demonstrating the need, relevance

and urgency of the work of intelligence to it, but mostly we propose the implementation

of educational activities in educational institutions of any levels for the development of

human intelligence.

Therefore we conducted qualitative research as indicated by Rey Gonzalez (1997,

1999, 2004, 2007). It is evident that this was done based on our perception of the

apparent change in conceptions of human development on the part of individuals who

participated in the course Essays on Intelligence, for this reason this course was chosen

by us to be the key point of this discussion.

Expert Opinion on the Causes of International Differences in Intelligence – 2013

Survey of Expert Opinion on Intelligence

David Becker

, Heiner Rindermann

, Thomas R. Coyle

Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany

Department of Psychology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, USA

david.becker@s2009.tu-chemnitz.de; heiner.rindermann@psychologie.tu-chemnitz.de;

Thomas.Coyle@utsa.edu

Novelty. We examined expert opinions of the causes of international differences in

intelligence using responses from a larger survey (in these questions N≈60; overview on

the 2013 survey of expert opinion on intelligence presented in Rindermann et al. at ISIR

2013). In the present study, expert opinions of international and group differences in

intelligence were evaluated in the following regions and countries: Finland, East Asia,

sub-Sahara Africa, Southern Europe (compared to North-Western-Middle

Europe/NWME), Arabian-Muslim World (compared to NWME), Latin America

(compared to North America), Israel (compared to NWME), Jews in the Western world,

Roma in Europe, and immigrants from the Middle East in Europe. The following causes

of international differences in intelligence were evaluated: culture (religion, tradition,

etc.), genes (evolution), quantity of education, quality of education, wealth, health,

geography, current climate, politics, modernization, sampling error, test knowledge,

discrimination, test bias, and migration (the last three with possible negative or positive

effects).

Importance. Intelligence research addresses global differences in cultural, political,

economic, social and psychological disparities. According to the experts in our sample,

the most important causes of international differences in intelligence were quality of

education, followed by quantity of education, health, wealth, genes, modernization,

culture, test knowledge, politics, sampling error, migration, test bias, geography,

discrimination, and current climate. Group differences in intelligence between specific

regions and ethnic groups were most strongly attributed to differences in education.

Ratings of the causes of intelligence varied across the following countries: Finland

(stronger focus on quality of education), East Asia (relatively strong focus on culture,

quantity of education, and genes), sub-Sahara Africa (relatively strong politics),

Arabian-Muslim World (culture), Roma (culture), Israel (migration, culture, and genes),

and Jews (genes and culture).

Methods. The survey of expert opinions consisted of 62 main questions with follow-

up questions and space for comments. Experts were sampled from publications

addressing intelligence (including Intelligence), cognitive abilities, and student

achievement. Notice of the study was emailed to ISIR members and posted to the ISSID

homepage, and colleagues were asked to inform other researchers about the study. Only

people who received a participation code could participate. The present study was based

on responses from about 60 experts to questions concerning international and group

differences in intelligence. Experts rated the importance of possible causes of

intelligence (e.g., education, genes, and culture) and could provide comments for each

item.

Cognitive Performance Following Alcohol and Energy Drink

Sarah Benson

, Brian Tiplady

, Andrew Scholey

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University

University of Edinburgh

sarahbenson@swin.edu.au; ascholey@swin.edu.au

Novelty. Alcohol consumption has consistently demonstrated impairment to

information processing, particularly demonstrated by an increase in errors made while

processing speed remains unaffected. This relationship is characteristic of a speed-

accuracy trade-off (SATO). Since caffeine enhances cognitive performance, there is

concern that consumers mix alcohol with caffeinated beverages to reverse or mask some

of the impairment effects associated with alcohol intoxication. The current study found

that alcohol increased [processing errors while reaction time remained unaffected. The

addition of the energy drink to the alcohol did not result in any reversal of cognitive

impairment.

Importance. If the addition of energy drink to alcohol masks the effects of

intoxication, consumers may stay out later drinking more alcohol or even feel capable of

driving even though breath alcohol concentrations may be high. Very little research

supports the suggestion that the addition of energy drink to alcohol can reverse

cognitive impairment caused by intoxication, however, this notion is regularly

supported in the media. It is important that consumers are aware of the cognitive effects

to avoid any false expectations.

Methods. This study used a factorial, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover

design. Participants were randomised to a treatment sequence consisting of alcohol (0.6

g/kg) energy drink (250 ml), alcohol and energy drink (0.6 g/kg and 250 ml) and

placebo. Participants completed an array of computerised cognitive tasks at baseline and

45, 90 and 180 minutes post treatment.

Emotional Intelligence and Scholastic Achievement in Preadolescent Children

Clare E. W. Billings

, Justine E. Lomas

, Luke Downey

1,2

, Con Stough

Swinburne University;

Swansea University

cbillings@swin.edu.au; jlomas@swin.edu.au; ldowney@swin.edu.au;

cstough@swin.edu.au

Novelty. The results of the current study shows that Emotional Intelligence, a

particular type of intelligence based on Mayer and Salovey’s (1997) model, can be

reliably measured in pre-adolescent children. Emotional Intelligence was also shown to

relate to important educational outcomes for pre-adolescents such as their scholastic

achievement overall and specifically in literacy and numeracy.This is the first study

showing a relationship between an ability based measure of EI for pre-adolescents and

scholastic performance. This suggests that basic emotional processing abilities are

important for the development of knowledge.

Importance. We now know that Emotional Intelligence can be assessed in

preadolescent children and that this assessment relates to important educational

outcomes. This knowledge can help in the assessment of children’s Emotional

Intelligence as part of a holistic assessment of their education development. The ability

to assess Emotional Intelligence in pre-adolescent children also allows us to assess the

impact of Emotional Intelligence development programs for this age group. Improving

educational attainment in primary school children is a vital area for educational

psychology and the community in general.

Methods. The study was correlational in nature, investigating the association between

branches of children’s Emotional Intelligence and outcomes of scholastic performance.

Significant positive correlates were found between all scholastic achievement variables

(literacy, numeracy, overall achievement) and the ‘Understanding and Analysing

Emotions’ branch of the model, suggest that Emotional Intelligence is related to

scholastic achievement in this age group.

Investigating Causal Direction in Neuroimaging Studies of Cognitive Ability; an

Application of non-Normal Structural Equation Modelling

Tom Booth

, Aja L. Murray

, Mark E. Bastin

, John M. Starr

, Joanna M. Wardlaw

Ian J. Deary

Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology,

University of Edinburgh, UK

Brain Research Imaging Centre, Division of Neuroimaging Sciences, University of

Edinburgh, UK

Geriatric Medicine Unit, The University of Edinburgh, Royal Victoria, UK.

tom.booth@ed.ac.uk

Novelty. The current paper discusses the flow of causality from neuroimaging

markers to performance on cognitive ability measures. We discuss the use of non-

normal structural equation modelling (nnSEM) as a method for explicitly testing the

assumption that the brain is a primary causal agent of cognitive performance. nnSEM

uses higher order moments to identify models which would not be comparable using

conventional SEM or regression methods. We demonstrate nnSEM using the example

of white matter lesions and processing speed. It is generally assumed that the increased

presence of white matter lesions, specifically here in ageing, is one of the causal drivers

of decline in cognitive performance. Using data from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

(n=650), nnSEM models suggested that the best fitting, and thus most plausible causal

model, was one in which white matter lesion volume predicted simple reaction time

mean score.

Importance. Researchers often wish to provide causal interpretations in the presence

of cross-sectional associations. This is not possible. Whilst the use of nnSEM cannot

prove causality, it provides a methodology which, when data are suitable, can discern

between competing models which posit competing causal hypotheses. The current paper

provides a proof in principle of such an application.

Methods. The current work makes no explicit claims, but presents nnSEM as a

potentially useful methodology for assessing the causal direction of cross-sectional

associations between neuroanatomical variables and cognitive ability. nnSEM is a

relatively new methodology which is yet to be widely applied in research contexts. We

suggest here that some neuroimaging and cognitive variables are meaningfully skewed

and or kurtotic, making this area of research one which is suited to applications of

nnSEM. We acknowledge and discuss some limitations with the method which requires

further research through simulation studies.

The Cognitive Enhancing Effects of Acute and Chronic Curcumin

Supplementation in a Healthy Elderly Population

Katherine H. M. Cox, Andrew B. Scholey, Andrew Pipingas

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University of Technology

kcox@swin.edu.au; ascholey@swin.edu.au; apipingas@swin.edu.au

Novelty. Around the world millions of people take dietary supplements in an attempt

to improve health, mood and cognitive function. Curcumin, a polyphenol found in the

spice turmeric, has been shown to exhibit a great variety of health benefits which may

extend to improving cognitive function.

To our knowledge this is the first study to investigate the potential cognitive

enhancing effects of curcumin supplementation in a healthy elderly population. This

poster will present findings showing acute and chronic facilitatory effects of curcumin

supplementation on working memory and attention resulting in improved task

performance. Curcumin supplementation may also reduce the strain of undertaking

cognitive demanding tasks.

Importance. It is predicted that by 2050 approximately one third of the population of

more developed nations will be over the age of 60. However it has been estimated that

in the United State alone 2.3 million community dwelling adults over the age of 65

suffered limitations caused by cognitive impairment. Age related cognitive decline and

age related conditions such as dementia are known to have a multifactorial etiology.

Therefore therapeutics that show multiple modes of action, such as nutraceuticals, may

be superior to traditional, single target pharmaceuticals in treating of such conditions.

The findings of this study have valuable real world applications as they suggest that

curcumin may represent readily available therapeutic agent for improving cognitive

function and by extension quality of life among our growing elderly population.

Methods. This study used a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design,

allowing us to conclude that the benefits found with curcumin supplementation are over

and above those a placebo. Assessment of cognitive functions was carried out using

standardized, computerized tasks known to be sensitive to changes in cognitive

function.

Outliers Matter, Distance-Based Weighting Helps:

Some Examples Based on Speed-Ability Associations

Yury S. Dodonov

, Yulia A. Dodonova

1,2

Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

ys.dodonov@gmail.com; ya.dodonova@mail.ru

Novelty. Most of the statistical analyses applied within the field of intelligence

research mathematically involve the computation of correlations between variables.

However, the question of how to choose a correlation coefficient that is robust to

outlying values and noisy observations is, by itself, an important methodological issue.

This poster introduces a distance-weighted estimator of correlation and compares its

behavior to that of conventionally used coefficients. The presented examples include

empirical RT-IQ correlations as well as the results of the simulation studies.

Importance. This poster presentation provides examples of why the choice of an

estimator matters in studies of speed-ability associations. First, it compares the

magnitudes of the RT-IQ correlations obtained using different estimators. Second, it

questions whether certain tendencies, such as the worst performance rule (an

observation that the RT-IQ correlation is higher for the slowest reactions than it is for

the fastest reactions obtained for the same task), are sensitive to a particular measure of

correlation used in the analysis. Third, it uses simulation studies to analyze the

behaviors of different correlation coefficients, including distance-weighted correlation,

under conditions that are plausible for empirical distributions of the RT and intelligence

scores.

Methods. Contrary to the commonly recommended robust methods that essentially

implement some kind of truncation of the original distribution, distance-based

weighting considers all observations while emphasizing those that lie close to each

other and the downweighting distant data points. Hence, distance-based weighting does

not use any statistics as input information, does not require an arbitrary threshold

delimiting outlying and inlying values, and does not produce any controversy on the

number of observations to be downweighted. The simulation results that are shown in

this poster suggest that the distance-weighted correlation is at least no worse in its

behavior under various noise conditions than the measures commonly recommended as

robust statistics.

Cross-Cultural Validity of IQ Tests among African Children:

Artificial or Accurate Measure of Intelligence?

Cissé Dramé

Texas A&M International University

cissedrame@dusty.tamiu.edu

Novelty. My research work demonstrates that Western standardized IQ tests are not

valid measure of intelligence across cultures.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether commonly used intelligence tests

such as the Ravens Progressive Matrices are valid indices of cognitive functioning

among children in Mali, Africa where previous research indicate significant sub-average

intelligence, below 70. No studies have yet ventured to examine if any correlation exists

between IQ score, achievement score and adaptive functioning level. The Woodcock-

Johnson will be used measure their academic achievement. The Vineland Behavior

Scale(VABS) will be used to indicate their adaptive functioning level. In the proposed

study, tests of IQ will be compared against adaptive functioning and academic

achievement, to examine whether IQ scores measured among African populations are

artificially lowered or are an accurate measure of performance.

Importance. As we may know racial differences in intelligence has been by far one

of the most intriguing and contested subject of a protracted discussion since the

inception of standardized cognitive tests one about hundred years ago. While decades of

research studies consistently show that average IQ lies below 70 in Sub-Saharan Africa

(e.g, Nissan, Machover, and Kinder, 1935;Laroche, 1959; Boissiere, Knight, & Sabot

985; Fernandez-Ballesteros; Juan-Espinoza, Colom, & Calero;1997), yet no studies

have ventured to examine the significant discrepancies between individuals’ subaverage

IQ scores and their adaptive functioning level in Africa. The question of whether IQ

scores measured among African populations are artificially lowered or are an accurate

measure of performance is rather important. One important consideration in this study is

the social and political implications.

Methods. Approximately 200 children were recruited from a school district in Mali,

West Africa. The sample was constituted of 200 African children ranged in age from 6

to 14 years old.

Three measures were used:

- Non Verbal IQ Test: Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM)

- Adaptive Functioning Scale: Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS)

- Achievement Test: Woodcok-Johnson (Math section)

Proposed statistical analysis: Paired-samples T-tests to compare Ravens and

Vineland scores. Also multiples regression to examine how the Ravens scores, Vineland

and demographics predict the WRAT math scores.

Low Levels of Lead Exposure May Impact Children's General Intelligence

Rachel M. Earl, Ted Nettelbeck, Nicholas R. Burns, Peter Baghurst

University of Adelaide

rachel.earl@adelaide.edu.au; ted.nettelbeck@adelaide.edu.au;

nicholas.burns@adelaide.edu.au; baghurst@internode.on.net

Novelty. It is already well established that exposure to lead has a negative impact on

the development of intelligence. However, until recently there has been wide acceptance

that levels of exposure below a concentration 10 micrograms per decilitre of blood does

not constitute a risk to normal childhood development. Our results suggest that there

may be no safe level of lead exposure.

Importance. Extensive evidence supports the critical importance of general

intelligence as a major predictor of academic achievement and subsequent job

performance. If subsequent research confirms an effect on IQ of even very low levels of

exposure to lead, this will have profound implications for the long-term protection of

populations living in lead-contaminated environments.

Methods. Participants were 106 children (mean = 8 years, SD = .6) and their parents

living in two Australian communities where lead mining and smelting remain a source

of exposure. Data were collected on a wide range of cognitive measures, including

Wechsler scales and Raven Progressive Matrices for adults and children, several

subtests from the Woodcock Johnson-III (children only)and other tests selected to

represent the CHC model of cognitive abilities. Measures also included a range of

potential social and environmental confounding factors. An unadjusted curvilinear

continuous trend (correlation = -.31; p < .001)was found between children\'s blood lead

levels and a general factor extracted from the battery of cognitive tests, suggesting that

there may be no threshold safety level for exposure to lead during childhood. In

covariate adjusted analyses consistent findings emerged, suggesting that even low level

lead may detrimentally impact the cognitive development of children, in particular

speed of information processing and long term storage and retrieval.

Bacopa Monnieri in Child and Adolescent Populations with and without

Developmental Dysfunction

James D. Kean, Luke A. Downey, Con Stough

Swinburne University of Technology

jkean@swin.edu.au; ldowney@swin.edu.au; cstough@swin.edu.au

Novelty. The Ayurvedic medicinal system is becoming more popular in Western

medicine. Bacopa monnieri has been used in the Ayurvedic medicinal system for

approximately 3000 years and is classified as a medhyarasayana, a drug used to improve

memory and intellect (medhya). To date clinical trials in Western research using Bacopa

have focused on adult populations in acute and chronic settings but very few have

looked at a younger population and its possible benefits. A recent systematic review

completed by the authors covers every clinical trial that has looked at Bacopa monnieri

and its effects on the child & adolescent population. The review explores how

efficacious Bacopa has been in terms of improving developmental dysfunction and

increasing areas of cognitive function in the younger population.

Importance. Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) are a common

treatment avenue for parents to take for their children who might be struggling with

school work, social situations, behavioural issues, developmental delay or even mild to

moderate learning difficulties. Although there is an aura of safety surrounding the use

of natural products to relieve symptoms associated with certain disorders, the safety and

tolerability research into many of these products has been far from conclusive. Half of

all parents with children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

(ADHD), will give their child CAM without the proper consultation of their child’s

physician. There is a need for greater restraint in the field of natural medicine to ensure

the benefits and risks of every vitamin, plant extract, and natural compound can be

elucidated through research and the replication of results, to ensure the safe treatment of

the child and adolescent population.

Methods. The aim of current review was to summarize and assess the data from

clinical trials of Bacopa monnieri and its effects on the mental health of children and

adolescents. Each trial involving Bacopa monnieri in any form will be looked at in

terms of its extraction process, its overall weight (mg), the percentage of bacosides in

the extract (the suggested mechanism of action), the intervention time period, the

population of children and adolescents on which it is being tested (clinical or non-

clinical group), and the impact of any other extracts if in a combination formula. The

main outcome will be the safety and tolerability of the extract being used, whether any

side-effects (if any) were reported.

What one Intelligence Test Measures: the Distinct Roles of Working Memory and

Rule Induction in Matrix Reasoning

Patrick Loesche, Marcus Hasselhorn

German Institute for International Educational Research

loesche@dipf.de; hasselhorn@dipf.de

Novelty. The solution process underlying problems from Raven’s APM has been

conceptualized to consist of two subprocesses: rule induction and goal management.

The present research aims at giving an answer to the question whether both of these

subprocesses are related to working memory capacity. This was done by testing whether

the correlation between Raven’s APM and working memory tasks can be artificially

raised by eliminating the subprocess of rule induction. The experimental design

included a variation of the instructions to Raven’s APM which already gave the rules

necessary to solve the problems, hence making rule induction unnecessary. An effect of

the rule induction affordance on the correlation between APM and working memory

was confirmed in a sample of 644 secondary school students. The results suggest that

the solution process in the APM is twofold (at least), and that one of the subprocesses

(goal management) does almost exclusively rely on working memory capacity whereas

the other (rule induction) does not.

Importance. The research that has linked working memory to gf has, to this point,

mainly focused on the part that is not involved in generating rules. That is, prevailing

accounts for this relationship envision some sort of information processing that involves

storage, maintenance, inhibition, supervision, attention, or updating but none of these

accounts can explain how a mental representation of a rule or abstract relationship is

actually formed. It lies in the nature of working memory tasks that they are free of

inductive processes. That is, in typical working memory tasks the participants are fully

informed about the task and about the relation of the task material to a correct response.

In our view, this aspect is fundamentally different from intelligence tests like the APM,

where the relationship among elements is unknown to the subject.

Methods. The study combines methods from differential and cognitive psychology

jointly in an experimental design. The design allows for the manipulation of a narrowly

circumscribed subprocess in matrix reasoning. Teaching the rules needed to solve the

problems, should make the induction of these rules unnecessary. Participants should be

able to recall the rules, so they would just have to verify if any is applicable to the

problem at hand and then store the intermediary result before going to the next problem.

The downside of the methodology though is that a rather large test power is required to

detect the predicted changes in the correlation. As a result of a test power analysis we

aimed at recruiting at least 600 subjects.

Adolescent Peer-Relations and Emotional Intelligence

Justine E. Lomas, Luke A. Downey, Con Stough

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University

jlomas@swin.edu.au; ldowney@swin.edu.au; cstough@swin.edu.au

Novelty. Research into schoolyard bullying has highlighted not only the undesirable

prevalence of bullying behaviours exhibited by adolescents but also the associated

adverse consequences. In order to better understand bullying behaviours, a pilot study

was conducted to examine for the first time the relationship between emotional

intelligence (EI) of adolescents, bullying behaviours and peer victimisation. Results of

the study indicated that the EI dimensions of Emotions Direct Cognition and Emotional

Management and Control, significantly predicted the propensity of adolescents to be

subjected to peer victimisation. The EI dimension of Understanding the Emotions of

Others was found to be negatively related with bullying behaviours. A larger study

subsequently provided support for these findings.

