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Academic Performance, Career Potential, Creativity, and Job Performance: Can One Construct Predict Them All?

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Nathan Kuncel at University of Minnesota
Nathan Kuncel
Sarah A Hezlett at University of Minnesota
Sarah A Hezlett
Deniz S. Ones at University of Minnesota
Deniz S. Ones
  • University of Minnesota
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Abstract

This meta-analysis addresses the question of whether 1 general cognitive ability measure developed for predicting academic performance is valid for predicting performance in both educational and work domains. The validity of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT; W. S. Miller, 1960) for predicting 18 academic and work-related criteria was examined. MAT correlations with other cognitive tests (e.g., Raven's Matrices [J. C. Raven, 1965]; Graduate Record Examinations) also were meta-analyzed. The results indicate that the abilities measured by the MAT are shared with other cognitive ability instruments and that these abilities are generalizably valid predictors of academic and vocational criteria, as well as evaluations of career potential and creativity. These findings contradict the notion that intelligence at work is wholly different from intelligence at school, extending the voluminous literature that supports the broad importance of general cognitive ability (g).
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Academic Performance, Career Potential, Creativity, and Job Performance:
Can One Construct Predict Them All?
Nathan R. Kuncel and Sarah A. Hezlett
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Deniz S. Ones
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus
This meta-analysis addresses the question of whether 1 general cognitive ability measure developed for
predicting academic performance is valid for predicting performance in both educational and work
domains. The validity of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT; W. S. Miller, 1960) for predicting 18
academic and work-related criteria was examined. MAT correlations with other cognitive tests (e.g.,
Raven’s Matrices [J. C. Raven, 1965]; Graduate Record Examinations) also were meta-analyzed. The
results indicate that the abilities measured by the MAT are shared with other cognitive ability instruments
and that these abilities are generalizably valid predictors of academic and vocational criteria, as well as
evaluations of career potential and creativity. These findings contradict the notion that intelligence at
work is wholly different from intelligence at school, extending the voluminous literature that supports the
broad importance of general cognitive ability (g).
Many laypeople, as well as social scientists, subscribe to the
belief that the abilities required for success in the real world differ
substantially from what is needed to achieve success in the class-
room. Yet, this belief is not empirically or theoretically supported.
A century of scientific research has shown that general cognitive
ability, or g, predicts a broad spectrum of important life outcomes,
behaviors, and performances. These include academic achieve-
ment, health-related behaviors, social outcomes, job performance,
and creativity, among many others (see Brand, 1987; Gottfredson,
1997; Jensen, 1998; Lubinski, 2000; Ree & Caretta, 2002;
Schmidt, 2002, for reviews of variables that display important
relations with cognitive ability). A particularly powerful demon-
stration of the influence of gcomes from Jencks et al. (1979) who
showed that even with background and socioeconomic status
(SES) controlled, cognitive ability measured at adolescence pre-
dicted occupational attainment. Cognitive ability “is to psychology
as carbon is to chemistry” (Brand, 1987, p. 257) because it truly
impacts virtually all aspects of our lives.
How is it that many people believe that the abilities required for
success in the real world differ substantially from what is needed
to achieve success in the classroom? Perhaps the fact that tests and
measures are often developed for particular settings (e.g., educa-
tional vs. occupational) has perpetuated this myth. The main
purpose of the current study is to evaluate whether a single test of
cognitive ability that was developed for use in educational settings
is predictive of behaviors, performances, and outcomes in both
educational and occupational settings. We first conduct a series of
meta-analyses to establish that the Miller Analogies Test (MAT;
Miller, 1960) assesses cognitive ability. We then report meta-
analyses examining the validity of the MAT for predicting multi-
ple criteria in academic and work settings, including evaluations of
career potential and creativity. The results address the theoretical
question of whether a single cognitive ability measure is valid for
predicting important criteria across domains. In this article, general
cognitive ability and gare defined as the underlying trait that leads
to the well-documented positive intercorrelation observed between
measures of cognitive behaviors. The phenomenon of ghas been
shown to have important, domain-general relationships with
knowledge, learning, and information processing, and the general
thesis of this article is that tests of general cognitive ability or gare
predictive of success in academic and work settings, regardless of
the setting for which they were developed.
Although our thesis and findings may surprise some readers, it
was our a priori expectation that the MAT would be a valid
predictor of a wide range of academic and work criteria, as well as
creativity and career potential. Our prediction was based on the
enormous literature that unequivocally demonstrates the existence
of a general factor of cognitive ability and its broad importance as
a predictor of numerous life outcomes (for reviews, see, Brand,
1987; Gottfredson, 2002). Therefore, this study builds on and
contributes to the substantial body of research already supporting
the nomological network in which the construct of gis embedded.
Nathan R. Kuncel, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at
Urbana–Champaign; Sarah A. Hezlett, Department of Human Resource
Education, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; Deniz S. Ones,
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus.
Nathan R. Kuncel gratefully acknowledges the National Science Foun-
dation for indirect support for this project through a graduate research
fellowship and the University of Minnesota for indirect support of this
project through an Eva O. Miller fellowship. We thank John P. Campbell,
Marcus Crede, Mark L. Davison, Ates Haner, Lloyd Humphreys, and
Frank L. Schmidt for their helpful comments and suggestions. We also
thank Barton Adams, Brian Griepentrog, Yoshani Keiski, Jeanette Shelton,
David Sowinski, and John Morton for their assistance in gathering the
articles summarized in this meta-analysis and Jennifer Vannelli and Lisa L.
Thomas for their assistance with manuscript preparation.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nathan
R. Kuncel, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana–
Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820. E-mail: nkuncel@uiuc.edu
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Copyright 2004 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
2004, Vol. 86, No. 1, 148–161 0022-3514/04/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.148
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Primary Mental Abilities
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This publication is the opening number of a series which the Psychometric Society proposes to issue. It reports the first large experimental inquiry, carried out by the methods of factor analysis described by Thurstone in The Vectors of the Mind 1. The work was made possible by financial grants from the Social Science Research Committee of the University of Chicago, the American Council of Education, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The results are eminently worthy of the assistance so generously accorded. Thurstone’s previous theoretical account, lucid and comprehensive as it is, is intelligible only to those who have a knowledge of matrix algebra. Hence his methods have become known to British educationists chiefly from the monograph published by W. P. Alexander8. This enquiry has provoked a good deal of criticism, particularly from Professor Spearman’s school ; and differs, as a matter of fact, from Thurstone’s later expositions. Hence it is of the greatest value to have a full and simple illustration of his methods, based on a concrete inquiry, from Professor Thurstone himself.
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