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It is common practice in the educational system to foster high mathematical abilities in schools as well as in specific promotional programs. Still, little is known about the construct of mathematical giftedness itself. In line with intellectual investment theories, our study investigates the relationship between fluid intelligence (figural and numerical), openness, and the need for cognition with mathematical abilities. The current study is based on a sample (N = 115) of seventh graders participating in the application process for a promotion program. The results of our regression analyses show a positive link between fluid intelligence and mathematical abilities. However, neither the association with openness nor the need for cognition reached significance, emphasizing the importance of cognitive abilities for mathematical giftedness. Limitations and further directions are discussed.

The German version of the Parenting stress Index from Abidin, the Eltern-Belastungs-Inventar (EBI) merely provides reference samples of 538 mothers of children in toddlers and preschool age. Although meant to measure parenting stress, there are no father specific reference samples provided. The aim was to investigate differences in parenting stress between fathers and the provided reference samples of German mothers. Furthermore, the aim was to examine potential differences in the perceived stress between fathers who did and those who did not take parental leave. A total of 497 fathers living in Germany, of which more than half took parental leave, filled out the questionnaire via an online survey or the paper-pencil-version. All fathers completed the EBI and provided socio-economic data. The collected data were analyzed in terms of test quality, such as mean and standard deviation, corrected item–total correlation and reliability. Moreover, differences between the provided norm data and our sample were calculated. Analyses showed that fathers reported significantly higher levels of parenting stress than mothers. Furthermore, fathers taking parental leave did not differ significantly from those who did not, regarding their level of education or their perceived parenting stress. In conclusion, as it stands right now, the EBI does not adequately measure parenting stress in fathers, and father specific norms are needed to properly assess their levels of parenting stress. The results concerning parenting stress and parental leave were thus inconclusive. Furthermore, since reducing parenting stress in fathers is beneficial for the child’s development and the welfare of the parents, further studies focusing on fathers’ parenting stress are needed.

Various studies have addressed the relationship between intelligence and executive functions (EF). There is widespread agreement that EF in preschool children is a unitary construct in which the subordinate factors of Updating, Inhibition, and Shifting are still undifferentiated and correlate moderately with a general factor of intelligence (g). The aim of this study is to investigate the common structural relationship between these two constructs using confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, we intend to close the gap of more daily life-associated executive functions and replicate findings in preschool-aged children. Data from a sample of N = 124 average developed children without severe impairments (aged 4 years 0 months–6 years 11 months) were analyzed using the data pool of the standardization and validation studies on the German Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence—Fourth Edition. Additionally, Executive functions were assessed using a standardized parent-completed questionnaire (BRIEF-P) on their children’s everyday behavior. A second-order factor solution revealed that a model with a loading of the common factor of general intelligence (g-factor) onto the EF factor fits the data best. To specify possible method effects due to different sources of measurements, a latent method factor was generated. The results indicate a heterogeneous method effect and a decreasing factor loading from g on to EF while controlling for the method factor.

In complex classification tasks, such as the classification of heterogeneous vegetation covers, the high similarity between classes can confuse the classification algorithm when assigning the correct class labels to unlabelled samples. To overcome this problem, this study aimed to develop a classification method by integrating graph-based semi-supervised learning (SSL) and an expert system (ES). The proposed method was applied to vegetation cover classification in a wetland in the Netherlands using Sentinel-2 and RapidEye imagery. Our method consisted of three main steps: object-based image analysis (OBIA), integration of SSL and an ES (SSLES), and finally, random forest classification. The generated image objects and the related features were used to construct the graph in SSL. Then, an independently developed and trained ES was used in the labelling stage of SSL to reduce the uncertainty of the process, before the final classification. Different spectral band combinations of Sentinel-2 were then considered to improve the vegetation classification. Our results show that integrating SSL and an ES can result in significantly higher classification accuracy (83.6%) compared to a supervised classifier (64.9%), SSL alone (71.8%), and ES alone (69.5%). Moreover, utilisation of all Sentinel-2 red-edge spectral band combinations yielded the highest classification accuracy (overall accuracy of 83.6% with SSLES) compared to the inclusion of other band combinations. The results of this study indicate that the utilisation of an ES in the labelling process of SSL improves the reliability of the process and provides robust performance for the classification of vegetation cover.

Despite their separate research traditions, intelligence and executive functioning (EF) are both theoretically and empirically closely related to each other. Based on a subsample of 8- to 20-year-olds of the standardization and validation sample (N = 1540) of an internationally available instrument assessing both cognitive abilities, this study aimed at investigating a comprehensive structural model of intelligence and EF tasks and at gaining insight into whether this comprehensive model is applicable across sexes and age groups as well as to a subsample of participants with (borderline) intellectual disabilities (IQ ≤ 85, n = 255). The results of our exploratory factor analysis indicated one common EF factor that could be sufficiently integrated into the intelligence model within our confirmatory factor analyses. The results suggest that the EF factor can be added into the model as a sixth broad ability. The comprehensive model largely showed measurement invariance across sexes and age groups but did not converge within the subsample of participants with (borderline) intellectual disabilities. The results and implications are discussed in light of the current literature.