Importance. The implications of these findings are particularly important in terms of

managing bullying and peer victimisation within schools. The findings suggest that

measures of EI may be utilised to identify students with lesser developed EI

competencies. Using this information, schools may be able to identify students at

greater risk of being subjected to peer victimisation. The ability to identify students at

greatest risk of peer victimisation may allow for more targeted, accurate or timely

intervention to protect the student from the potential harmful consequences that are

associated with exposure to bullying. The ability to identify students at greater risk of

being subjected to peer victimisation may also assist in the development of improved

anti-bullying programs in the educational setting.

Methods. Initial correlational analysis revealed that self-reported Understanding of

Emotions was significantly correlated with self-reported engagement in bullying

behaviours. Further to this, a regression analysis of self-reported EI and peer relations

found that the EI factors Emotions Direct Cognition and Emotional Management and

Control accounted for a significant amount of variance in self-reported experience of

peer victimisation.

Investigating Relationships between Cognition and Life History in a Sample of

6364 Individuals

Guy Madison

, Michael A. Woodley

, Fredrik Ullén

Umeå University;

Karolinska Institutet

guy.madison@umu.se; Michael.Woodley@umu.se; fredrik.ullen@ki.se

Novelty. A recent meta-analyses shows that life history and intelligence do not

correlate at the level of latent variables (Woodley, 2011). An objection to this is based

on the observation that most studies involve student convenient samples and are

therefore nor population representative. Here, we explore the relations amongst a higher

order cognition factor (Gc) comprised of a general creativity measure (CAQ) and a fluid

intelligence measure (WMT) and a super-K factor comprised of subjective health, GFP,

and the mini-K. We utilised a large twin sample (N=6364 Swedes) as the basis for

creating one replicate for each group of twins in a pair. We found significant but small

correlation magnitudes (.06,.07) between Gc and Super-K. Interestingly, fluid

intelligence correlated negatively and significantly (-.04) with mini-K. The GFP was a

significant predictor of CAQ (.17,.18) as was mini-K (.09,.07). GFP did not correlate

with WMT and health correlated with WMT in only one sample (.03,.06). Health did

not correlate with CAQ (-.01,-.02). These results are in line with results of meta-

analysis.

Importance. Never before have life history and intelligence been studied in such a

large individual differences sample. These findings indicate that contrary to predictions

from differential K (i.e. that g and K should be significantly and substantively

correlated) what correlations exist whilst, for the most part in the theoretically expected

direction (with the exception of fluid intelligence and mini-K), are of a magnitude

equivalent to that found in the meta-analysis of Woodley (2011) which supports the idea

presented there that life history and cognition are largely distinct sources of individual

differences in behaviour.

Methods. We used correlative analysis to explore the nomological network of

associations between cognition and life history in two very large samples. Most

previous research into the question have been correlative in nature owing to the small

effect sizes typically recovered. Are findings are in line with these previous analyses

hence the methods are sound.

Cognitive Abilities, Self-Regulation and Academic Achievements of Gifted

Students

Varvara I. Morosanova, Irina N. Bondarenko, Elena I. Shcheblanova

Psychological Institute of Russian Academy of Education

morosanova@mail.ru; pondi@inbox.ru

Novelty. There is a well-known fact: intellectually gifted pupils may have poor

academic achievements. The reason might be low level of their self-regulation (SR).

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between psychometric

intelligence and conscious SR of learning activity and its effect on academic

achievements of gifted students.

A comparison of intellectual and regulation characteristics showed that gifted

adolescents have higher levels of conscious SR.

The correlations between academic achievements and SR were slightly lower than

correlation coefficients between academic achievements and intelligence, but were

found in all major subjects. High academic achievements correlated positively with

well-developed SR and personal characteristics (initiative and autonomy). Dependant

students and students with no initiative were inferior to their peers in terms of verbal

and mathematical intelligence, level of conscious SR and general level of academic

achievements. Regulatory properties (initiative and autonomy) were the link between

motivation, intelligence, and SR system.

Importance. We take interest in the problem of gifted children’s low achievements

for a reason. The results of our investigation make it possible to predict and optimize

their training activities and to offer the psycho-educational recommendations to improve

the learning process.

Low levels of conscious SR, as well as impulsivity, disorganization and lack of

attention factors (Reis, McCoach, 2002), may prevent gifted students from fulfilling

their intellectual and creative potential.

The intellectual level of gifted students is high as it is. That is why we think that the

key for improving their academic performance is to focus on developing their self-

regulation of learning activity. Students, who take initiative in learning process, achieve

high results. It was proved that developing SR results in increase in verbal,

mathematical, and, as a consequence, the overall levels of intelligence. Which leads to

increased academic achievements in all major disciplines.

Methods. The study was carried out on a sample of 87 gifted and 360 “normal”

students aged 14-16 years.

We used the following methods:

Questionnaire of self-regulation in learning activity (Morosanova at al., 2011) allows

assessing regulatory processes and features, such as goal planning, modeling of goal-

achievement conditions, programming of actions, results evaluation, regulative

flexibility, independence, reliability and responsibility.

The Russian version of the Munich cognitive abilities test for gifted students - KFT

(Kognitiver Fähigkeit Test). This test is designed for students who are two years ahead

of their peers in general intelligence level and mental abilities. The test involves three

scales - verbal (V), math (Q) and nonverbal (N).

We used the final exams results to assess academic achievements of our sample.

Challenging the Intelligence Compensation Theory: are Conscientiousness and

Intelligence Really Negatively Correlated?

Aja L. Murray

, Wendy Johnson

, Matt McGue

, William G. Iacono

Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology,

University of Edinburgh, UK

Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, USA

s0785823@staffmail.ed.ac.uk

Novelty. A consistently observed negative association between intelligence and

conscientiousness has been explained in terms of an ‘intelligence compensation theory’

whereby higher conscientiousness develops in compensation for lower cognitive ability.

In the present study we tested the hypothesis that a better explanation for previous

observations of a negative association is the use of selected research samples which are

comprised of participants with levels of educational and occupational attainment above

certain thresholds. The associations between the traits in our samples - which were not

selected in this way - were either zero or positive. Further, artificially introducing

selection into the samples biased the associations between intelligence and

conscientiousness in the negative direction. Together, these results are consistent with

the hypothesis that the true association between these constructs may be zero or positive

at the population level but that the use of selected research samples has resulted in the

appearance of a negative association in empirical studies.

Importance. In observational studies it is uncommon for the selection processes

leading to the composition of convenience samples to be explicitly considered, even less

to be measured and modelled. Unless such selection processes are given due

consideration, researchers risk being misled as to the direction and magnitude of the

association between IQ and conscientiousness-related traits. This, in turn, can lead to

the development of lines of research which are wasteful because they aim to explain

what are actually non-existent phenomena.

Methods. Our methods of evaluating the correlation between IQ and our two

measures of conscientiousness (the MPQ Scales of Control and Achievement-Striving)

were designed to mimic the methods that have previously been employed in studies

finding negative associations between IQ and Conscientiousness. Thus, we used

Pearson’s correlations between the scale scores on the personality measures and IQ. The

primary methodological advantage of the current study was the ability to introduce

selection into a sample which was unselected for the traits of interest. We did this by

discarding all individuals who were below progressively increasing thresholds of

educational or occupational attainment in order to mimic processes of selection into

populations (e.g. undergraduate students, or assessment centre participants) to some

degree dependent on educational or occupational attainment.

An Investigation of the Influence of Antioxidant Defense Genes on Cognitive

Ability in Older Individuals

Karen J. Nolidin, Con Stough, Chad Bousman, Andrew Scholey, Andrew Pipingas

Swinburne University of Technology

knolidin@swin.edu.au; cstough@swin.edu.au; cbousman@unimelb.edu.au;

ascholey@swin.edu.au; apipingas@swin.edu.au

Novelty. Previous research has indicated that increased oxidative stress is associated

with poorer cognitive performance and ability. Oxidative stress tends to be more

pronounced in older individuals, possibly due to dysregulation and poorer control of the

maintenance of optimal oxidative levels. Supplementation with antioxidants has shown

some promising improvements to cognitive performance, but more research is needed to

investigate the body\'s own endogenous antioxidant defense mechanisms. Genetic

variation within antioxidant defense genes may mediate the cognitive ageing process

and predict variability in cognition and biological ageing parameters.

Importance. Old age is associated with declining cognitive abilities and increased

risk of neurodegenerative disorders. Since populations around the world are living

longer, determining possible risk factors related to poorer cognition in later life is

important. While research suggests oxidative stress is associated with the ageing

process, more research is needed to explore the possible mediating role that antioxidant

defense genes play in the cognitive ageing process. Since the selected genes are related

to antioxidant defense this research may help with the future development of

interventions as well.

Methods. A wider range of cognitive tasks is being utilised than in previous research.

This will enable better determination of which cognitive abilities are most sensitive to

genetic effects. The selected SNPs have previously been associated with cognitive

performance in older people, and there is the addition of being able to investigate

oxidative stress markers as well.

Does Education Boost General Intelligence (G) or Specific Cognitive Abilities?

Stuart J. Ritchie, Timothy C. Bates, Ian J. Deary

The University of Edinburgh

stuartjritchie1@gmail.com; tim.bates@ed.ac.uk; i.deary@ed.ac.uk

Novelty. Previous studies using causal methods have shown that education raises

cognitive ability, but the mechanism of its influence is unclear. Here, we tested whether

education is associated with cognitive test score improvements via general cognitive

ability (g), or via specific cognitive skills. Results from structural equation modeling of

data from a large, longitudinal sample, with a measure of IQ at age 11 years and ten

tests covering a diverse range of cognitive abilities taken at about age 70, indicated that

the association of education with improved cognitive test scores is not mediated by g,

but consists of direct links to specific cognitive subtests.

Importance. Given the importance of g in everyday life, it is extremely useful to

know whether it can be improved via environmental inputs such as education. Our

results showed that education did not raise g, but we argue that the domain-specific

effects of education are still an important benefit. Thus, our study has the potential to

defuse some of the perceived conflicts between intelligence researchers and

educationalists: the two ostensibly opposing conceptualizations, of a largely general

cognitive ability and a malleable IQ score, are not mutually exclusive.

Methods. The relationship between intelligence and education has been difficult to

investigate in most samples, due to issues of confounding and reverse causality. To

address these issues, we used a large, longitudinal sample (the Lothian Birth Cohort

1936) with IQ measured early in life and a wide range of cognitive tests (which

provided a representative g-factor) taken in later life. We modelled this data using

structural equation modelling, and so were able to compare complex models of

education, g, and specific abilities.

Emotional Intelligence, Victimisation, Bullying Behaviours and Attitudes: a

Replication and Extension

Chantelle M. Schokman

, Luke A. Downey

1,2

, Justine E. Lomas

, Dirk Wellham

Andrew Wheaton

, Nathan Simmons

, Con Stough

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University of Technology,

Hawthorn, Australia.

Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Wales, UK

Churchie, Anglican Church Grammar School, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

cschokman@swin.edu.au; ldowney@swin.edu.au; jlomas@swin.edu.au;

dirk.wellham@churchie.com.au; cstough@swin.edu.au

Novelty. This study extended the literature through an examination of the relationship

between attitudes towards bullying and Emotional Intelligence (EI) on outcomes of

bullying, victimisation, and pro-social behaviours.

As a replication and extension of a 2012 pilot study, the present study built on the

prediction model of levels of victimisation with the EI variables and attitudes towards

bullying. The skills involved in management and control of emotions and attitudes

towards bullying were observed to be significant predictors of victimization.

Results from this study also revealed significant associations between bullying,

victimisation, pro victim attitudes and the EI dimensions Emotion Recognition and

Expression (ERE), Emotion Management and Control (EMC), Understanding the

Emotions of Others (UEO) and Emotions Direct Cognition (EDC).

Importance. In the context of adolescent development, EI has been suggested to be

integral for successful social interaction (Romasz, Kantor & Elias, 2004), with more

highly evolved EI skills serving to enhance emotional awareness, coordinate decision

making and improve conflict resolution.

These results reinforce previous school based EI research findings in consistently

showing that EI not only has significant associations with bullying and victimisation but

is also a significant predictor of the propensity for peer victimisation and problematic

behaviours (Downey et al., 2010; Lomas et al., 2012).

Investigation of the influence of EI and pro-victim attitudes on victimisation further

revealed significant independent contributions to the prediction model of victimisation.

The results of this study have overall implications for the management and education

of bullying and victimisation in secondary schools.

Methods. This study used three self-report measures to test its hypotheses. EI was

measured using the adolescent version of the Swinburne University Emotional

Intelligence Test, a validated EI measure reported to have high reliability for total EI

(Luebbers et al., 2007).

Bullying behaviours were measured using the Peer Relations Questionnaire (Rigby

& Slee, 1993).

Attitudes to Bullying were measured via the Shortened Version of Rigby and Slee’s

(1991) Attitude to Victims Scale, a reliable measure of the degree to which a person

justifies bullying behaviour, supports bullies and their desire to reject children who are

victims of bullying based on supposed weakness (Rigby & Slee, 1991).

Correlation and regression analyses indicated that adolescents’ understanding of

others emotions and recognition and accurate expression of emotions were predictive of

engaging in pro-social behaviours.

A Preliminary Study Investigating the Effects of Resveratrol on Cognitive

Function

Andrew Scholey

, Sarah Benson

, Con Stough

, Creina Stockley

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University

Australian Wine Research Institute

ascholey@swin.edu.au; sarahbenson@swin.edu.au

Novelty. There is evidence from preclinical studies, epidemiology and human clinical

trials suggesting beneficial effects of resveratrol to systems underpinning cognitive

function. Nevertheless, direct evidence of cognitive benefits from resveratrol has proved

elusive. This pilot study compared mental performance in an older cohort following red

wine alone or enriched with resveratrol wine. The results suggest that there are

differential effects of the treatments depending on the type of task.

Importance. Over the past decade evidence has steadily accumulated suggesting that

there is a j-shaped relationship between the consumption of alcoholic beverages such as

wine and cognitive function. Cognitive function is defined as the intellectual or mental

processes by which knowledge is acquired, including perception, attention, working

memory, secondary memory and executive functioning. Cognitive functions underpin

thought processes including reasoning, acts of creativity, problem-solving and possibly

intuition. Dementia is a form of cognitive dysfunction whereby an individual loses the

capacity to think, remember and reason due to physical changes in the brain. Currently,

there are few options for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction and dementia. Simple

dietary measure such as moderate wine consumption to supplement a healthy diet and

exercise routine, or as an adjunct to prescription medicines when appropriate, are thus

needed to maintain an ageing population.

Methods. The present study investigated the effects of a daily moderate dose of

resveratrol-enhanced red wine on mood and cognitive performance in older adults using

a placebo-controlled, double-blind and crossover design. Participants were randomised

to consume 100 ml red wine and 100 ml resveratrol-enhanced wine over two testing

sessions. Participants completed a cognitive demand battery and had blood samples

taken at baseline and 45, 90 and 120 minutes post treatment.

Knowing the Knowing: Exploring the Relationship Between Metacognition and

Intelligence

John H. Song, Brooke Nickeas

De Montfort University

jsong@dmu.ac.uk

Novelty. Metacognition (MC) can be defined as an individual’s knowledge about

their own cognitive structure or processes and having the ability to organise their

structure (Akturk, 2011). Commonly examined in the context of learning situations, MC

is less examined within the context of cognitive ability task performance. With this in

mind, a good candidate, Raven’s Progressive Matrics (RPM) presents an opportunity to

examine individuals’ MC related to their own performance. Due to the nature of the task

whereby matrices can be solved through identification of relationships, it is well-suited

to analysis of this kind. One hundred participants completed the RPM followed by an

adapted MC Questionnaire specifically designed to be used in relations to RPM. Of the

various sub-components of metacognition, Knowledge about Strategies significantly

predicted RPM performance. In addition, self-ratings of confidence level having

provided correct solutions also significantly predicted RPM performance.

Importance. Relatively few studies have examined the completion of intelligence test

in relations to participants’ awareness of their own cognitive structure and processes.

The basic question of whether having knowledge about one’s own cognitive structure

and being able to organise that structure is beneficial to intelligence test performance

has rarely been explored. Uniquely this opportunity arose due to the design of this

particular intelligence test – Raven’s Progressive Matices. Other tests, by comparison,

tended to be more varied in terms of content, and format, making such studies more

difficult. Ultimately, this study may be helpful in identifying or characterising

individuals who performs better on intelligence tests compared to those who performed

less well. It will also contribute towards knowledge about components underlying

intelligence.

Methods. This is one of very few studies that examined metacognition within the

context of intelligence test performance. More often, metacognition is examined within

the context of learning, for example most recently, in foreign language achievement

(e.g. Pishghadam & Khajavy, 2013). Through this study, it was found that having the

knowledge about strategies predicts better outcome in terms of intelligence test

performance. In contrast, other subcomponents of metacognition such as Knowledge

about Tasks did not predict intelligence test performance. This study utilised a

metacognition questionnaire that has been specifically adapted to suit the task

(Raven’s), rather than a generic learning-related metacognition questionnaire. The use

of this method therefore enabled examination of data that is related to the task at hand.

The Chronic Effects of Bacopa, Pycnogenol and an Antioxidant/Micronutrient

Combination Formula on Cognitive and Cardiovascular Function in a Healthy

Older Population

Con Stough, Karen M. Savage, Karen J. Nolidin, Andrew Scholey, Andrew Pipingas,

Chad Bousman, Antoinette Goh

Swinburne University of Technology

cstough@swin.edu.au; ksavage@swin.edu.au; knolidin@swin.edu.au;

ascholey@swin.edu.au; apipingas@swin.edu.au; cbousman@unimelb.edu.au;

agoh@swin.edu.au

Novelty. A number of biomarkers and physiological processes involved in the ageing

brain are associated with measurable changes in cognitive abilities. The current study

seeks to examine markers of changes in cognitive abilities in an older population,

utilising a number of cognitive tests and biological (cardiovascular, biochemical and

genetic) measures.

With Australia's ageing population, interventions capable of ameliorating age-related

neurocognitive change are becoming vital areas of research. Natural supplements such

as Bacopa Monnieri and French Maritime Pine Bark extract have demonstrated positive

effects on cognition-relevant mechanisms and in cardiovascular health.

The current study examines domains of cognitive abilities in this population, and

whether nutraceutical supplementation elicits improvements to areas of learning,

memory and attention. Further, the mechanisms through which these improvements are

observed are also investigated.

Importance. No such studies have comprehensively examined markers of ageing and

cognitive performance in a normal older population. The literature points to a need to

explore the efficacy of bioactive constituents and a rigorous methodological approach

that best informs researchers and consumers seeking cognitive benefit over the life span.

Methods. The study employs cognitive tasks over several visits over 52 weeks:

measures involving speed of information processing, decision-making time, working

memory and memory consolidation. It involves the biochemical analysis (select SNPs,

telomeres, C-reactive protein, F2 isoprostanes, immunological measures),

cardiovascular (blood pressure, arterial stiffness, blood flow, HDL and cholesterol), also

measures of personality and intelligence (WASI, MMSE, NEO-FFI). All these measures

have been utilised previously in relevant literature designed to investigate the variables

relating to cognitive abilities and performance.

The three interventions used in the study (Bacopa monnieri, French Maritime Pine

Bark Extract, and a novel micronutrient blend) have been associated with improvements

in cognitive ability, mood, and cardiovascular health.

Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Academic Performance

Joris C. Verster

1,2

, Renske Penning

, Reinout W. Wiers

Utrecht University, Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia

Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

University of Amsterdam, Department of Psychology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

j.c.verster@uu.nl; r.penning@uu.nl; R.W.H.J.Wiers@uva.nl

Novelty. Alcohol consumption can have various negative effects on the daily life of

students, and result in not attending lectures and poor academic performance. Increased

alcohol consumption has been related to poor academic performance among US

students, but European data on this relationship is scarce and yielded inconclusive

results. This study examined the relationship of alcohol use and misuse with academic

performance of two Dutch student samples, and examined potential moderating factors

such as gender or being member of a fraternity.

Importance. Alcohol abuse is a significant problem, especially among the student

population. This study showed that alcohol consumption is negatively associated with

academic performance, especially in male fraternity members. This knowledge is

important to make students aware of the consequences of consuming too much alcohol.

Methods. Two surveys (N=1248)were conducted among Dutch university students in

the cities Nijmegen and Utrecht. Weekly alcoholic consumption was recorded and the

number of study credit points they earned over the past year. Students were divided into

five different drinking groups (0, 1-14, 15-21, 22-42 and over 42 weekly alcoholic

drinks).

The drinking groups differed significantly on number of study credit points

(p<0.0001). Paired comparisons showed no significant difference between non-drinkers

and those who consumed less than 21 alcoholic drinks a week. The other groups

differed significantly from the non-drinkers (p<0.004). A significant negative

correlation was found between the number of weekly alcoholic drinks and the earned

study credit points (r = - 0.260, p< 0.0001). Males and members of fraternities or

sororities consumed significantly more alcohol (p<0.0001), and earned significantly less

study credit points (p <0.0001) when compared to females and non-fraternity members.

Structure of the Woodcock-Johnson III Cognitive in a Clinical Sample

Marley W. Watkins

, Tracy Strickland

Baylor University;

Arizona State University

Marley_Watkins@baylor.edu; Tracy.Strickland@asu.edu

Novelty. The Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities III (WJ-III) are based

on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of intelligence, which combined the Gf-Gc

cognitive theories of Horn with the three-stratum theory of Carroll. The WJ-III purports

to measure 7 broad cognitive abilities and one higher-order ability. Alignment of the

structure of the WJ-III with its theoretical structure would provide evidence of structural

validity. Many prior investigations of the WJ-III have applied confirmatory factor

analysis (CFA) to data from the normative sample. Results have consisently supported

the CHC structure. Some researchers have suggested that the WJ-III has been over-

factored and should be analyzed with exploratory factor analytic (EFA) methods.

However, there are few studies that have investigated the structure of the WJ-III among

clinical samples and few investigations have included EFA methods. The current study

will apply both EFA and CFA methods to WJ-III data from a clinical sample to

determine if the structure of the WJ-III is consistent with CHC theory for these children.

Importance. The WJ-III is widely used in schools and clinics with children and

adolescents referred for assessment to determine their eligibility for special education

services. Its interpretation is based on theory and CFA results from analyses of the

normative sample. Recent EFA analyses of the WJ-III school-aged normative sample

failed to confirm the CFA model (Dombrowski & Watkins, 2013) and some researchers

(Frazier & Youngstrom, 2007) have suggested that the WJ-III is over-factored.

Additionally, children referred for evaluation differ in many ways from children who

are not experiencing academic or behavioral problems. Another recent study applied

CFA methods to data from students with learning disabilities and a matched sample of

students without disabilities and was unable to achieve full measurement invariance

(Benson & Taub, in press). Consequently, the structure of the WJ-III must be confirmed

among clinical samples to allow confident use of the instrument with those children.

Methods. This study included 529 participants who were 6 to 13 years of age (M =

9.47, SD = 1.81). Of the 528 participants whose gender was specified, 62% were male

and 38% were female. Participants\' race/ethnicity was around 49% white, 32%

Hispanic, 8% black, 5% native American, 3% multiracial, and 3% other. Educational

diagnoses included 69% with learning disabilities, 11% with speech impairments, 10%

with other health impairments, 5% without a disability, 3% with emotional disabilities,

and 2% with a variety of other diagnoses (e.g., autism, orthopedic, etc.). The WJ-III

standard battery claims to measure 7 broad ability constructs with 7 tests whereas its

extended battery claims to measure the same constructs with 14 tests. Scores from the

14 extended battery tests were included in these analyses. Both EFA (following the

procedures detailed by Carroll as well as those recommended by Frazier and

Youngstrom) and CFA methods were applied to ascertain the structure of this data.

Results from both factor analytic methods will be reported.

Neurocognitive Effects of Multivitamin Supplementation: a Behavioural and

FMRI Study

David J. White

, Katherine H.M. Cox

, Chris Neale

, David A. Camfield

, Isabelle

Bauer

, Karen Savage

, Silvia Maggini

, Andrew Pipingas

, Con Stough

, Matthew

Hughes

, Andrew Scholey

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University, Melbourne, VIC, 3122

Bayer Consumer Care Ltd, Basel, Switzerland 4002

dawhite@swin.edu.au; kcox@swin.edu.au; chrisneale02@gmail.com;

davidcamfield@gmail.com; ibauer@swin.edu.au; ksavage@swin.edu.au;

silvia.maggini@bayer.com; apipingas@swin.edu.au; cstough@swin.edu.au;

matthewhughes@swin.edu.au; ascholey@swin.edu.au

Novelty. This research examined both the acute (single-dose) and chronic (4-week)

effects of MV supplementation on neurocognition. Two double-blind, placebo-

controlled studies examined, for the first time, the neural substrates of these effects

using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and Steady State Topography

(SST). Findings revealed positive effects of acute doses of MV supplementation with

guaraná on attentional and working memory processes, with SST recordings showing

that MV + guaraná increased neural activity and processing speed while MV alone

improved cortical efficiency. fMRI revealed that both supplements increased activation

of a well-characterised fronto-parietal working memory network with respect to

placebo. The effects of 4-weeks MV supplementation further revealed increased

activation during working memory task performance within task-relevant brain regions.

These findings describe, for the first time, acute and chronic activation of the human

brain following multivitamin administration consistent with benefits to attentional and

working memory systems.

Importance. There is growing evidence supporting the potential for multivitamin

(MV) supplementation, including those with additional ingredients such as guaraná, in

cognitive enhancement. However, there is little known about the mechanisms by which

such supplementation may exert these positive effects. Given the widespread use of MV

supplements, understanding the potential mechanisms by which MV supplementation

may exert such effects represents an important step in fully understanding the impact of

MV supplementation.

Methods. Two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies examined the neural

substrates of MV supplementation. In the first experiment, healthy adults consumed a

MV, a MV with guaraná and a placebo using a balanced, crossover design. The second

experiment explored the effects of 4-weeks MV supplementation using a parallel groups

design. Neurocognitive effects were explored using functional magnetic resonance

imaging (fMRI) and Steady State Topography (SST), whilst mood and cognitive

function were also assessed. Double-blind, placebo-controlled studies represent the gold

standard in clinical trials design.

INDIVIDUAL

PRESENTATIONS

Abstracts are organized in alphabetical order

Names of students eligible for the John B. Caroll Award for Research

Methodology and ISIR Prize for Best Student Paper

are marked with an asterisk

When Does Socioeconomic Status Moderate the Heritability of IQ? Data from

Australia and the USA

Timothy C. Bates

, Narelle K. Hansell

, Nicholas G. Martin

, Margaret J. Wright

University of Edinburgh

Queensland Institute of Medical Research

timothy.c.bates@gmail.com; Narelle.Hansell@qimr.edu.au; Nick.Martin@qimr.edu.au;

Margie.Wright@qimr.edu.au

Novelty. When is the heritability of intelligence dependent on socio economic status

(SES), and when it is not? US studies largely suggest that cognitive ability is more

heritable among those raised in higher socioeconomic status (SES) families. However,

the mechanism of this effect is unclear, and the effect may not be universal. We tested

for gene × SES interaction effects on Full-scale IQ in 2,307 adolescent Australian twins

(mean age 16.2 years). While mean scores in were higher among those from higher SES

backgrounds, the magnitude of genetic influences on IQ, constant across the range of

SES.

Importance. The heritability of intelligence was high, and unrelated to social status.

This suggests that during the development of intelligence, genes multiply cultural inputs

supportive of intellectual growth. It suggests also, however, that this interaction can be

decoupled from parental SES, possibly via factors such as quality of school provision.

Methods. We used data from the United States (Bates Lewis, and Weiss, 2013) as

well as from Australian twins to test for gene × SES interaction effects on Full-scale IQ.

The Australian sample is large (over 1000 twin pairs) and representative. We explicit

testing of variance components with widely accepted measures of IQ and SES.

Validity of Ability Tilt on the SAT and ACT

Thomas R. Coyle, Jason M. Purcell, Anissa C. Snyder, Miranda C. Null, Robert Vargas

University of Texas at San Antonio

thomas.coyle@utsa.edu; jmpurcell@satx.rr.com; anissa.snyder@utsa.edu;

miranda.null@gmail.com; ndz163@my.utsa.edu

Novelty. This research examined the validity of ability tilt, defined as within-subject

differences in math and verbal test scores. Ability tilt was examined using the SAT and

ACT, two widely used college admissions tests. The SAT and ACT produce two types

of tilt: math tilt, which occurs when math scores are higher than verbal scores, and

verbal tilt, which occurs when verbal scores are higher than math scores. Park et al.

(2007) examined ability tilt in gifted subjects who took the SAT at age 12 and scored in

the top 1%. Math tilt predicted achievements in science, technology, engineering, and

math (patents obtained) 25-years later, while verbal tilt predicted achievements in arts

and letters (book published). The present study examined the validity of ability tilt in

subjects in the normal range of ability. Such subjects are assumed to show less cognitive

specialization and lower levels of tilt (compared to gifted subjects), which may decrease

tilt effects. The present study also estimated tilt effects after removing g, guaranteeing

that tilt effects could not be attributed to g.

Importance. This research extends our prior research on the predictive validity of

non-g factors in cognitive tests (Coyle et al., 2013). Non-g factors are unrelated or

weakly related to g, which generally explains the predictive validity of mental tests.

Ability tilt is a non-g factor in cognitive tests: It is unrelated (or weakly related) to g,

yet, as Park et al. (2007) show, it still predicts later achievements. The present study

provides further evidence of the validity of ability tilt using a representative sample

(rather than gifted subjects) and extracting g with a variety of tests (rather than relying

solely on the SAT). After removing g, math tilt correlated positively with math ability

(measured using the ASVAB) but negatively with verbal ability, whereas the opposite

pattern was observed with verbal tilt. The overall pattern is consistent with investment

theories, which argue that investing in the development of a specific ability (e.g., math)

improves that ability but weakens competing abilities (e.g., verbal).

Methods. Subjects (N = 1951) and test scores were drawn from the National

Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative sample of youth in the United

States. Test scores included SAT and ACT scores, which were used to calculate ability

tilt (math minus verbal scores), and the 12 cognitive tests of the ASVAB, which were

used to estimate g. The ASVAB was also used to estimate four abilities (verbal, math,

speed, and shop). These four abilities were correlated with ability tilt from the SAT and

ACT after removing g, guaranteeing that ability tilt effects were not attributable to g.

Thus, the observed tilt effects (which supported investment theories) were attributable

to non-g factors, providing further evidence that the validity of cognitive tests is

attributable to factors other than g.

Emotional Intelligence Mediates the Relationship Between Humour Styles and

Psychological Well-Being

Bruce Findlay, Robyn Brown

Swinburne University of Technology

bfindlay@swin.edu.au; robynbrown1@hotmail.com

Novelty. They will be introduced to the associations between humour use, emotional

self-efficacy and psychological well-being. There is relatively little known about the

relationships between intelligence in general and humour styles, and although there has

been some publication about emotional intelligence and humour, self-report scales of

emotional intelligence have been criticised on the grounds that people may not

accurately assess their own emotional intelligence. This study found that the effects of

positive humour styles (affiliative and self-enhancing) and the negative humour style of

self-defeating humour on psychological well-being were partially mediated by

emotional self-efficacy, a measure of what emotional intelligence people think they

have. It also found that social desirability remained a significant predictor.

Importance. Humour use is ubiquitous, and its relationships with well-being have

been the focus of some perhaps far-reaching claims. Learning that at least some of this

relationship is mediated by emotional self-efficacy gives a more nuanced view of the

association. Similarly, the importance of controlling for social desirability when using

self-report measures of self-referential constructs cannot be overstated.

Methods. An international sample of 438 participants responded to an online survey

including measures of humour styles (Martin et al., 2003), emotional self-efficacy

(Schutte et al., 2008), psychological well-being (Ryff, 1989) and social desirability

(Marlowe-Crowne, in Reynolds, 1982). The mediational effects were calculated using

Preacher & Hayes' (2008) INDIRECT method of multiple regression. Implications of

the results will be discussed.

Perceived Workload and Performance in Difficult Nonverbal Cognitive Tasks

Predict Academic Achievement

Meredith C. Frey, Cynthia Laurie-Rose

Otterbein University

MFrey@Otterbein.edu; CLaurie-Rose@Otterbein.edu

Novelty. Previous research presented at this conference indicated that, contrary to a

faster is smarter claim, high-achieving students sometimes take longer to solve difficult

nonverbal cognitive task items. The current study attempted to confirm and further

explore these findings with the addition of two difficult dual-task paradigms. The first

was a vigilance task under memory load and the second was a dual n-back working

memory task. Along with a previously studied battery of cognitive tasks these

experiments indicated, once again, that higher ability students took longer to complete

difficult trials, and they responded more cautiously in some cases. Further, higher

perceived mental workload in very difficult tasks was associated with higher academic

achievement and ability, perhaps reflecting a more accurate appraisal of a task’s

demands by the higher ability students.

Importance. Despite a wealth of information about the relationship between

intelligence and academic achievement, relatively little is known about the underlying

cognitive components that influence academic achievement in university students.

Further knowledge of these underlying processes may allow for the development of

shorter, experimentally controlled assessments that can be used to make admissions

decisions without measuring learned information.

Methods. Measures of speed, accuracy, and self-reported psychological workload

were collected from over 100 participants at a non-selective private university. Each

participant completed a 90-minute battery measuring fluid reasoning ability (from a

short form of the Advanced Progressive Matrices), reaction time, stimulus

discrimination (Frey, 2011), working memory (modeled after Jaeggi, et al., 2008) and

attention (Helton & Russell, 2011). Psychological workload was measured at 11 points

during the battery using the multidimensional NASA-TLX assessment (Hart &

Staveland, 1988). Academic transcript records of grade point averages (GPA) and ACT

scores were obtained from all participants, and transformed GPA was regressed onto

speed, accuracy, and workload measures to investigate relationships among variables.

An Empirical Test of the Dynamic Mutualism Theory of g

Gilles E. Gignac

University of Western Australia

gilles.gignac@uwa.edu.au

Novelty. According to the dynamic mutualism theory of the general (g) factor, the

positive manifold (and the g factor) is contended to be an epiphenomenon. It is an

epiphenomenon because the positive correlations between subtests (or group factors) are

theorised to emerge during human development, as a consequence of mutually

beneficial interactions between originally uncorrelated cognitive processes. Despite the

increasing popularity of the dynamic mutualism theory of g, the theory has not yet been

tested empirically.

According to dynamic mutualism theory, the general factor should not be observed in

infants and should be observed to increase in strength in very young children.

To test the dynamic mutualism theory of g, the strength of the g factor was plotted

across the ages of 2.5 to 90 years (N = 5,200). Although there was an observed increase

in the strength of the g factor from the ages of 2.5 to approximately 10.0, the slope was

so weak in magnitude that the dynamic mutualism theory of g was interpreted as largely

unsupported.

Importance. The competing theories that were tested in this paper (dynamic

mutualism versus g factor theory) are fundamental to the manner in which researchers

think about intelligence. Also, the dynamic mutualism theory of g has gained a notable

amount of popularity since its introduction in 2006. Arguably, it is important that it be

tested empirically.

Methods. There are two elements of the method used in this investigation which

arguably support the findings/conclusions.

First, very high quality data were used. Specifically, the Wechsler scales normative

sample data are arguably second to none with respect to normal population

representation. All of the analyses reported in this presentation (N = 5,200) are based on

Wechsler scale normative samples.

Secondly, the method used to estimate the strength of the g factor is, arguably,

modern, sophisticated, and relatively unambiguous. Specifically, when applied to a

bifactor solution, omega hierarchical represents the percentage of true score variance

unique to the g factor.

The Structure of Working Memory and How It Relates to Intelligence in Children

David Giofrè

, Irene C. Mammarella

, Cesare Cornoldi

Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy

Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Italy

david.giofre@gmail.com; irene.mammarella@unipd.it; cesare.cornoldi@unipd.it

Novelty. This study explored the structure of working memory, and its relation with

intelligence in 176 typically-developing children in the 4th and 5th grades at school.

Different measures of working memory (WM), and intelligence (g) were administered.

Confirmatory factor analyses showed that WM involves an attentional control system

and storage aspects that rely on domain-specific verbal (STM-V) and visuospatial

(STM-VS) resources. The structural equation models showed that WM predicts a large

portion (66%) of the variance in g, confirming that the two constructs are separable but

closely related in young children. Findings also showed that only WM and STM-VS are

significantly related to g, while the contribution of STM-V is moderate.

Importance. The structure of WM and its relationship with intelligence has not

received enough attention in children. In the present study, we found that our data fitted

poorly with a unitary WM model, and with two-factor models that were either modality

dependent (distinguishing between visuospatial and verbal components) or modality

independent (distinguishing between STM and WM). Our findings indicate that

children's WM can be well represented by three components, which distinguishes

between a WM component and two storage components relying on domain-specific

verbal and visuospatial resources. This result is consistent with previous research on

populations of developmental age (e.g., Alloway et al., 2009). In addition, we found that

STM-VS (typically involving unfamiliar situations) predicts a unique portion of the

variance not explained by active WM whereas the verbal component (i.e., STM-V)

(typically involving more familiar material) is less relevant. Our results also confirm

that WM predicts a substantial portion of the g variance even when the effect of STM is

taken into account.

Methods. The method used was particularly appropriate for investigating the

structure of WM and the relationship between intelligence and WM. For a start, a large

sample of children from 4th- and 5th grades was included. Second, we used a large

number of tests of WM tests, which allowed us to test several alternative WM models.

Finally, in order to measure general intelligence, we used three tasks (two verbal and

one visuospatial task). This allowed us to have a more robust measure of general

intelligence which was, for example, not biased toward visuospatial tasks.

Do Functional SNPs Show an Enriched Association for Intelligence?

David W. Hill*

, Silviu A. Bacanu

, Riccardo E. Marioni

, Gail Davies

, Dave C.

Liewald

, Xianging Chen

, John M. Starr

, David J. Porteous

, Generation Scotland,

Timothy C. Bates

, Ian J. Deary

Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology Department of Psychology

University of Edinburgh, UK

Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth

University, Richmond, VA, USA

W.D.Hill@sms.ed.ac.uk; sabacanu@vcu.edu; rmarioni@staffmail.ed.ac.uk;

gail.davies@ed.ac.uk; dave.liewald@ed.ac.uk; xchen@vcu.edu;

jstarr@staffmail.ed.ac.uk; dporteou@staffmail.ed.ac.uk; timothy.c.bates@gmail.com;

iand@staffmail.ed.ac.uk

Novelty. In the present study we examined the association of intelligence with

neuronally-expressed functional Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), i.e. SNPs

that alter gene expression and function in the brain. These include promoter SNPs,

SNPs that change gene expression via microRNA binding, methylated SNPs and

eQTLs: SNPs that correlate with quantitative measures of gene expression. Methylated

SNPs and eQTLs were further divided according to their region of activation within the

brain, including frontal cortex, temporal cortex, cerebellum and pons giving a total of

10 functional SNP sets. Using subjects in the family-based Generation Scotland sample,

we tested whether any of these 10 categories of SNP show significant enrichment for

fluid or crystallised intelligence by comparison with non-functional SNPs. Results to

date support the idea that functional SNPs significantly enriched for association with

both gf and gc compared to SNPs which do not alter gene expression in the brain. We

will also present data testing whether this minority of SNPs accounts for the majority of

heritability

Importance. Intelligence is heritable and predicts wealth, health and mortality.

However, whilst twin studies have demonstrated that a heritable component accounts

for around 50% of the variation in intelligence differences, Genome Wide Association

Studies (GWAS) carried out to identify individual variants are currently too small to

reliably reveal such variants. The next challenge is to identify which genetic variants

contribute to variation in human intelligence. If SNPs can be pruned according to their

functional role, the power of genetic studies will be enhanced, bringing the prospect of

identifying small but true genetic effects on intelligence closer.

Methods. Experimentally validated promoter SNPs were extracted from dbQSNP

(http://qsnp.gen.kyushu-u.ac.jp/) with the functional categories of microRNA,

methylated SNPs, and eQTL SNPs being based on published literature. These functional

SNP sets were analysed using robust statistics using empirical tests of significance

based on simulations which account for both average background signal enrichment and

preserve the linkage disequilibrium (LD) between SNP statistics. This matching strategy

ensures that it is the biological group to which the SNPs belong, rather than extraneous

genomic features such patterns of LD which link these functional categories to cognitive

abilities.

“Wrecked by Success?” No! Linkages of Career Accomplishment, Health, and

Relationship Satisfaction among the Gifted

Harrison J. Kell, David Lubinski, Camilla P. Benbow

Vanderbilt University

harrison.kell@vanderbilt.edu; david.lubinski@vanderbilt.edu;

camilla.benbow@vanderbilt.edu

Novelty. Career success has long been anecdotally held to cost those who achieve it

their personal relationships and their mental and physical health; Freud (1917) coined

the phrase “wrecked by success.” Recent popular (e.g., Joiner, 2011) work suggests this

idea enjoys widespread appeal, but it has been the subject of little empirical scrutiny.

The current study examines the tenability of being “wrecked by success” in the modern

economic climate using an intellectually gifted sample drawn from the Study of

Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY). The pattern of results does not support the

idea that achieving noteworthy career success must entail enormous personal cost.

Overall, scores on health and relationship items did not covary significantly with

objectively measured career success. When significant differences were observed, they

tended to favor those who were more successful in their careers (e.g., lower divorce

rates, fewer health problems). These findings indicate that intellectually gifted

individuals can achieve career success without sacrificing their health and personal

lives.

Importance. The modern international economy is distinguished by intense

competition and pressure to produce frequent innovations in complex domains,

especially STEM (Friedman, 2007). Due to their capacity to analyze and manipulate

abstract symbols, intellectually gifted individuals are not only in demand in

government, business, and academia, they are also those most likely to consistently be

relied upon to push the boundaries of knowledge and skill. Intellectually talented

individuals are not some resource to be mined (Benbow & Stanley, 1996), however, and

it is appropriate to ask what the physical, mental, and interpersonal costs might be for

gifted individuals who are put under intense demands to be successful in their careers.

This study asks if gifted individuals handle the pressure put on them to actualize their

full potential, or are they "wrecked by success" when they do so? The results of this

study suggest they can handle it and that gifted individuals can thrive in their

professional and personal lives without sacrificing their mental and physical health in

the process.

Methods. Relationships between career success and a wide variety of well-known

health and interpersonal measures was examined in a sample of 1,650 intellectually

talented individuals (in the top 1% to .5% of ability). Participants were identified in

early adolescence using above-level testing and followed-up periodically. Career

success was assessed at midlife (mean age = 50), where participants were classified into

three “success groups” according to their primary incomes. Participants also completed

comprehensive surveys detailing the state of their mental, emotional, and physical

health, in addition to their relationship satisfaction and family status. Large sample sizes

contribute to the stability of results. The longitudinal nature of the data allows for the

examination of the long-term interplay of career success and important personal

variables among participants.

Metaphorical Representations of Psychological Concepts in Students and Their

Relation with Verbal and Nonverbal Intelligence

Yanina Ledovaya, Ksenia Mikhalchenko

Saint Petersburg State University

ledovaya@gmail.com; k.mihalchenko@mail.ru

Novelty. Because metaphor is considered to be the very essence of human intelligence

capacity, we investigated some characteristics of metaphor creation in connection with the

level of verbal and nonverbal components of intelligence. "The essence of metaphor is

understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another" (Lakoff, Johnson,

1980, p.6). In our study the task was to create pictographical metaphors conveying the

meaning of scientific psychological terms (specialized abstract concepts). The participants

were the students of 1st and 4th years.

We distinguish the two objects of research. On the one hand, it is: 1) the relationship of

verbal and nonverbal components of intelligence and the accuracy of metaphorical

representations of psychological concepts; and on the other hand, it is: 2) the influence of

verbalization of the formal definition of a psychological concept on the quality of

metaphorical representation.

Thus we aimed to find if verbal or nonverbal intelligence is more important in metaphor

creation; and if formal knowledge could help in metaphor creation.

Importance. There are commonsence ideas that metaphor is closely related to creativity.

But the study made by our colleague M.Avanesyan showed that the ability to create a good

metaphor doesn't relate to the level of creativity (Avanesyan, 2013). We aimed to test if

verbal or nonverbal intelligence contribute more into good metaphor creation.

During qualitative analysis we developed two indicator of a metaphor (metaphorical

representation) quality – "the meaningfulness of an image" and "metaphoricity" (how far

semantically is the idea of a metaphor from the concept itself).

Our results show that:

The main contribution to the accuracy of the meaning of a concept within a metaphor is

made by verbal intelligence.

Moreover, nonverbal intelligence doesn't affect neither the accuracy of metaphorical

representation, nor the accuracy of formal verbal representation of an abstract concept.

"Metaphoricity" remains an "elusive" indicator: we didn't find its analogues measured by

IQ testing.

Verbalization of the definition of a psychological concept doesn't promote improvement

of quality of a metaphor.

Methods. The methods we used: 1)to create and to draw metaphors for 3 psychological

terms – "insight", "introversion", "sensory deprivation", 2)to give the verbal definitions of

these terms, 3)to draw new metaphors 4)nonverbal Raven’s IQ test, 5)verbal subtest

"Similarities" taken from D.Wechsler’s IQ test.

Two experts evaluated the metaphorical drawings in a way similar to D. Wechsler’s test

system (0 pts–unsuccessful, 1 pt–partly successful, 2 pts-successful).

The idea of qualitative and quantitative analyses of formal verbal representation, as well

as the indicator of "the meaningfulness of an image"–were both borrowed from M.A.

Holodnaya's method "The integrated conceptual structures", but in the modified way.

By means of one-way ANOVA test we showed the relationship between the verbal

intelligence and the quality of formal verbal representation (definition) with "the

meaningfulness of an image" (ANOVA, p=0,006, p=0,036).

Wilcoxon's crit. showed the distinctions in the quality of "the meaningfulness of an image"

"before" and "after" the formal definition verbalization (p=0,032).

This work was supported by Saint Petersburg State University, research

№ 8.38.191.2011 “Information and Energetic Issues in Cognitive Activity”.

A Pilot Study of Rare Genetic Variants and G

Michelle Luciano

, Chris Haley

, Nick Hastie

, Caroline Hayward

, James Prendergast,

Pippa Thomson, Veronique Vitart, Alan Wright, David Porteous, Ian Deary, Generation

Scotland

Psychology, University of Edinburgh

MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh

michelle.luciano@ed.ac.uk

Novelty. Various genetic linkage, genome-wide SNP association, and genetic copy

number variant studies have investigated genetic variation in cognitive ability, but no

studies have investigated genetic rare variants. These may be a potentially important

source of genetic variation; exome sequencing studies have already met with success in

discovering novel trait-gene associations. Here, we investigate the effects of rare

variants on general cognitive ability. 150 unrelated individuals from the Generation

Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study were selected for high scores (>2.3 SD from the

mean ability score) on a general component of intelligence (g) based on Logical

Memory immediate and delayed, Digit Symbol, Verbal Fluency, and Mill Hill

Vocabulary test. The DNA of these individuals was exome-sequenced and the

frequency of rare genetic variants compared with those from a control sample who

scored in the lower to middle range of the g distribution. The results of single-SNP and

multi-SNP tests will be presented, including a discussion of the merits of these

approaches and their power.

Importance. This is one of the first genetic rare variant studies of general cognitive

ability and increases our understanding of the genetic architecture of general cognition.

Methods. Genetic sequencing is expensive, so we were limited to genotyping the

high extreme of our sample. But these methods are becoming more affordable.

Therefore, these preliminary results will be able to inform our future larger genetic rare

variant study design. And the sequencing data can be integrated with existing SNP data

to improve genome coverage and potential to identify genetic variants associated with

cognitive ability.

Dietary Interventions to Offset Cognitive Decline

Helen N. Macpherson, Andrew Pipingas, Andrew Scholey

Swinburne University

hmacpherson@swin.edu.au; apipingas@swin.edu.au; ascholey@swin.edu.au

Novelty. Cognitive decline is a feature of the normal ageing process and is

exacerbated in Alzheimer’s disease. Evidence suggests that vitamin intake and other

dietary factors may be important for cognition as individual’s age. We propose that the

cognitive domains most vulnerable to age-related decline will demonstrate the greatest

benefits from dietary interventions.

We have conducted several trials which have investigated the effects of multivitamin

supplementation on cognitive performance in older adults. These studies have

demonstrated that multivitamin supplementation improved working memory and

episodic memory, both processes which decline with age. Measures of brain electrical

activity (EEG) confirmed findings that memory was influenced by the multivitamin.

Findings suggest that chronic multivitamin supplementation may be effective to

improve neurocognition in older adults. The use of both behavioural and brain electrical

activity measures of cognition enables a thorough examination of potential mechanisms

of cognitive enhancement following dietary intervention.

Importance. With an ageing global population there is an increasing scientific

interest in the potential of health and lifestyle interventions to improve cognitive

function in the elderly. It is important to clearly differentiate interventions which are not

capable of influencing cognitive function from those which have shown small or

inconsistent effects due to poor choice of cognitive assessment instruments. Findings

from our research into the cognitive effects of multivitamins supports our hypothesis

that the cognitive processes which decline with age are most responsive to dietary

intervention.

Methods. The trials were randomised, placebo-controlled and double-blind.

Cognitive performance was assessed using a battery of computerised memory and

attentional tasks and it was predicted that chronic treatment with a combined

multivitamin and herbal supplement would enhance the cognitive domains most

vulnerable to age-related decline. Measures of working memory and episodic memory

were demonstrated to improve following multivitamin supplementation. A spatial

working memory delayed response task was also performed during the recording of

brain electrical activity (EEG). These results confirmed the finding that memory was

enhanced by the multivitamin and suggested that cognitive improvements may be due to

an increase in neural efficiency.

Associations Between Creative Achievement in Scientific and Artistic Domains,

Intelligence, Personality and Sex

Örjan de Manzano

, Guy Madison

, Fredrik Ullén

Karolinska Institutet, Department of Neuroscience

Umeå University, Department of Psychology

orjan.demanzano@ki.se; guy.madison@umu.se; fredrik.ullen@ki.se

Novelty. We correlated creative achievement scores (CAQ) from seven domains

(Visual arts, Music, Dance, Theater, Writing, Invention, Science) and found positive

associations between all domains. A PCA of the CAQ showed two factors with

eigenvalues > 1; a general creativity factor (cf1), explaining 29% of the variance, and a

second factor (cf2) separating scientific from artistic achievements, explaining 18%. In

two separate models we regressed factor scores of cf1 and cf2 respectively, on IQ, big

five personality, psychosis proneness, sex and age. cf1 was associated with IQ, sex (f),

E, A, -C, N, O, psychosis proneness and age. Only IQ (β = .14) and O (β = .45) had a β

> .1. cf2 (science) was associated with IQ, sex (m), -E and O. Only sex (β = .27) and IQ

(β = .21) reached a β > .1. The domain specific results (β > .1): Visual arts – O, sex (f);

Music – O, IQ; Dance – O, sex (f); Theater – O; Writing – O; Invention – O, IQ, sex

(m); Science – O, IQ. In summary, O moderately predicts CAQ in all domains. IQ has a

weaker general effect but is more associated with Science, Invention and Music.

Importance. Though psychometric studies on creativity suggest that

creative/divergent thinking can be distinguished from fluid reasoning, individuals

demonstrating eminent CAQ nonetheless typically display high levels of IQ. The

precise nature and strength of the relationship between CAQ and IQ is not well

understood. Nor is it clear if and to what extent the association with IQ varies between

creative domains. Scientific and artistic domains will e.g. presumably pose different

demands on cognitive abilities and it can be hypothesized that IQ is related to both self-

selection and level of achievement. Various personality traits have also been associated

with creativity, in particular O (from the Big Five Inventory), but also psychosis

proneness. The importance of certain traits has also been argued to differ between

creative domains but this has yet to be demonstrated in a large scale study. The

prevalence of mental illness is higher among individuals within creative domains and

their relatives, but it is not known how e.g. psychosis proneness actually relates to

achievement.

Methods. The data were collected in a web-based survey. 32,500 twins born 1958-85

were sent personal login details by mail. The present sample included 6,603 individuals.

The survey included several self-report questionnaires. For the present study, we

collected CAQ (seven levels; ranging from no involvement, to amateur production, to

professional excellence), in seven domains (Visual art, Dance, Music, Theater, Writing,

Invention, Science); IQ using the Wiener Matrizen Test; Big Five personality, using the

BFI-44, with measures of extraversion (E), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C),

neuroticism (N), openness (O); psychosis proneness, using the positive symptoms scale

of the CAPE-42; age and sex. These preliminary analyses were performed, firstly by

correlating CAQ scores from different domains, secondly by doing a PCA of the CAQ

scores and thirdly, by regressing factor scores from the PCA on all other variables

(random split-half sample analyses, twins separated). Only results which were

significant in both samples are reported.

Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Relationship Between Musical

Discrimination Tasks and IQ

Miriam A Mosing

, Nancy L. Pedersen

, Guy Madison

, Fredrik Ullén

Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute

Dept of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute

Department of Psychology, Umeå University

Miriam.Mosing@ki.se; Fredrik.Ullen@ki.se

Novelty. Performance on many sensory discrimination tasks is positively related to

intelligence. Such associations have been demonstrated for various sensory dimensions,

e.g. the pitch and loudness of auditory stimuli, and the colour and shape of visual

figures. Studies using latent variable modelling suggest that a common, general

discrimination ability factor may account for a substantial component of such

associations, although there is also evidence for additional, more specific influences of

e.g. temporal discrimination ability on intelligence. Past studies have generally focused

on phenotypic associations, and little is known about the role of genetic factors for these

associations. In the present study, for the first time a large genetically informative

sample of Swedish twins (N=10,000) is used to explore this issue.

Importance. The study will help to elucidate fundamental mechanisms mediating

individual differences in intelligence and its relationship to temporal and non-temporal

sensory discrimination abilities.

Methods. More than 10,000 twin individuals completed an extensive online

questionnaire that included auditory discrimination tasks as well as a timed intelligence

test (the Wiener Matrizen Test), similar in construction to the Raven progressive

matrices. Three auditory discrimination tasks of a type commonly used to assess music

aptitude were employed, i.e. rhythm, melody and pitch discrimination. As expected, the

phenotypic relationships between intelligence and the discrimination tasks were

moderate and highly significant with correlations ranging between 0.22 – 0.39. The twin

model allows for partitioning of the variance in and covariance between the variables

into that due to genetic and environmental influences. Potential sex-differences will be

explored and results will be discussed in relation to the past literature.

Neural Efficiency as a Function of Task Demands

Aljoscha C. Neubauer, Beate Dunst, Emanuel Jauk, Mathias Benedek

Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Austria

aljoscha.neubauer@uni-graz.at

Novelty. The neural efficiency hypothesis describes the phenomenon that brighter

individuals show lower brain activation than less bright individuals when working on

the same cognitive tasks. Consequently, the same task is more easy for individuals with

higher cognitive ability, but more difficult for less intelligent individuals. Since the

person-specific level of task difficulty can be expected to be associated with the time

and effort spent on the cognitive task, it could also be responsible for observed

differences in brain activation. The present study investigated whether the brain

activation-intelligence relationship still applies when more versus less intelligent

individuals perform tasks with the same person-specific task difficulty.

Differences in task performance and in brain activation were only found for the

subset of tasks with same sample-based task difficulty, but not when comparing tasks

with the same person-specific task difficulty. These results suggest that neural

efficiency reflects an ability-dependent adaption of brain activation to the respective

task demands.

Importance. The results provide evidence that neural efficiency is a function of both

intelligence and task demands. Results indicate that the neural efficiency hypothesis

needs to be refined. According to the refined definition, neural efficiency describes the

phenomenon that more intelligent individuals show lower brain activity than less

intelligent ones only when working on cognitive tasks with a comparable sample-based

difficulty. We hypothesize that this reflects a lower investment of mental effort due to

lower person-specific challenge. However, when equal person-specific challenge is

established lower versus higher IQ brains show similar brain activity levels. These

results suggest that the neural efficiency phenomenon may actually be explained by the

adaption of brain activation to the person-specific task demands.

Methods. In an fMRI-study, 28 lower and 30 higher intelligent individuals worked on

20 numerical inductive reasoning tasks (Arendasy et al., 2008). The used items are

automatically generated Rasch-calibrated items which provide the opportunity to

estimate the task difficulty relative to different levels of intelligence (Rasch, 1980).

While higher intelligent participants worked on number series of medium and high

difficulty, lower intelligent participants completed easy and medium difficult number

series. In this manner all participants completed number series with expected mean

person specific solution probability of .80 and .50, respectively. This enabled us to

evaluate, whether differences in task performance and brain activation between IQ

groups are attributable to group differences in person-specific solution probabilities. In

addition, we were able to compare the task performance and brain activation of lower

and higher intelligent participants when working on identical item set, since both groups

worked on items of medium difficulty (same sample-based task difficulty).

Low IQ and Mild Mental Retardation are Heritable But Severe Mental

Retardation is Not: a Genetic Analysis of 740,000 Siblings and 18,000 Twins

Robert Plomin

, Martin Cederlöf

, Paul Lichtenstein

Institute of Psychiatry, King\'s College London

Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute

robert.plomin@kcl.ac.uk; Martin.Cederlof@ki.se; Paul.Lichtenstein@ki.se

Novelty. Despite the obvious societal importance of mental retardation (MR) in our

increasingly technological world, the most fundamental question about the genetic and

environmental origins of MR has not been definitively addressed. We will report new

results showing that diagnosed mild MR (IQ 50-70) and low IQ in the general

population are caused by the same genetic and environmental factors responsible for the

normal range of intelligence. In contrast, most severe MR (IQ <50) is not inherited,

despite hundreds of known single-gene causes of MR. Because severe MR is not

inherited, its most likely causes are environmental factors, some of which are well

known, such as prenatal trauma, neurotoxicity, and infections. Although severe MR is

not inherited, MR is a burgeoning area of genetic research using new techniques (exome

and whole genome sequencing) to identify non-inherited (de novo) mutations.

Importance. Molecular genetic research attempting to identify de novo mutations

responsible for MR will benefit from focusing on severe MR (IQ < 50), which is not

inherited. Although research on de novo mutations is an exciting new direction for

identifying causes of severe MR, severe MR is fortunately rare (.001). Much more of

the societal burden of intellectual disability lies with mild MR, which is the low extreme

of the same genetic and environmental factors responsible for the normal distribution of

intelligence. In other words, genes responsible for the substantial heritability of

intelligence are the same genes responsible for MR. Finding genes for MR other than

severe MR will involve the same problems faced throughout the life sciences for

common disorders and complex traits: many genes of very small effect and ‘missing

heritability’. A possible advantage for IQ is that it has a high end as well as a low end:

It might be easier finding genes associated with high IQ than low IQ, even though these

genes are expected to be associated with low IQ as well as MR.

Methods. We used data from 3 million 18-year-old males assessed for cognitive

abilities as part of compulsory military service in Sweden 1950-1990, which included

370,000 sibling pairs and 9000 twin pairs. We then linked these individuals to the

Swedish National Patient Register to identify 308 siblings with a diagnosis of severe

MR and 813 siblings with a diagnosis of mild MR. Two major findings emerged from

our analyses of sibling and twin correlations and concordances and model-fitting. First,

severe MR is not heritable in that siblings of individuals with severe MR had IQ means

and variances not significantly different from the population. Second, mild MR as well

as the lowest 3% of IQ scores in the population is familial, heritable, and caused by the

same genetic and environmental factors responsible for the normal distribution of

intelligence.

2013 Survey of Expert Opinion on Intelligence

Heiner Rindermann

, Thomas R. Coyle

, David Becker

Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany

Department of Psychology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, USA

heiner.rindermann@psychologie.tu-chemnitz.de; Thomas.Coyle@utsa.edu;

david.becker@s2009.tu-chemnitz.de

Novelty. In 1988 (conducted 1984), Snyderman and Rothman published a survey of

expert opinions on intelligence and its treatment by the media. Since their survey, new

findings have appeared in the literature. To examine current opinions of experts, we

created a new questionnaire (“Expert Questionnaire on Cognitive Ability“), partly based

on the questions of Snyderman and Rothman, reflecting the current state of research.

We added questions on contemporary topics such as the FLynn effect and international

intelligence comparisons. Other questions addressed the definitions of terms (e.g.,

intelligence and cognitive ability); the validity of tests (e.g., WAIS/WISC, SAT, PISA);

the estimation of genetic and environmental influences; the treatment of intelligence

research by the media; the importance of genetic testing (e.g., DNA screening); and the

development of intelligence in global regions and populations.

Reference:

Snyderman, M. & Rothman, S. (1988). The IQ controversy, the media and public

policy. New Brunswick: Transaction.

Importance. We present the results of our survey and compare them with the one

from Snyderman and Rothman 30 years ago. The use of the terms “intelligence”,

“cognitive ability”, and “cognitive competence” was not uniform. However, there was

broad consensus that the most important attributes of intelligence were reasoning,

abstract thinking, problem solving, and the g-factor, with little importance attributed to

motivation, personality, and sensory acuity. Twin studies were still rated as providing

the best evidence for heritability, followed by adoption studies, molecular genetic

studies, and patchwork family studies. There was broad consensus that tests show little

or no bias against ethnic or social groups, with test taker motivation being seen as one

factor with potential for bias. Immigrants were viewed as a group that might be

disadvantaged by the use of tests. Intelligence was rated as being most important in

special education planning, followed by decisions at universities, primary and

secondary schools, and work. Concerns were expressed about the treatment of

intelligence by the media.

Methods. The survey consisted of 62 main questions with follow-up questions and

space for comments. Experts were sampled from publications addressing intelligence,

cognitive abilities, and student achievement. Authors of the past 4 volumes (2010-13) in

Intelligence were included. Notice of the study was emailed to ISIR members and

posted to the ISSID homepage, and colleagues were asked to inform other researchers

about the study. Only people who received a participation code could participate. 226

people responded (from March to July 2013); 94 people completed the questionnaire.

Participants had affiliations in psychology (84%), education (7%), economics (4%),

biology (4%) and sociology (2%). 38% of experts were from the US, 20% Germany,

8% UK, 8% Scandinavia, 8% Spain, 7% Canada, 3% Australia and New Zealand, and

3% from Latin America. The representativeness of the expert sample, possible biases,

and reasons for not participating are discussed.

Alcohol Consumption and Lifetime Change in Cognitive Ability: A Mendelian

Randomization Study

Stuart J. Ritchie*, Timothy C. Bates, Janie Corley, Geraldine McNeill, Gail Davies,

David C. Liewald, John M. Starr, Ian J. Deary

The University of Edinburgh

stuartjritchie1@gmail.com; tim.bates@ed.ac.uk; janie.corley@ed.ac.uk;

g.mcneill@abdn.ac.uk; gail.davies@ed.ac.uk; dave.liewald@ed.ac.uk;

jstarr@staffmail.ed.ac.uk; i.deary@ed.ac.uk

Novelty. We used a Mendelian Randomisation design to test the hypothesis that a

genetic score for alcohol processing capacity moderated the association between alcohol

consumption and lifetime change in cognitive ability. We found a significant interaction

between a 4-SNP alcohol metabolism genotype and alcohol consumption on lifetime

cognitive change (with cognition assessed at age 11 and age 70), such that individuals

with fewer rare alleles (high alcohol metabolising ability) had a positive association

between alcohol consumption and successful cognitive ageing. This was not found for

individuals with low metabolising ability, who declined in cognitive ability as a

function of alcohol consumption.

Importance. There is widespread concern about the determinants of healthy cognitive

ageing, and conflicting evidence about the cognitive and health effects of alcohol

consumption. A better understanding of, first, the effects of alcohol on cognition, and

second, the possible genetic mediators of this relationship, could lead to better-informed

efforts to prevent cognitive decline in old age.

Methods. The Mendelian Randomisation design is a useful way to avoid the serious

problems of confounding and reverse causation in observational epidemiological

research, since the genetic variants involved are unrelated to possible confounders, such

as socioeconomic status. Our large longitudinal sample (The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936,

valid n = 800) also allowed us to control for intelligence in early life, and thus assess

lifetime cognitive change, rather than intelligence measured at only one point, and also

used a well-validated measure of alcohol consumption, the Food Frequency

Questionnaire (FFQ).

Exploring the Relationship Between Intelligence, Creativity, Inspection Time, and

Inhibition

John H. Song, John G. Chetwynd

De Montfort University

jsong@dmu.ac.uk

Novelty. The relationship between intelligence and creativity has been examined and

debated relatively extensively. There were investigations about the nature of

intelligence-creativity relationship which were examined through higher order latent

variables, personality, executive processes, and strategy-use. The present study

examines the relationship between intelligence and creativity through the use of higher

level inhibitory processes measures and elementary cognitive tasks. A sample of largely

university students completed computerised Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Unusual

Uses task, Self-rated creativity measure, inspection time task, Stroop and Latent

Inhibition task. The results showed that intelligence, as measured using Raven’s

Progressive Matrices was significantly predicted only by inspection time, but not

inhibition variables, or creativity measured using Unusual Uses task and Self-rated

Creativity score. The result suggests that apart from inspection time, other inhibitory

processes do not significantly contribute toward intelligence.

Importance. Formal definitions of intelligence have often included problem-solving

ability. However, therein lay the tension between intelligence and creativity. The

former often involves completion of problems with a unique solution whereas creativity

encourages generation of multiple solutions. In order to derive a correct solution an

intelligent individual would engage in some selection processes. To do so successfully,

it may be that inhibition processes which prevents competing solutions from distracting

the individual would be necessary. On the contrary, creativity, would usually involve

generating as many solutions as possible. These are higher level processes. The current

study will add to the current knowledge in this field by examining inhibition processes

as higher level processes, but it has also include the use of an elementary cognitive task.

It will lead to further refinement of research methodologies and further examination of

important variables explaining the intelligence-creativity relationship.

Methods. Although it is moderately small in sample size, this ambitious and labour

intensive study examined intelligence as measured by Raven’s Progressive Matrices;

Creativity as measured subjectively and objectively through Self-rated Creativity scale,

and Unusual Uses task respectively; two types of inhibition processes using Cognitive

Inhibition (Stroop task) and a Latent Inhibition task; and processing speed measured

using elementary cognitive task – Inspection time. The number of variables examined

here enables a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between these variable,

notably between intelligence and creativity. Multiple regression analyses enabled

examination of the ability of various variables in predicting intelligence.

Intelligence and Somatic Health in Early Adulthood, and Mortality up to Age 59 -a

Longitudinal Study of 49 000 Men

Alma Sörberg*

, Peter Allebeck

, Tomas Hemmingsson

3,4

Institute for Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Institute for Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, Stockholm University, Stockholm,

Sweden

alma.sorberg@ki.se; peter.allebeck@ki.se; tomas.hemmingsson@ki.se

Novelty. The association between intelligence in youth and later illness and early

death is established, but the mechanisms underlying these associations are not fully

understood (Calvin et al, 2011). One suggestion is that higher bodily system integrity

promotes faster intellectual processing as well as better health, and thus act as a

confounder in the association (Deary, 2012). We found that among a broad range of

clinical diagnoses in youth, several were cross-sectionally associated with intelligence.

However, the prevalence of somatic disorders in youth did not explain the association

between intelligence and later mortality.

Importance. Bodily system integrity, as potential underlying factor in the association

between IQ and mortality, is difficult to examine directly. Here, we had the opportunity

to investigate if somatic diagnoses in youth, a plausible indicator of system integrity,

would affect the association. This would indicate that the path from lower intelligence

to early death is noticeable already in youth, and thus provide some evidence of system

integrity at play. A better understanding of how intelligence predicts illness and death is

crucial for appropriate prevention and treatment, and yields valuable pointers for further

research in cognitive epidemiology.

Methods. In a cohort comprising 49 321 Swedish men born 1949-51, IQ test

performance and medical diagnoses were recorded at the two-day conscription process

in 1969-70, at ages 18-20. In the thorough medical examination, any diagnoses were

given according to the ICD-8, the diagnostic system used at that time. The National

Cause of Death Register provided information on all-cause mortality up to age 59 (3351

cases). We adjusted for socioeconomic position in childhood by record linkage with the

national census in 1960.

Although several diagnostic groups (by ICD-8 chapters) were associated with IQ,

adjusting for somatic diagnoses had minimal impact on the association of IQ with later

mortality. Since bodily system integrity is suggested to manifest as reduced health as

well as lower IQ, this finding lends limited support for the hypothesis of bodily system

integrity as an underlying cause for the association between intelligence and mortality.

Implications and alternative interpretations will be discussed.

Climatic Variability, Group Selection and Dysgenics:

Testing a Multi-Level Selection Model

Michael A Woodley

, Heitor B. F. Fernandes

, Aurelio José Figueredo

Umeå University, Sweden & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

University of Arizona

Michael.Woodley@psy.umu.se; heitor.barcellos@ufrgs.br; ajf@u.arizona.edu

Novelty. A multi-level selection model published recently by Woodley and Figueredo

proposes that climatic changes have historically affected the direction of gene-frequency

changes for g via their alternating impact on group vs. individual level fitness. In the West,

colder environments imposed high extrinsic mortality on peasantry, whilst also creating

fitness opportunities for those with higher-g. This also encouraged group selection for ultra

high-g but low-fitness geniuses, whose innovations facilitated range expansion (i.e.

colonialism).

Warmer environments led to lower mortality amongst those with low-g. Concomitant

social and scientific innovations (i.e. welfare, medicine) further increased the mildness of

Western environments, leading to diminished group selection, coupled with greater

individual level selection for those with low-g responding to the fitness-incentives provided

by the improved ecology, in addition to individual level selection against those with high-g,

whose fitness diminished in the face of improved fertility control and redistributionist

economic policy.

Importance. Multiple indexes of major innovation in science and technology indicate a

pronounced per capita decline commencing in the latter half of the 19th century. Indexes of

per capita scientific genius show a similar decline. Woodley and Figueredo, using

hierarchical structural equations modelling, found that both of these trends relate to

simulated declines in heritable g estimated on the basis of the negative relationship between

fertility and IQ throughout this period. Recently, much attention was paid to the finding that

simple reaction time performance seems to have been slowing throughout this same period,

suggesting that the dysgenic decline in g predicted in previous works might be an actuality.

These findings are all consistent with the multi-level selection model as described above.

Understanding how these ecological factors might explicitly relate to real changes in the

patterns of selective pressure is important for understanding the interconnected and varied

nature of the determinants of accelerating adaptive biological and cultural evolution

amongst Holocene populations.

Methods. Here we test the multi-level selection model over the last 1.5 centuries using a

cascade General Linear Model. Climate warming is operationalized using three convergent

indicators of global temperature anomaly means spanning the period from 1859 to 1975. A

lexical approach to measuring historical attitudes was used to determine group selection

strength in the US+UK. Three convergent group selection \'loaded\' words were selected,

and their diminishing frequencies across printed matter were measured using Google

Ngram. Declining g was measured using meta-analytically matched simple reaction time

trend data from the UK+US corrected for various sources of error, spanning the period 1889

to 1993. US+UK innovations were taken from a database of global innovations and

weighted on the basis of US+UK population growth.

The model: Climate warming -> Group selected attitudes (with a lag of ten years) ->

Declining g (with a lag of one generation) -> Innovation rates; fit excellently. The fit

improved when war years were excluded from the innovation index. This is consistent with

the model.

SIMPOSIA

Abstracts are organized in order of presentation time

Names of students eligible for the John B. Caroll Award for Research

Methodology and ISIR Prize for Best Student Paper

are marked with an asterisk

SYMPOSIUM 1

Worst Performance Rule:

Sources, Moderating Variables, and Implications for Intelligence Research

Yulia A. Dodonova

1,2

Yury S. Dodonov

Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

ya.dodonova@mail.ru; ys.dodonov@gmail.com

To obtain a reliable measure of the speed of information processing, elementary

cognitive tasks (ECTs) are designed to include multiply repeated trials, for which

response times (RTs) are recorded. This produces a set of individual-level RTs, which

do not necessarily equally well predict cognitive ability. A frequently observed effect is

that when individual-level RTs are ordered from fastest to slowest, the slowest RTs

produce higher correlations with cognitive ability than the fastest RTs. This effect is

called the worst performance rule (WPR). An explanation for WPR suggested by

previous studies has implied that individuals differ in efficiency of memory and

attention, or in some basic characteristics of neuron functioning, and this is what matters

when both ECTs and intelligence-like tests are performed. However, previous studies

on WPR have been too rare to accumulate consistent evidence of its causes,

confounding the variables and the implications for an analysis of the association

between intelligence and the speed of processing of various ECTs.

Taken together, the three papers of this symposium reconsider the issue of different

RT-IQ associations reported for best- and worst-performance trials and discuss their

possible causes and implications for studies examining the association between

cognitive ability and the speed of information processing. In the first paper, Yulia

Dodonova analyzes a set of elementary cognitive tasks and questions whether WPR is

indeed present in these tasks and whether it can be explained via the effect of

confounding variables and statistical artifacts.

In the second paper, Natalie Borter discusses the implications of WPR when

analyzing individual performance in tasks of varying complexity. Such tasks imply that

individual differences in the speed of basic constant processes and task-specific

experimentally-induced processes can be analyzed at the latent level, and their

associations with cognitive ability can be evaluated. However, as shown in this study,

averaging across best and worst trials within each complexity level can mask another

source of variance, which can also be meaningful and can provide additional insights

into the associations between the speed of task processing and intelligence.

Finally, a paper by Yury Dodonov analyzes WPR-like effects in the context of

speed-accuracy relations that are always present when a participant performs speeded

tasks. This study suggests that accuracy rate is another factor that must be considered in

any WPR-type analysis of associations between individual-level response times and

intelligence.

Are the Slowest Response Times More G-Loaded Than the Fastest Reactions?

Evidence, Hypotheses, and Implications of the Worst Performance Rule

Yulia A. Dodonova

1,2

, Yury S. Dodonov

, Sergey I. Kudinov

Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

ya.dodonova@mail.ru; ys.dodonov@gmail.com

Novelty. The worst performance rule (WPR) suggests that when response times

(RTs) obtained for repeated trials of a speeded task are ordered from fastest to slowest,

the slowest RTs are more strongly correlated with cognitive ability than the fastest RTs.

If the rule truly holds, this raises important questions about what lies beyond the

conventionally analyzed correlations between average processing speed and cognitive

ability. However, to accept that the slowest RT trials are indeed higher g-loaded, one

should rule out the possibility that the effect is caused by some source of statistical

artifact or is confounded by some other meaningful effect. Previous studies have been

too rare to provide sufficient evidence that would allow for critically testing the

hypotheses on the underlying causes of the WPR. Hence, this study reconsiders the

issue of variations in RT-IQ correlations across multiply-repeated RT trials. Based on

data obtained from a set of elementary cognitive tasks (ECTs), it questions whether

there is indeed a WPR-like effect and (if yes) whether this effect can be explained via

various confounding variables.

Importance. The observation that the slowest RTs obtained during the processing of

various ECTs seem to be better predictors of g than the fastest RT reactions readily

suggests that the explanations are related to cognitive variables, such as lapses in

memory and attention (e.g., Larson & Alderton, 1990) or neuron errors (e.g., see Coyle,

2003), which are hypothesized to be more frequent in low-ability individuals then in

high-ability individuals. If so, the WPR provides insights into the nature of the

association between intelligence and speed of information processing. However, such an

interpretation is meaningful if and only if the WPR is not an artifact in a statistical

sense. Therefore, this study considers the possible non-cognitive sources of WPR and

discusses the implications of WPR for studies examining speed-ability associations.

Methods. The ECTs analyzed in this study included simple RT, choice RT, and

different versions of discrimination RT (e.g., discrimination between shapes or colors).

Intelligence entered the analysis as a single score (Raven’s APM) or a sum score based

on a number of subtests. Data were obtained from samples of high school and college

students. In addition, the simulated variables were involved where appropriately to

differentiate between the g-related effects and the purely statistical effects. Various

possible explanations for WPR were considered, including trial sequence effects (e.g.,

the sequence number of a trial in a set, switching between responses vs. repetition of the

same response) and statistical issues (e.g., the skewness of the sample distribution of the

respective variables). In addition, the question of whether WPR is indeed truer for more

difficult tasks compared to easier tasks, as suggested by previous studies, is addressed.

Cognitive Tasks With Increasing Complexity: Should Worst Performance Rule Be

Taken Into Account?

Natalie Borter*

, Stefan Troche

, Yulia Dodonova

, Thomas Rammsayer

University of Bern

Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

natalie.borter@psy.unibe.ch; stefan.troche@psy.unibe.ch; ya.dodonova@mail.ru;

thomas.rammsayer@psy.unibe.ch

Novelty. Homogenous tasks with increasing complexity imply that observed RT

variance can be decomposed into parts that represent (1) a constant process representing

basic aspects of information processing unrelated to the experimentally manipulated

task complexity and (2) an experimental process increasing with task complexity. In

contrast the worst performance rule (WPR) states that on cognitive task with multiple

trials, worst performance trials predict general intelligence (g) better than best

performance trials. Previous studies suggested that with increasing task complexity,

WPR may be more pronounced. This conclusion, however, was mainly based on

comparisons between tasks that largely differed in demands, not only in complexity.

The present study is the first one to explicitly address the question of whether WPR-like

effects vary with task complexity. It, thus, focuses on the question of whether WPR-

related effects affect task performance, interpretability of baseline RT, and

experimentally-induced RT-change, as well as their associations with intelligence.

Importance. Performance measures obtained from cognitive tasks may represent not

only the concept of interest but can also be considered an outcome of various

underlying processes and, thus, result in so-called impure measurements. With our

approach, we could avoid the impurity problem and investigate the influence of two

different sources of variance (i.e., complexity manipulation and processes unrelated to

the complexity manipulation) on psychometric intelligence. In 2003, Coyle reviewed

evidence, theory, and alternative hypotheses of the WPR and stressed complexity as a

possible mediating factor. He ended with a call for research on the causes of the WPR

and for research on the correlates of best performance. Therefore, in addition, WRP-like

effects were included in the model and the links to the two different sources of variance

as well as to psychometric intelligence were investigated.

Methods. Three computerized, homogenous cognitive tasks with increasing

complexity as well as a paper pencil version of Cattell's Culture Fair Test (CFT-20)

were completed by 130 participants (mostly students). From the four subtests of CFT-

20, a latent psychometric intelligence factor was extracted. For the cognitive tasks two

latent variables were modeled: One latent variable represented the constant process and,

therefore, factor loadings were fixed to equal unity for all conditions. The other latent

variable represented the shape of the experimental process and factor loadings were

therefore fixed according to a strictly increasing function to reflect the increasing task

complexity. With this approach, the links between the latent intelligence factor and the

experimental and non-experimental process were investigated. In addition, worst

performance analysis was incorporated by either explicit modeling of an additional

latent variable or by comparing models based on worst- and best-performance indexes.

The Slowest and Fastest Responses are Not Equally Good Predictors of

Intelligence, But Does Accuracy Matter?

Yury S. Dodonov

, Yulia A. Dodonova

1,2

, Sergey I. Kudinov

Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

ys.dodonov@gmail.com; ya.dodonova@mail.ru

Novelty. A commonly acknowledged problem in studies on individual differences in

processing speed and speed-ability associations is that, when performing elementary

cognitive tasks (ECTs), each participant necessarily adopts some speed-accuracy

strategy. Moreover, a participant can speed up or slow down while processing the same

task, thus compromising or emphasizing the accuracy of responding. On the other hand,

individual-level RTs are not equally good predictors of intelligence; those responses

that are slowest seem to be better predictors of ability than the fastest responses, an

observation known as the worst performance rule (WPR). However, previous WPR-

type analyses considered only RTs (or only accuracy rate), thus discarding the other

important source of information. To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze

how speed-ability association changes for RTs obtained across trials of a speeded task

while simultaneously considering speed-accuracy associations.

Importance. This study suggests that the accuracy of responding might act as an

explanatory mechanism for WPR or, more generally, for any tendency of some

individual-level RTs to be more g-loaded than other RTs obtained within the same task.

In addition, the study raises an important question by seeking to determine what

measure of RT most adequately represents the individual-level speed of processing in

studies on individual differences. Our results suggest that the indexes of processing

speed are most meaningful when the accuracy rate is simultaneously taken into account

in the computations. The implications for studies on speed-ability associations are

discussed.

Methods. This study analyses ECT-performance for two types of tasks:

discrimination tasks, wherein stimuli were presented until a response occurred, and a

memory-type task, wherein participants had to judge the identity of the test stimuli

when a probe was briefly presented. The samples consisted of high school and college

students; Raven’s APM and Amthauer’s IST were used as intelligence tests. For the

discrimination tasks, the RT-IQ correlations were consistent with WPR: they were

higher for the slowest responses than they were for the fastest responses. For the

memory-type task, the U-shaped relations between the speed of responding and the

magnitude of the RT-IQ correlation were observed; contrary to the WPR, there seemed

to be some “optimal” speed of responding (corresponding to the most g-loaded RTs),

while both the fastest and the slowest reactions were not as strongly related to ability

level. Importantly, for both types of tasks the accuracy rate was consistently highest for

the responses given at the speed level that was optimal for the respective task. In other

words, most g-loaded RTs were those for which the highest accuracy rate was observed,

regardless of the shape of the RT-IQ and the RT-accuracy associations.

SYMPOSIUM 2

The Relationship between Confidence, Intelligence,

Academic Achievement and Decision-Making

Lazar Stankov

Ted Nettelbeck

University of Western Sydney

University of Adelaide

lazondi@rocketmail.com; ted.nettelbeck@adelaide.edu.au

The aim of this symposium is to present findings from several recent studies carried

out in Singapore (Nanyang University) and Australia (The University of Sydney,

University of Western Sydney, University of Adelaide). These studies have focused on

the relationship between one's confidence in the accuracy of the answer to a cognitive

test item and measures of intelligence, educational achievement and decision-making.

They also include a range of measures of thinking styles, self-beliefs and personality.

The Stankov paper is an overview of recent findings showing that non-cognitive

measures can be ordered with respect to their predictive validity. Many e.g., measures

of motivation, depression, and most personality traits - are poor predictors of

intelligence and achievement. Measures of self-beliefs - self-efficacy, self-concept and

anxiety - have moderate correlations with cognitive performance but tend to be domain-

specific. The best predictors of any kind of cognitive performance are measures of

confidence that can capture a major part of predictive validity of the self-beliefs.

The Kleitman paper explores the latent structure of intelligence and confidence,

along with a broad range of self-report measures of need for structure, outward

assuredness, rigid thinking, openness to experience and metacognitive beliefs. The

findings highlight the distinctions and relationships between intelligence, arrogance, and

rigid thinking.

The Jackson paper examines the generality of metacognitive and decision-making

measures derived from a variety of intelligence tests, as well as the predictive validity of

intelligence and metacognitive constructs to the quality and types of decisions made.

The particular decision making task is tailored along the lines of a test taking scenario.

The J. Lee paper report the results from a study that assessed confidence together

with scales measuring self-belief (i.e., self-efficacy, different kinds of self-concepts, and

anxiety) among the 15-year old students from Singapore. A distinct confidence factor

was identified in the domains of mathematics and English. The results show that

confidence is: a) a robust individual differences dimension and it captures much of the

predictive variance of other self-beliefs that are, in turn, among the best known

predictors of achievement.

The Welsh paper is focused on anchoring a well-known effect leading to bias in

estimation in various decision-making contexts. Anchoring was examined in a

simulated poker-like card game. While there were few significant demographic and

cognitive predictors of the overall performance, cognitive ability measures and decision

styles were related to decreases in anchoring susceptibility over the period od practice in

playing the card game.

Noncognitive Predictors of Intelligence and Academic Achievement

Lazar Stankov

University of Western Sydney

lazondi@rocketmail.com

Novelty. Recent evidence about the relationship between cognitive tests and

psychological noncognitive variables is reviewed. Noncognitive measures can be

ordered with respect to their predictive validity. Many are poor predictors of

intelligence and achievement. Measures of rationality, selfassessment of intelligence,

Openness to Experience and self-concept correlate up to .35 with cognitive

performance. Some domain-specific self-beliefs (self-efficacy and anxiety) have

correlations with appropriate achievement tests that can reach .45. The best predictors of

any kind of cognitive performance are measures of confidence (frequently reported

correlations of .45 and above) that can capture a major part of predictive validity of the

three self-beliefs. The role of self-beliefs has attracted much interest in education but

their role in predicting performance on tests of fluid intelligence is likely to be low.

However, self-beliefs and confidence in particular may prove to be the most potent

noncognitive influences on the development of acculturated knowledge that is captured

by measures of Gc.

Importance. There is a plethora of noncognitive constructs studied by educational

and organizational psychologists that is claimed to influence cognitive performance.

This paper points out that many of these constructs have low predictive validity and

should be withdrawn from further consideration. The most important appear to be self-

belief constructs and confidence in particular.

Methods. This is a review paper that summarizes the outcomes from several studies

by ourselves and others. There is no presentation of new empirical data.

Intelligence and Confidence in Relationship to Competence,

Arrogance and Close-Mindedness

Sabina Kleitman

University of Sydney

sabinak@psych.usyd.edu.au

Novelty. Using hierarchical CFA, this research investigated the higher-order

relationships between Intelligence, self-assessments of ability (confidence and various

self-beliefs) and a range of personality and thinking style measures. The findings

demonstrated that Intelligence and self-assessments of ability defined a broad second-

order Competence factor. However, when not linked to Intelligence, these self-beliefs

also defined a broad second-order Arrogance factor along with first-order Outward

Assuredness and Openness dimensions. Competence and Arrogance factors were

unrelated. Results also revealed a second-order Rigid Thinking factor defined by a need

for structure and rigid thinking styles. It shared a strong negative correlation with

Competence and a moderate positive correlation with Arrogance. Overall, Intelligence

shared no relationship with Arrogant/Decisive traits, but low Intelligence was associated

with Rigid thinking styles. Furthermore, self-assessments of ability can define two

orthogonal higher-order traits: Competence and Arrogance.

Importance. The accurate assessment of our own abilities is important for a range of

outcomes, including decision-making, learning and academic achievement. For

example, well-calibrated confidence in one's various Intellectual abilities is needed to

select university courses that suit those abilities. Similarly, accurate self-beliefs play key

significance in decision-making. It is therefore important to understanding how

Intelligence relates to those assessments, as well as the broader network of constructs

that may influence them (thinking styles and personality).

Methods. Over 500 undergraduate psychology students completed a range of

Intelligence tests accompanied by confidence ratings, along with a broad range of self-

report measures of need for structure, outward assuredness, rigid thinking, openness to

experience and metacognitive beliefs. The sample was split. EFA and hierarchical CFA

were used. The Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to identify first order factors

using the first half of the sample. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted to

replicate these factors and then investigate their higher order relationships.

Intelligence and Confidence as Respective Predictors of Quality and Erroneous

Decision-Making

Simon A. Jackson*, Sabina Kleitman

University of Sydney

sabinak@psych.usyd.edu.au; sjac9712@uni.sydney.edu.au

Novelty. This research investigated the predictive relationships of Intelligence and

Confidence, and its traditional and novel derived indices, on decision-making

behaviour. The results demonstrated that Intelligence was the strongest incremental

predictor of quality decision-making (Optimal and Realistic), while confidence

variables were best predictive of the types of decision errors participants made in a

typical test-taking scenario (Incompetent or Hesitant). This implies that Intelligence sets

a threshold for the quality of an individual's decisions while confidence controls

decision behaviour. In turn, we consider Intelligence as a construct responsible for the

formation of accurate judgements upon which decision behaviour is based.

Importance. Decision-making is a complex process of making choices in order to

achieve our goals, and identifying the psychological constructs that contribute to this

process can be of great importance. Intelligence is often considered to be a suitable

proxy for decision-making competence. For example, Intelligence tests are routinely

administered for selection/profiling purposes in the workplace. However, beyond being

considered desirable, the role that intelligence plays in the decision-making process is

poorly understood.

Methods. A preliminary sample of 116 undergraduate psychology students

completed three intelligence tests, with all items being accompanied by confidence

ratings and a decision to submit the answer for marking. On each test, participants were

scored for accuracy (Intelligence), confidence, a range of calibration indices, and four

decision tendencies: Optimal, Realistic, Incompetent and Hesitant. The decision

tendency variables were regressed on Intelligence and the confidence variables in a

hierarchical fashion to assess their incremental validity.

Confidence: A Better Predictor of Academic Achievement than

Self-Efficacy, Self-Concept and Anxiety?

Lazar Stankov

, Jihyun Lee

, Wenshu Luo

, David Hogan

Universtiy of Western Sydney

The University of New South Wales

National Institute of Education, Singapore

lazondi@rocketmail.com

Novelty. In this paper we report the results from a study that assessed Confidence

together with scales measuring self-beliefs (i.e., self-efficacy, different kinds of self-

concepts, and anxiety) among the 15-year old students from Singapore.. A distinct

Confidence factor was identified in the domains of Mathematics (N = 1940) and English

(N = 1786). Our results show that Confidence is: a) a robust individual differences

dimension; b) that can be combined with accuracy information to obtain bias scores that

may be useful for group comparisons and for identification of misconceptions about

particular topics. Confidence as studied in our work to date has been c) the best

predictor of achievement in both Mathematics and English; d) is related to both

cognitive and self-beliefs measures; and e) it captures much of the predictive variance

of other self-beliefs that are, in turn, among the best known predictors of achievement.

Importance. It provides evidence that confidence is likely to be a general factor and it

shows that it is a better predictor of cognitive performance than other non-cognitive

traits.

Methods. It reports the data based on some 4000 15-years old students from

Singapore. Factor analysis and regression analyses are used to support the claims.

Individual Differences in Anchoring: Traits and Experience

Matthew B. Welsh, Paul H. Delfabbro, Nicholas R. Burns, Steve H. Begg

University of Adelaide

matthew.welsh@adelaide.edu.au; paul.delfabbro@adelaide.edu.au;

nicholas.burns@adelaide.edu.au; steve.begg@adelaide.edu.au

Novelty. Anchoring is a well-known effect leading to bias in estimation in various

decision-making contexts. Previous research examining the role of individual

differences in anchoring susceptibility has found weak and unreliable results. In this

study anchoring was examined in a simulated poker-like card game, among people with

varying levels of academic achievement and using a wide variety of psychometric tests

for both cognitive ability and decision style/personality factors. Overall, anchoring

susceptibility was largely unrelated to demographic and cognitive measures but weakly

correlated to measures of preference and aptitude for rationality. Performance generally

improved during the course of the card game task, suggesting that participants became

less susceptible to anchoring with experience and these improvements were weakly-to-

moderately related to demographic, cognitive and decision style measures. That is,

while there were few significant predictors of overall performance, cognitive ability

measures and decision styles were related to decreases in anchoring susceptibility.

Importance. These results suggest that the conclusion from the judgement and

decision making (JDM) literature that intelligence is a poor predictor of bias

susceptibility may have been premature.

The observation that cognitive ability predicts not anchoring susceptibility but rather

changes in that susceptibility over time underlines the need for better measures of

individual differences in peoples\' responses to different biases.

Additionally, the paper highlights the fact that many JDM papers have relied solely

on correlates of general intelligence such as self-reported SAT scores, which may

underestimate the relationship between bias susceptibility and more specific cognitive

abilites.

Methods. Given the overreliance of previous JDM research on very general measures

of intelligence and the resultant conclusion that biases are better predcited by decision

style or personality measures, our methodology included a number of measures of

specific cognitive abilities including Gs and Gq from the Catell-Horn-Carroll model,

Working Memory and an Executive Functioning measure for comparison with various

decision style measures previously related to bias susceptibility.

The anchoring measure was also a methodological improvement over many previous

studies, which have generally looked at only group differences in anchoring. By

developing a poker-like game to test for anchoring bias, we were able to have

participants complete 140 anchoring tasks with known correct answers and thus track

their susceptibility to the anchoring bias, controlling for the effect of participant

knowledge.

SYMPOSIUM 3

Contemporary Applications of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll Cognitive Taxonomy

Mathew Pase

Con Stough

Timothy C Bates

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University

Dept of Psychology University of Edinburgh

mpase@swin.edu.au; cstough@swin.edu.au; tim.bates@ed.ac.uk

Cognitive tests ranging from paper and pencil to computerised measures are

implemented across many different scientific disciplines. In areas such as clinical

nutrition, psychopharmacology and medicine, cognitive tests are often used to measure

the effect of a specific intervention on a set of cognitive processes. In these studies it is

commonplace for cognitive test results to be grouped into a set of broader cognitive

factors prior to statistical analysis. By limiting the number of cognitive outcomes this

method reduces the number of statistical comparisons, reducing the risk of a type-I

error. However, the grouping of cognitive test results is often executed in an arbitrary

manner without justification from either a validated cognitive taxonomy or factor

analysis. Both Carroll's model of human cognitive ability and the Cattell-Horn-Carroll

model of intelligence provide empirically based taxonomies of human cognition. These

models provide a cognitive "map" that can be used to guide the handling and analysis of

cognitive outcomes in any discipline that deals with cognitive test data. This talk will

provide an overview of cognitive taxonomies and discuss how their application can

improve the standardization and validity of cognitive outcomes in disciplines such as

psychopharmacology and nutrition.

In the first talk by Matthew Pase the general Carroll framework for cognition is

outlined. Within this framework, several data sets from recent studies (ranging from

cardiovascular, fish oil and vitamin interventions are mapped onto the framework. The

mapping of these relationships onto the Carroll model provides a unique ability to

understand differences across intervention studies that have utilized a variety of

different cognitive and intelligence assessments.

In the second presentation, Con Stough maps the differential cognitive effects of

different pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers including Modafinil and amphetamines on

to the Carroll framework. The general area of cognitive enhancers is at present difficult

to summarise because of the vast heterogeneity in different cognitive assessments used

across pharmaceutical trials. The effects of amphetamines for instance are particularly

difficult to understand because of the variety of methodologies used in previous studies.

the Carroll framework allow a clearer understanding of what cognitive components are

changed by amphetamine and other pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers.

In the third presentation Andrew Scholey uses the Carroll framework to map the

cognitive effects of a wide range of natural substances. The cognitive effects from a

range of both acute and chronic acting neutraceuticals are examined.

The three presentations taken together illustrate the contemporary use of a

comprehensive model of human intelligence.

An Overview of The Cattell-Horn-Caroll Model of Cognition: Implications for

Contemporary Use

Matthew Pase*, Con Stough

Centre from Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University

mpase@swin.edu.au; cstough@swin.edu.au

Novelty. The Cattell-Horn-Carroll model of intelligence is a comprehensive model of

cognitive abilities. It has been grossly underused in contemporary research utilizing

cognitive assessments. As such there are many different cognitive tests and batteries all

measuring different components of cognition and these are routinely used across many

different areas of research with often results that are hard to interpret. The Cattell-Horn-

Carroll model provides a cognitive ‘map’ that can be used to guide the handling and

analysis of cognitive outcomes in any discipline that deals with cognitive test data. This

talk will provide an overview of cognitive taxonomies and discuss how their application

can improve the standardization and validity of cognitive outcomes in disciplines such

as psychopharmacology and nutrition.

Importance. There is growing dispute about the relationship between cognition and

many different other areas. For instance it is difficult to know whether fish oil

supplementation improves cognitive functioning because different studies utilize

different measures of cognition and therefore assess different aspects of cognition thus

making comparison between studies very difficult. By utilizing the Cattell-Horn-Carroll

model it is possible to map the different results on to the different components of

intelligence and to make better conclusions about cognitive effects. The talk will

provide a framework in which we can apply this model to a range of interesting

cognitive phenomena.

Methods. The methodology of this talk utilizes an analysis of the Cattell-Horn-

Carroll model. It then maps data from clinical trials studying relationships between

cardiovascular processes, pharmacological interventions and cognition. Thus it utilizes

data from several randomized controlled trials and assesses relationships between these

variables.

Understanding Smart Drug Effects Using the Cattell-Horn-Caroll Model of

Cognition

Con Stough, Matthew Pase, Andrew Scholey

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University

cstough@swin.edu.au; mpase@swin.edu.au; ascholey@swin.edu.au

Novelty. Presently there is no consensus about whether pharmaceutical drugs such as

Modafinil and amphetamines improve cognitive performance and if they do which

cognitive processes they specifically enhance (if any). One of the reasons why there is

no consensus in this area of research is because different studies examining the effects

of cognitive enhancing pharmaceutical drugs have utilized different methodologies and

therefore different cognitive measures. By utilizing the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model of

cognition it is possible to map the results from different studies on to a coherent

cognitive framework and to ascertain at which level of the model (if any) that there may

be a cognitive enhancement. This information will be helpful in the design of future

studies developing cognitive enhancing drugs as well as contributing to a better

understanding of the cognitive effects of current drugs.

Importance. Amphetamines and other pharmaceutical drugs are widely abused in our

society. They are currently being taken by a wide cross-section of the community to

improve intelligence and cognitive performance. However little is known about their

effectiveness. The presentation will provide some conclusions using the Carroll

framework about the effectiveness and specificity of action in improving human

intelligence. This information is important and may influence drug usage and drug

development.

Methods. The presentation will utilize data from randomized controlled trials

(RCTs)using pharmaceutical drugs. Results will be mainly taken from well controlled

scientific studies and then mapped onto the Carroll cognitive framework.

Understanding the Effects of Natural Medicines and Substances Using the Cattell-

Horn-Caroll Model of Cognition

Andrew Scholey, Con Stough, Matthew Pase

Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University

ascholey@swin.edu.au; cstough@swin.edu.au; mpase@swin.edu.au

Novelty. As well as a pharmaceutical approach to cognitive enhancement there is

growing evidence that nutraceuticals (natural medicines and nutritional supplements)

may also improve cognitive function. These effects are likely to involve multiple

biological processes. This paper will review evidence for this poly-pharmacological

approach to cognition enhancement in the context of the Carroll framework and

compare these effects from pharmaceutical approaches.

Importance. A huge number of people in our community take natural supplements

for cognitive enhancement usually without any empirical evidence. This talk will

present the growing evidence base and mechanisms for cognitive enhancement from

natural products and map these effects using the Carroll model.

Methods. We will utilize data from Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) from our

group and elsewhere. The talk will briefly consider methodological shortcomings of

certain trials.

SYMPOSIUM 4

Intelligence in Non Human Animals

Rosalind, Arden

Joshua Plotnik

King's College London

Division of Biological and Natural Resources Sciences, Mahidol University,

Kanchanaburi, Thailand

arden.rosalind@gmail.com; joshua.plotnik@gmail.com

The ubiquity of g in humans raises many questions to students of evolutionary

theory. Is g a uniquely human construct? Is it an ability or adaptation that emerged at a

discernible point in our phylogeny? What selection pressures influence g, and what

fitness optimum/optima are associated with it? These questions are not answered and

rarely asked. The reason for this is simple: intelligence research in humans is mostly the

child of Francis Galton and has focused on individual differences; animal cognition is

mostly the child of Charles Darwin and is mostly directed towards the species-typical.

Researchers from these two fields generally do not attend the same conferences; publish

in the same journals, nor realise how much each has to offer/learn from the other.

Although g has received a great deal of psychometric attention, it merits attention

from evolutionary-minded researchers. The many and varied phenotypic correlates of g

in humans suggest that it has a positive relationship with fitness. In humans g is

associated positively with fitness-related characters such as better health, higher life

expectancy, sperm quality, (and xxx in inversely with minor health abnormalities).

Higher g reduces the risk of alzheimer's disease, psychopathology and dementia. This

raises several causal possibilities. Advantage may beget advantage: auspicious family

backgrounds may promote the likelihood of bright, healthy children through non genetic

pathways, genetic pathways or a mixture of both. It would be useful to know to what

extent g, independently of socio-economic background, is a fundamental cause in the

matrix of phenotypic benefits. Animal models of g will be a useful aid to answering this

question and others pertaining to ageing.

Fetch! G in Dogs

Rosalind Arden

, Mark James Adams

, Robert Plomin

King's College London

University of Sheffield

King's College London

arden.rosalind@gmail.com; r.plomin@kcl.ac.uk

Novelty. We assessed individual differences in cognitive abilities in one breed of

domestic dog (Border Collie) to find out whether there is a g factor of general

intelligence in dogs. We administered four configurations of a detour test and repeated

trials of two choice tasks (pointing and quantity). We used confirmatory factor analysis

to test alternative models explaining test performance. The best fitting model was a

hierarchical model with three lower-order factors for the detour time, choice time, and

choice score and a higher order factor accounting for 40% of the reliable variance in

performance. Dogs that completed the detour tasks quickly also tended to score higher

on the choice tasks and take less time to make a choice; this could be explained by a

general intelligence factor.

Importance. Animal models of g are currently restricted to humans and mice.

Learning about the phylogeny of g will inform us about its evolutionary history.

In addition to species-specific cognitive traits many animals show within-species

variation in cognitive ability. In humans most of the variation in ability in different

cognitive domains can be explained by single underlying g factor. Whether cognitive

abilities are domain general or domain specific has implications for the evolution and

function of cognitive traits.

Methods. We used confirmatory factor analysis to test different models against our

data.

Big Brains, Big Smarts? The Elephant Model for The Study of Convergent

Cognitive Evolution Across Species

Joshua M. Plotnik

Conservation Biology Program, Mahidol University, Thailand and Dept of Psychology,

University of Cambridge, U.K.

joshua.plotnik@gmail.com

Novelty. To help understand the evolution of intelligence in humans, psychologists

have, for nearly a century, looked to the study of non-human primates, particularly

chimpanzees, for answers. By studying specific markers of physical (tool-use, causal

reasoning, problem-solving) and social (cooperation, perspective taking, empathy)

intelligence in non-human primates, scientists have gained a better understanding of the

evolutionary trajectory of complex cognition. Within the past twenty years, however,

the field of animal cognition has expanded beyond primates to species that have also

demonstrated remarkable intellectual capacity. Animals such as dolphins, elephants and

the corvid bird family use tools, reason causally, engage in complex cooperation, and

take the perspective of others. These capacities most likely evolved through convergent

cognitive evolution, a process by which evolutionarily distant species evolve similar

intelligence as a result of similar environmental pressures.

Importance. The study of convergent cognitive evolution provides an interesting

avenue for understanding what drives the evolution of intelligence in animals, including

humans, and how such intelligence may be expressed across species.

Methods. In this talk, I will focus primarily on the study of cooperation in animals

from a proximate perspective, using elephants as an example. How do elephants "think"

about cooperation, and does any of their cooperative behavior mimic that of humans? I

will briefly review recent research on cooperative problem-solving, and behavioral

economics (including inequity and prosociality) in a number of animal species,

including my own work on elephants in Thailand. The continued study of animal

intelligence provides a window into the evolution of the mind, and increasing evidence

against the argument that complex cognition is uniquely human.

What Can Tool-Making Crows Teach Us About Our Minds?

Alex H. Taylor

University of Auckland

alexander.taylor@auckland.ac.nz

Novelty. One of the defining features of Homo sapiens is the complexity of our tool

use and manufacture. However, it is unclear what effect these tool behaviours have had

on the evolution of our minds. I will discuss recent work on the cognition of another

prolific tool user, the New Caledonian crow. This species is capable of sophisticated

tool behaviours including context-dependent tool use, metatool use and hook tool

manufacture. These crows are, therefore, an ideal model species for understanding the

effect of tool use on cognitive evolution. I will present evidence that tool behaviours do

not lead to the evolution of the cognition involved in cooperation, but may lead to the

evolution of sophisticated planning and causal reasoning.

Importance. Two major hypotheses for the evolution of intelligence are the social

intelligence hypothesis and technical intelligence hypothesis. The social intelligence

hypothesis suggests that the selection pressures created by the need to manipulate social

interactions between conspecifics led to an increase in intelligence, while the technical

intelligence hypothesis suggests that the need to understand how to make tools

increased intelligence. Due to hominins being both highly social, and the manufactures

of sophisticated tools, it is impossible to uncover how social and technical selection

pressures sculpted the human mind. However, the New Caledonian crow makes tools

even more sophisticated than those seen in our closest relatives, the chimpanzee, and yet

is relatively unsocial. This makes it a perfect study species to for uncovering the effect

that tools have had on our minds over evolutionary time.

Methods. My talk will present work from a number of papers published in highly

prestigious journals. In each study discussed carefully controlled behavioural

experiments allowed us to make various claims about the cognition of New Caledonian

crows.

SYMPOSIUM 5

Sources of Individual Differences in Academic Self-Concept, Motivation, and

Achievement in Different Cultures and Ability Groups

Yulia Kovas

1,2

, Sergey Malykh

1,3

Laboratory for Cognitive Investigations and Learning, Tomsk State University, Russia

Psychology Department, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

Psychological Institute of Russian Academy of Education, Moscow, Russia

y.kovas@gold.ac.uk; malykhsb@mail.ru

The current symposium brings together four studies investigating the etiology of

individual differences in different aspects of academic self-concept, motivation, and

achievement, as well as the structure of interrelationships among them. The four studies

provide new insights through the use of multivariate, longitudinal and/or cross-cultural

data. The first study (Kovas et al.) applied twin methodology to investigate the relative

contribution of genetic and environmental factors to variation in self-perceived ability

and intrinsic motivation in different twin samples from 6 different countries. The second

study (Morosanova et al.) investigated whether conscious self-regulation differentially

contributes to different aspects of mathematical performance and achievement, above

and beyond general intelligence and specific cognitive abilities. The third study

(Ovcharova et al.) examined whether the structure of the interrelationships between

intelligence, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement differs across ability and

selection range. Finally, the fourth study (Voronin et al.) used the multivariate

longitudinal cross-lag design to examine the relationships between academic self-

concept and achievement in different academic domains, controlling for intelligence.

Together these four studies provide new insights into the complex interrelationships

between intelligence, motivation, ability, and achievement, and identify new directions

for research in this important area.

Why Do Children Differ in Motivation to Learn?

Insights From a Large Twin Study

Yulia Kovas

, Robert Plomin

, Gabrielle Garon-Carrier

, Michel Boivin

, Sergey B.

Malykh

, Frank Spinath

, Kou Murayama

, Stephen A. Petrill

Laboratory for Cognitive Investigations and Learning, Tomsk State University, Russia;

King’s College London, MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre,

Institute of Psychiatry, UK;

Université Laval, Québec, Canada;

Laboratory for

Cognitive Investigations and Behavioural Genetics, Tomsk State University, Russia;

Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany;

Department

of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA;

The Ohio State University,

Columbus, Ohio, USA

y.kovas@gold.ac.uk; robert.plomin@kcl.ac.uk

Novelty. Academic motivation, encompassing a wide range of concepts related to

individuals’ educationally relevant beliefs, perceptions, interests, and attitudes plays a

central role in school achievement. Research suggested that the links between

motivation and achievement can largely be explained by overlapping genetic effects,

some of which are also involved in intelligence. We explored the etiology of two

constructs: enjoyment of learning (intrinsic motivation), and self-perceived ability

(academic self-concept) for different school subjects across school years, in several

thousand twins from 6 countries. The results showed a striking consistency across ages,

school subjects, and cultures. Overall, these constructs were found to be moderately

heritable. In terms of environmental influences, individual specific rather than family-

wide or classroom-wide environmental factors contributed to variance in enjoyment and

self-perceived ability. Being in the same class did not make children more similar in

their enjoyment and perceived ability than those attending different classes.

Importance. These results from 6 large representative samples provide convincing

evidence for the importance of non-shared environmental influences rather than family-

wide or class-wide environmental influences on enjoyment of learning and self-

perceived ability. Further research should focus on clarifying how the same educational

environment can create different experiences for different individuals. Moreover,

measures of motivation are not independent of intelligence and achievement as

motivation develops partly through feedback on performance. Future multivariate

genetic analyses should explore whether many of the genetic and non-shared

environmental effects on enjoyment and self-perceived ability are the same as those on

intelligence.

Methods. Self-reported evaluations of enjoyment and self-perceived ability, using

similar measures, were collected from several thousand participants from six different

twin studies: the UK twins at ages 9, 12 and 16; the Canadian twins at ages 10 and 12;

Japanese twins at ages 10, 11, 12, 13 and 16; the German twins at ages 9, 11 and 13; the

US twins at age 12; and the Russian twins at age 16. The relative contribution of genetic

and environmental factors to variation in enjoyment and self-perceived ability were

estimated from monozygotic and dizygotic intraclass correlations. For our analyses at

age 9 in the UK sample we used structural equation model fitting to assess whether

being in the same class for 8 or more months led to more similar level of enjoyment and

perceived ability for the two twins.

Individual Differences in Conscious Self-Regulation and Cognitive Characteristics

as Predictors of Academic Achievement

Varvara Morosanova

, Tatiana Fomina

, Irina Bondarenko

, Kseniya Sharafieva

, Elena

Ginku

, Olga Bogdanova

Psychological Institute, Russian Academy of Education, Moscow, Russia

Laboratory for Cognitive Investigations and Behavioural Genetics, Tomsk State

University, Russia

morosanova@mail.ru

Novelty. The importance of general intelligence and specific cognitive abilities for

learning success has been firmly demonstrated by the existing literature. In addition,

research also suggests an important role of non-cognitive factors in ensuring progress in

learning. In this study, we investigated whether self-regulation contributed to students’

academic success in mathematics, above and beyond intelligence and specific cognitive

abilities. The results showed that self-regulation was a significant independent predictor

of mathematical success, beyond the contribution of general intelligence and cognitive

abilities. Moreover, we found that different aspects of mathematical success were

explained by partly different cognitive and regulatory factors. We discuss the results

with the view that conscious self-regulation may serve as a metacognitive factor that is

involved in intellectual activity.

Importance. Understanding the complexity of the interrelationships among the

factors involved in individual differences in different aspects of academic achievement

can lead to progress in optimizing education.

Methods. The study used the data from 300 14-16 year old male and female students

in the 9th grades from several secondary schools. We assessed cognitive abilities

(spatial memory, number sense, nonverbal intelligence, and reaction time); general

intelligence; as well as 4 aspects of mathematical ability and achievement, including

standardized tests, school grades, and exam scores. To study the regulatory features, we

used "Style of Self-Regulation of Learning Activity Questionnaire", measuring the level

of self-regulation of students' learning activity. We used a grade for the year and

mathematics state exam score as measures mathematical achievement. Analyses of

variance examined any potential average and variance differences across different

classes and schools. Multiple regression analyses examined the predictors of different

aspects of mathematical success.

Is the Structure of Interrelationships among Intelligence, Cognitive Abilities and

Achievement Different in Selected, Self-Selected, and Unselected School

Populations?

Olga Ovcharova

1,2

, Sergey Malykh

1,2

, Tatiana Tikhomirova

1,2

, Tatiana Kolienko

Yulia Kovas

Laboratory for Cognitive Investigations and Learning, Tomsk State University, Russia

Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education

ovcharova.on@gmail.com; malykhsb@mail.ru; tikho@mail.ru; y.kovas@gold.ac.uk

Novelty. Previous research has identified a number of cognitive predictors of

mathematical achievement, including spatial ability, speed of information processing,

spatial memory, the so called ‘number sense’, as well as general intelligence. However,

it remains unclear whether the structure of the associations between such cognitive

processes and mathematical achievement is the same across the ability spectrum. For

example, does mathematical talent develop on the basis of different abilities from those

supporting mathematical performance in the normal range?

Our results support previous findings of the relationship between intelligence,

cognitive abilities, general intelligence, and achievement. However, the structure of the

interrelationships differed across the ability spectrum. In particular, factoring in

intelligence led to significant changes in this structure for the mathematically gifted

students, but not for students in the normal ability range.

Importance. Better understanding of how mathematical ability develops has

important implications for mathematical education overall, and for fostering

mathematical talent.

Methods. The study involved 855 students, divided into 4 groups: Mathematically

Gifted (371 students), Unselected (258 students), Self-selected (62 students) and Sports-

selected (164 students). Mathematically gifted students were recruited from specialist

Physics and Mathematics Schools, to which students are selected based on their

excellence in mathematics. Unselected students came from State secondary schools.

Students in the self-selected group came from a specialist Physics and Mathematics

School, which can be attended by anyone. However, it is expected that only highly

STEM motivated and achieving students select this school. Sports selected students

came from the vocational school which selects students based on good sports

achievement track record. A web-based battery of tests measured different aspects of

cognitive ability and intelligence, and several measures of mathematical performance

and achievement.

Testing Internal/External Frame of Reference Model across Academic Domains

and School Years

Ivan Voronin

1,2

, Maria Tosto

, Yulia Kovas

1,2,3,4

Laboratory for Cognitive Investigations and Behavioural Genetics, Tomsk State

University, Russia

Psychological Institute, Russian Academy of Education, Moscow, Russia

Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK

King’s College London, MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre,

Institute of Psychiatry, UK

ivan.a.voronin@gmail.com

Novelty. Academic achievement reflects a wide range of factors, from general

intelligence, to specific cognitive abilities, to personality and motivational factors, to

educational practices. Moreover, complex interrelationships have been suggested

among these different factors. Reciprocal internal/external frame of reference model

(Möller et al., 2011) is aimed to describe and explain the manifold relationships

between academic achievement and academic self-concept. In our study we show that

these relationships do not depend on general cognitive ability. We found that positive

within-domain effects and (weak) negative cross-domain effects of self-perceived

ability on achievement and vice versa persist over a long period of time.

Importance. Academic self-concept is a set of personal beliefs about one\'s academic

abilities and achievement. It is considered as one of the most important components of

general self-concept since it is strongly associated with motivation, achievement, and

life satisfaction. Within a specific domain the variability of academic self-concept is

explained mostly by academic achievement in the corresponding domain (however, this

effect is moderate: 0.21, Hansford & Hattie, 1982). Academic self-concept has small

positive reciprocal effect on the corresponding academic achievement (Marsh & Martin,

2011). Academic self-concepts in different domains are clearly differentiated. Across

domains academic achievement has negative effect on the academic self-concept. This

effect is explained by the processes of social comparison and internal dimensional

comparison of achievement in the development of the academic self-concept (Marsh,

1986). The reciprocal internal/external frame of the reference model was proposed to

integrate these findings (Möller et al., 2011).

Methods. We used longitudinal data from the Twin Early Development Study

(TEDS: Oliver & Plomin, 2007; Haworth, Davis, & Plomin, 2013) collected from the

same children when they were 9, 12 and 16 years of age. One child from each twin pair

was selected randomly to form the sample (7712 participants in total). Our measures of

achievement were literacy and mathematics teacher ratings at 9, web tests scores at 12,

and GCSE scores at 16. Language and mathematical self-concepts were assessed by

questionnaires measuring self-perceived ability. The data were adjusted by sex, age, and

g to exclude the potential bias. We fit a cross-lag cross-domain model to estimate within

and cross-domain relationships between self-concept and achievement. For the analysis

we used OpenMx package for R environment for statistical computations (Boker et al.,

2011, R Development Core Team, 2012).

PRESIDENT'S

SYMPOSIUM

The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth,

DNA Sequencing, Genetics, and the Phenotypic

Accomplishments of Profound Intellectual Talent

at Midlife

Forty Years Later:

What Happens to Mathematically Precocious Youth Identified at Age 12?

David Lubinski, Camilla P. Benbow, Harrison J. Kell

Vanderbilt University

david.lubinski@vanderbilt.edu; camilla.benbow@vanderbilt.edu;

harrison.j.kell@vanderbilt.edu

Preliminary findings from the first midlife follow-up of 1,650 participants from

the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth’s (SMPY) two oldest cohorts will be

presented. During 1972-1974 and 1976-1978, participants were identified at age 12 as

in the top 1% in mathematical reasoning ability. They were surveyed over the web from

January 2012 to February 2013 on their accomplishments, family, and personal well-

being. Particular attention will be devoted to their occupational status, creative

accomplishments, and mate preferences, as well as how they invest their time currently

and plan to in the future. Sex differences in occupational preferences, personal views,

and life values will be reviewed. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of

participants’ satisfaction with their careers, personal relationships, and lives in general.

Profound Intellectual Talent:

A Compelling Phenotype for Behavioral Genetics and Neuroscience Inquiry

Matthew C. Makel

, Harrison J. Kell

, David Lubinski

, Martha Putallaz

Camilla P. Benbow

Duke University

; Vanderbilt University

mmakel@tip.duke.edu; harrison.j.kell@vanderbilt.edu; david.lubinski@vanderbilt.edu;

putallaz@duke.edu; camilla.benbow@vanderbilt.edu

Two cohorts identified before age 13 as having profound mathematical or verbal

reasoning abilities (top 1 in 10,000) were tracked over three decades. One cohort (N =

320) was taken from the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), the

second (N = 271) was identified through Duke University’s Talent Identification

Program (TIP). Replicable findings across cohorts in terminal graduate degrees,

occupations, and creative accomplishments underscore that above-level assessment

procedures (e.g., administering college entrance exams to intellectually talented 12-

year-olds) are an efficient way to identify truly extra-ordinary human potential. That

the distinctiveness of their accomplishments is anticipated by early assessments of

ability level and pattern could inform multidisciplinary inquiry. Studying these special

populations from a behavioral genetics and neuroscience point of view could uncover

underlying mechanisms that give rise to differential development among the profoundly

gifted, and individual differences in intellectual talent more generally.

The Genetics of High Cognitive Abilities

Robert Plomin

, Michael A. Simpson

, Martin Cederlöf

, Paul Lichtenstein

King’s College London, United Kingdom

; Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

robert.plomin@kcl.ac.uk; michael.simpson@kcl.ac.uk; martin.cederlof@ki.se;

paul.lichtenstein@ki.se

Persons with extremely high intelligence offer unique advantages for gene-

hunters. Our Genetics of High Cognitive Abilities (GHCA) collaboration obtained

DNA from more than 2,000 of the highest-IQ individuals in Duke University’s Talent

Identification Program (TIP). These individuals are estimated to have IQ scores greater

than 150 and will be used as a case cohort in our High-IQ (HiQ) case-control project.

We have genotyped these individuals on the Illumina Exome array (HumanExome-

12v1-1_A) with 240,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in protein-coding

regions of the genome. The whole genomes of these samples are also being sequenced

at 40x coverage in collaboration with BGI. Although we do not as yet have results that

we can report from these ongoing analyses, we are able to report the results from the

first large-scale sibling and twin study of high IQ. Using cognitive assessments

administered to 3 million 18-year-old males as part of compulsory military service in

Sweden 1950-1990, we identified 370,00 sibling pairs and 9,000 twin pairs. The top

3% of intelligence composite scores was familial, heritable, and caused by the same

genetic and environmental factors responsible for the normal distribution of

intelligence. These results imply that any genetic effects identified in our HiQ project

will not be ‘genes for genius’; rather, they will apply to IQ throughout the distribution,

including low IQ.

Petaflop Computer Clusters Crunch Genomes of Giant Minds:

Collection, Sequencing, Analysis of the World’s Largest Extreme-IQ Genomic

Cohort

Laurent C. Asker Melchior Tellier

1,2

, Christopher Chang

, Bowen Zhao

James J. Lee

1,3

, Steven Hsu

1,4

BGI Cognitive Genomics Lab

; University of Copenhagen Biocenter

;

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

; University of Michigan

laurent@cog-genomics.org; chris@cog-genomics.org; james@cog-genomics.org;

steve@cog-genomics.org

Over 2,200 DNA samples have been gathered from subjects with very high IQ.

Many (n=1,688) were assessed and identified early on, in nation-wide talent

programmes. Others (n=548) have been enrolled and evaluated through protocols

specially implemented by the Cognitive Genomics Lab project. The procedures applied

for cohort phenotype assessment, the characteristics of the samples gathered so far, the

technology involved in their treatment and sequencing, and the bioinformatics methods

deployed in the genomic analysis, are reviewed. We describe the model of the genetics

of intelligence, variance, and mutation used in the study design, the reasoning

underlying this model, the implications on what types of variants we look for, and the

prospects for the collection of further, equivalent cohorts in East Asia and Scandinavia.

We state in advance that samples are currently undergoing sequencing - and

resequencing - in BGI’s recently acquired Complete Genomics technology, and that

analysis results therefore will not be revealed prematurely in the lecture or ensuing

Q&A.

The Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics

James J. Lee

1,2

, Christopher F. Chabris

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

; BGI Cognitive Genomics Lab

; Union College

leex2293@umn.edu; chabrisc@union.edu

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS), broadly understood, can utilize one

of many possible approaches, including: (1) a comparison of allele frequencies in

extreme cases and unselected controls; (2) the linear regression of the phenotype on

gene counts in samples of unselected individuals; (3) tests of linkage and association

between markers and causal variants within families. The advantages and disadvantages

of these approaches are complementary, and all should be pursued by scientists

interested in the genetic architecture of a particular phenotype. The advantage of the

case-control design—discussed by the previous speakers in relation to the ongoing

whole-genome sequencing of the Duke TIP cohort and high-IQ volunteers—is that in

the absence of confounding it most offers the most statistical power to detect the

variants of small effect that typically account for the genetic architectures of

quantitative traits.

The evidence for the pervasiveness of small-effect architectures is now strong

enough that we propose a "Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics": genetic variation in a

typical behavioral trait is attributable to thousands of variants scattered across the

human genome, each of which has a small effect. Some commentators have expressed

disappointment at these small effects, which are denigrated as academic curiosities with

little enduring scientific value. At first blush these claims, which cite the writings of

authorities such as Paul Meehl, seem to have some merit and thus appear to throw the

entire enterprise of gene hunting into disrepute. In this lecture I examine the

epistemological implications of the Fourth Law and conclude that gene-mapping studies

are in fact scientifically well justified.

KEYNOTES

Lifetime Achievement Award Address

Linda Gottfredson

President's Invited Address

Nicholas G. Martin

Keynote Address

Randall W. Engle

Holden Memorial Address On Science Writing

Elizabeth Finkel

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

AWARD ADDRESS

Linda Gottfredson

Empirical Treasure, Lost and Found

University of Delaware

gottfred@udel.edu

In 1904 Charles Spearman demonstrated that human intelligence is a general

capacity, that is, it aids performance in diverse activities and content domains. His

discovery lay fallow until Arthur Jensen realized how profound it was. This single fact

about intelligence, its generality, allowed him to predict that g’s genetic roots would be

dispersed in the genome and its physiological manifestations distributed across the

brain. He showed at the behavioral level that individual and group differences in g

generate predictable variations in performance whenever tasks require us to mentally

manipulate information—learn, reason, think abstractly, “connect the dots,” “figure

things out,” and so on. Jensen gradually built a theoretically coherent body of empirical

evidence, a nomological network, integrating many types of evidence and attracting

other scholars to the enterprise.

Jensen reintroduced Spearman’s discovery about the time I entered graduate

school (1973). It was the worst of times for objective inquiry into a trait so enmeshed in

socioeconomic outcomes. Social scientists were disparaging the notion of intelligence

and tests that measure it. Leading figures in my discipline, sociology, asserted that

differences in ability and achievement are manufactured by elites to maintain their

privileges. Some said that most everyone could do almost any job, and one that doctors

could work their way up from orderly.

Their assertions violated common sense, ignored evidence in other disciplines,

and assumed causal forces never demonstrated empirically. I therefore began looking

more deeply into mechanisms that might generate occupational inequality — not just

differences in the occupations individuals prefer and enter, but also how today’s finely

graded occupational prestige hierarchy evolved in the first place. That search soon led to

g and, more importantly, to asking exactly which aspects of a job magnify the

advantages of higher g. The answer, found in job analyses data, was anything that

increases the complexity of a job’s information processing demands: irrelevant, abstract,

additional, or insufficient information; ambiguity, novelty, and uncertainty; need to

continually update knowledge, draw inferences, spot lurking hazards, visualize the

unobservable, and much more. Complexity is also the active ingredient in IQ tests and

what modern life heaps upon us. We all have to contend with its proliferating cognitive

burdens, but they weigh more heavily on individuals lower on the IQ continuum or

experiencing normal age-related cognitive decline.

Following g’s footprints across the social landscape led me from one discipline

to another, each stopover replicating my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in South

East Asia—being the proverbial Man from Mars. It always yielded unexpected

insights. One was the transformative power of individually inconsequential effects that

cumulate over time, tasks, or populations. Another was that we can improve the welfare

of less able citizens—literally, reduce their disproportionately high odds of premature

death—without having to raise their intelligence. That is what occupies me now—

bringing critical tasks in health self-care within the cognitive reach of patients currently

unable to perform them effectively (i.e., “non-compliant” patients).

PRESIDENT'S INVITED

ADDRESS

Nicholas G. Martin

Emerging Evidence on the Molecular Genetics of

Cognition

Queensland Institute of Medical Research

nickM@qimr.edu.au

After decades of stagnation, there have been recent dramatic advances in the

genetics of cognition. These will be reviewed and future directions adumbrated.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Randall W. Engle

Working Memory Capacity

as a Mediating Variable

Georgia Institute of Technology

randall.engle@gatech.edu

Working memory capacity has the qualities of a trait, with identifiable brain

structures, neurotransmitters, and genetic factors associated with individual differences

in working memory capacity. This trait is associated with performance on a huge array

of real world tasks from complex learning to mind wandering to the prevention of

intrusive thought. WMC can also be thought of as a state variable in that many

conditions can lead to a reduction in trait WMC. Some examples are sleep deprivation,

drugs, and stereotype threat. I argue for a model in which WMC at the construct level is

a mediating variable for many different tasks in which control of attention is

important. I will also present an argument that working memory capacity and fluid

intelligence reflect two highly related but different abilities and data supporting that

argument.

HOLDEN MEMORIAL

ADDRESS ON SCIENCE

WRITING

Elizabeth Finkel

Navigating the Straits of the Genetics of

Intelligence Research

Science Journalist

Editor in Chief, Cosmos Magazine

ella.finkel@cosmosmedia.com

It’s a tough time to be a science writer. It’s not just the constant challenge of

mastering new fields in order to adjudicate between contested scientific views. There’s

also the distortion of scientific information by vested interests, and all of this

complicated by seemingly laxer standards in science publication. One need not look far

for examples: climate change, GM crops, vaccination…

But intelligence research raises the bar a whole order of magnitude—particularly

research on the genetics of intelligence. Many regard it as a Pandora’s Box. To some

extent we have been saved from the worst by the fact that genetics has, so far, been

unable to dig up the genes that underlie intelligence. That safeguard is about to be

shredded as the most powerful dig in history is underway at the Beijing Genomics

Institute. In this talk, I will share my trepidation as I attempt to journalistically navigate

the straits of the genetics of intelligence research.

INDEX

Adams, Mark James ......................... 75

Allebeck, Peter ................................. 56

Arden, Rosalind .................. 1, 7, 74, 75

Armstrong, Elijah Z. .................... 3, 12

Bacanu, Silviu A. ............................. 44

Badaró, Tatiana A. ....................... 3, 13

Baghurst, Peter ................................. 21

Bastin, Mark E. ................................ 17

Bates, Timothy C. ................................

...................... 1, 5, 6, 29, 38, 44, 54, 70

Bauer, Isabelle ................................. 36

Becker, David ......................... 3, 14, 53

Begg, Steve H. ................................. 69

Benbow, Camilla P. .............. 45, 84, 85

Benedek, Mathias............................. 51

Benson, Sarah ......................... 3, 15, 31

Billings, Clare E. W. .................... 3, 16

Bogdanova, Olga ............................. 80

Boivin, Michel ................................. 79

Bondarenko, Irina N. .................. 26, 80

Booth, Tom .................................. 2, 17

Borter, Natalie ..........................1, 4, 62

Bousman, Chad .......................... 28, 33

Brown, Robyn .................................. 40

Burns, Nicholas R. ..................... 21, 69

Camfield, David A. .......................... 36

Cederlöf, Martin ........................ 52, 86

Chang, Christopher .......................... 87

Chen, Xianging ................................ 44

Chetwynd, John G. ....................... 6, 55

Collins, George .............................. 1, 4

Corley, Janie .................................... 54

Cornoldi, Cesare .............................. 43

Cox, Katherine H. M. .............. 2, 18, 36

Coyle, Thomas R. ......... 1, 6, 14, 39, 53

Davies, Gail ............................... 44, 54

de Manzano, Örjan ....................1, 7, 49

Deary, Ian J. .............. 17, 29, 44, 47, 54

Delfabbro, Paul H. ........................... 69

Dodonov, Yury S. 1, 2, 4,19, 60, 61, 63

Dodonova, Yulia A. .............................

..................... 1, 2, 4, 19, 60, 61, 62, 63

Downey, Luke ................. 16, 22, 24, 30

Dramé, Cissé ................................ 2, 20

Dunst, Beate ..................................... 51

Earl, Rachel M. ............................ 2, 21

Engle, Randall .......................... 1, 7, 91

Fernandes, Heitor B. F. .................... 57

Figueredo, Aurelio José .................... 57

Findlay, Bruce .......................... 1, 9, 40

Finkel, Elizabeth ...................... 1, 8, 92

Fomina, Tatiana ............................... 80

Frey, Meredith C. ..................... 1, 4, 41

Garon-Carrier, Gabrielle .................. 79

Gignac, Gilles E. ...................... 1, 6, 42

Ginku, Elena .................................... 80

Giofrè, David ........................... 1, 4, 43

Goh, Antoinette ................................ 33

Gottfredson, Linda ................1, 4, 6, 89

Haley, Chris ..................................... 47

Hansell, Narelle K. ........................... 38

Hasselhorn, Marcus ...................... 2, 23

Hastie, Nick ..................................... 47

Hayward, Caroline ........................... 47

Hemmingsson, Tomas ...................... 56

Hill, David W. .......................... 1, 5, 44

Hsu, Steven ...................................... 87

Hogan, David ................................... 68

Hughes, Matthew ............................. 36

Iacono, William G. ........................... 27

Jackson, Simon A. .................... 1, 6, 67

Jauk, Emanuel .................................. 51

Johnson, Wendy ............................... 27

Kean, James D. ............................ 2, 22

Kell, Harrison J. ............ 1, 7, 45, 84, 85

Kleitman, Sabina ................. 1, 6, 66, 67

Kolienko, Tatiana............................. 81

Kovas, Yulia ........... 1, 8, 78, 79, 81, 82

Kudinov, Sergey I. ..................... 61, 63

Laurie-Rose, Cynthia ................... 4, 41

Ledovaya, Yanina .....................1, 9, 46

Lee, Jihyun ...............................1, 6, 68

Lee, James J. ....................... 1, 8, 87, 88

Lichtenstein, Paul....................... 52, 86

Liewald, David C. ...................... 44, 54

Loesche, Patrick ........................... 2, 23

Lomas, Justine E. .............. 3, 16, 24, 30

Lubinski, David ............ 1, 8, 45, 84, 85

Luciano, Michelle .....................1, 5, 47

Luo, Wenshu .................................... 68

Mackintosh, Nicholas..................... 1, 5

Macpherson, Helen N. ..............1, 7, 48

Madison, Guy ................... 3, 25, 49, 50

Maggini, Silvia ................................ 36

Malykh, Sergey B. ........ 1, 8, 78, 79, 81

Mammarella, Irene C. ...................... 43

Marioni, Riccardo E. ........................ 44

Martin, Nicholas G.............. 1, 4, 38, 90

McGue, Matt .................................... 27

McNeill, Geraldine .......................... 54

Mikhalchenko, Ksenia ................. 9, 46

Morosanova, Varvara I.... 1, 3, 8, 26, 80

Mosing, Miriam A ....................... 1, 50

Murayama, Kou ............................... 79

Murray, Aja L. ........................ 3, 17, 27

Neale, Chris ..................................... 36

Nettelbeck, Ted ................... 1, 6, 21, 64

Neubauer, Aljoscha C. ..............1, 4, 51

Nickeas, Brooke ........................... 3, 32

Nolidin, Karen J. ..................... 2, 28, 33

Null, Miranda C. .............................. 39

Ovcharova, Olga ...................... 1, 8, 81

Pase, Matthew ......... 1, 6, 70, 71, 72, 73

Pedersen, Nancy L. .......................... 50

Penning, Renske ............................... 34

Petrill, Stephen A. ............................ 79

Pipingas, Andrew ...... 18, 28, 33, 36, 48

Plomin, Robert .... 1, 5, 8, 52, 75, 79, 86

Plotnik, Joshua M. ............... 1, 7, 74, 76

Porteous, David J. ............................ 44

Prendergast, James ........................... 47

Purcell, Jason M. .............................. 39

Rammsayer, Thomas ........................ 62

Rindermann, Heiner ............ 1, 8, 14, 53

Ritchie, Stuart J. .............. 1, 2, 7, 29, 54

Savage, Karen M. ....................... 33, 36

Schokman, Chantelle M. .............. 3, 30

Scholey, Andrew B. .............................

1, 2, 6, 15, 18, 28, 31, 33, 36, 48, 72, 73

Sharafieva, Kseniya ......................... 80

Shcheblanova, Elena I. ..................... 26

Simmons, Nathan ............................. 30

Snyder, Anissa C. ............................. 39

Song, John H. .................. 1, 3, 6, 32, 55

Sörberg, Alma .......................... 1, 7, 56

Spinath, Frank .................................. 79

Stankov, Lazar .............. 1, 6, 64, 65, 68

Starr, John M. .......................17, 44, 54

Stockley, Creina ............................... 31

Stough, Con 1, 2, 16, 22, 24, 28, 30, 31,

33, 36, 70, 71, 72, 73

Strickland, Tracy .......................... 2, 35

Taylor, Alex H. ........................ 1, 7, 77

Thomson, Pippa ............................... 47

Tikhomirova, Tatiana ....................... 81

Tiplady, Brian .................................. 15

Tosto, Maria ..................................... 82

Troche, Stefan .................................. 62

Ullén, Fredrik........................ 25, 49, 50

Vargas, Robert ................................. 39

Verster, Joris C. ........................... 3, 34

Vitart, Veronique ............................. 47

Voronin, Ivan ............................1, 8, 82

Wardlaw, Joanna M. ........................ 17

Watkins, Marley W. ..................... 2, 35

Wellham, Dirk ................................. 30

Welsh, Matthew B.................... 1, 6, 69

Wheaton, Andrew ............................ 30

White, David J. ............................ 2, 36

Wiers, Reinout W. ............................ 34

Woodley, Michael A. 1, 3, 9, 12, 25, 57

Wright, Alan .................................... 47

Wright, Margaret J. .......................... 38

Zhao, Bowen .................................... 87

How is intelligence determined by the environment and genetics?

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This paper examines the intricate relationship between intelligence, genetics, and the environment, emphasizing how external factors and hereditary traits influence cognitive abilities. Intelligence is typically defined as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills, with its heritability shaped by genetic and environmental influences. The research reviews various studies that underscore the role of genetics in intelligence, including the significance of polygenic scores and behavioural genetics in predicting cognitive outcomes. Furthermore, it explores how environmental factors such as socioeconomic status, educational opportunities, and family dynamics contribute to the development of intelligence, especially during critical developmental periods. The paper also discusses the contentious interaction between genetic inheritance and environmental variability, positing that both elements collaborate in shaping intelligence. While genetics seems to have a more predominant impact as individuals grow older, environmental stimulation can boost the potential for intellectual advancement, highlighting the necessity of a cognitively stimulating environment for optimizing genetic capabilities. Ultimately, this study seeks to offer a nuanced perspective on intelligence as a result of both inherited and environmental factors, illuminating the complexities of this ongoing discourse in behavioral science. Keywords: COVID-19, Trauma, Continuous Traumatic Stress (CTS) Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Pandemic, Mental health, Cumulative trauma, Eating behaviors.

Association between parental education level and intelligence quotient of children referred to the mental healthcare system: a cross- sectional study in Poland

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GenomicSEM Modelling of Diverse Executive Function GWAS Improves Gene Discovery

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BEHAV GENET

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Abstrak Kembar monozygotic adalah kembar yang berasal dari pembuahan satu sel ovum yang kemudian mengalami pembelahan yang terjadi setelah fase morula. Kecerdasan adalah suatu sifat yang sangat kompleks, dan dapat memperkirakan banyaknya faktor yang menggerakkan perbedaan di antara setiap individu. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis faktor genetik dan faktor lingkungan serta heritabilitas yang terjadi terhadap kecerdasan pada kasus anak kembar identik. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah pendekatan studi kasus dengan tiga pasang kembar identik sebagai subjek penelitian. Data dikumpulkan melalui teknik wawancara, literatur, dan dokumentasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya perbedaan dari nilai IQ yang dihasilkan oleh setiap sepasang kembar: ZA:RI dengan nilai IQ 84:86; BA:BU dengan nilai IQ 100:104;dan KA:KE dengan nilai IQ 100:102. Hal ini berkaitan dengan variasi dalam tingkat kecerdasan mereka yang dipengaruhi oleh interaksi antara faktor genetik dengan faktor lingkungan. Faktor genetik memiliki peran signifikan dalam menentukan kecerdasan, namun lingkungan juga memberikan kontribusi yang penting. Disarankan untuk dilakukan penelitian lebih lanjut yang lebih mendalam mengenai interaksi antara faktor genetik dan lingkungan dalam membentuk kecerdasan anak kembar identik. Penelitian yang lebihh lanjut yang bisa memberikan wawasan yang lebih komprehensif dan relevan dalam memahami kompleksitas faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kecerdasan anak kembar identik.

Concerns over investigating the effect of air pollutants on disease risk utilizing Mendelian randomization

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J HAZARD MATER

Cognitive and Behavioral Consequences of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

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Louise M. O'Brien

Just one g: Consistent results from three test batteries

Article

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Jun 2004
INTELLIGENCE

The past, present, and future of psychiatric genetics

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Peter McGuffin

Introduction to quantitative genetics

Book

Jan 1996

Erratum: Common disorders are quantitative traits (American Journal of Hypertension (2009) 10 (872-878))

Article

Dec 2009

Just one g: Consistent results from three test batteries

Article

Feb 2004
INTELLIGENCE

The concept of a general intelligence factor or g is controversial in psychology. Although the controversy swirls at many levels, one of the most important involves g's identification and measurement in a group of individuals. If g is actually predictive of a range of intellectual performances, the factor identified in one battery of mental ability tests should be closely related to that identified in another dissimilar aggregation of abilities. We addressed the extent to which this prediction was true using three mental ability batteries administered to a heterogeneous sample of 436 adults. Though the particular tasks used in the batteries reflected varying conceptions of the range of human intellectual performance, the g factors identified by the batteries were completely correlated (correlations were .99, .99, and 1.00). This provides further evidence for the existence of a higher-level g factor and suggests that its measurement is not dependent on the use of specific mental ability tasks.

Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history and bibliography

Article

Jan 1997
INTELLIGENCE

Linda Gottfredson

This statement outlines conclusions re-garded as mainstream among researchers on intelligence, in particular, on the nature, ori-gins, and practical consequences of individu-al and group differences in intelligence. Its aim is to promote more reasoned discussion of the vexing phenomenon that the research has revealed in recent decades. The follow-ing conclusions are fully described in the major textbooks, professional journals and encyclopedias in intelligence.

Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history and bibliography

Article

Jan 1997
INTELLIGENCE

L. S. Gottfredson

Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies

Book

Jan 1993

J B Carroll

How intelligence happens

Article

Jan 2010

J. Duncan

Winner of the 2012 Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science, awarded to an individual who has done outstanding work in cognitive science. The prize draws attention to the importance of studying the cognitive functions of human and animals, a relatively new branch of science. The winners of the 2012 Heineken Prizes are chosen by independent juries appointed by the Royal Academy. The prizes are funded by the Dr. H.P. Heineken Foundation and the Alfred Heineken Fondsen Foundation. The award is given by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences endowed by Heineken Foundation. Professor Duncan is receiving the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science for his remarkable innovative, multidisciplinary research into the relationships between psychology, behaviour and intelligence on the one hand and neural processes on the other. His concepts have become a cornerstone of cognitive neuroscience. Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011 in the Psychology category. Human intelligence is among the most powerful forces on earth. It builds sprawling cities, vast cornfields, coffee plantations, and complex microchips; it takes us from the atom to the limits of the universe. Understanding how brains build intelligence is among the most fascinating challenges of modern science. How does the biological brain, a collection of billions of cells, enable us to do things no other species can do? In this book John Duncan, a scientist who has spent thirty years studying the human brain, offers an adventure story-the story of the hunt for basic principles of human intelligence, behavior, and thought. Using results drawn from classical studies of intelligence testing; from attempts to build computers that think; from studies of how minds change after brain damage; from modern discoveries of brain imaging; and from groundbreaking recent research, Duncan synthesizes often difficult-to-understand information into a book that will delight scientific and popular readers alike. He explains how brains break down problems into useful, solvable parts and then assemble these parts into the complex mental programs of human thought and action. Moving from the foundations of psychology, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience to the most current scientific thinking, How Intelligence Happens is for all those curious to understand how their own mind works.

Wellcome trust case control consortium 2 davis osp common dna markers can account for more than half of the genetic influence on cognitive abilities

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