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In the inspection time (IT) paradigm, participants view two lines of unequal length (called the Pi-figure) for a short exposure time, and then judge which of the two lines was longer. Early research has interpreted IT as a simple index of mental speed, which does not involve motor activity. However, more recent studies have associated IT with higher-level cognitive mechanisms, including focused attention, task experience, and the strategic use of visual illusions. The extent to which these factors affect IT is still a source of debate. We used an eye-tracker to capture participants’ ('N' = 147) visual attention while performing IT trials. Results showed that blinking was time-dependent, with participants blinking less when the Pi-figure was visible as compared to before and after. Blinking during the presentation of the Pi-figure correlated negatively with response accuracy. Also, participants who reported seeing a brightness illusion had a higher response accuracy than those who did not. The first experiment was repeated with new participants ('N' = 159), enhanced task instructions, and the inclusion of practice trials. Results showed substantially improved response accuracy compared to the first experiment, and no significant difference in response accuracy between those who did and did not report illusions. IT response accuracy correlated modestly ('r' = 0.18) with performance on a short Raven’s advanced progressive matrices task. In conclusion, performance at the IT task is affected by task familiarity and involves motor activity in the form of blinking. Visual illusions may be an epiphenomenon of understanding the IT task.

La inhibición constituye una de las principales funciones ejecutivas, siendo fundamental para otras habilidades más complejas, tales como la inteligencia fluida. Actualmente, existe acuerdo en distinguir tres procesos inhibitorios: inhibición perceptual, cognitiva y de la respuesta. Distintos estudios muestran que los tipos inhibitorios participan de manera diferencial en diversas habilidades, aunque no se registra evidencia sobre la relación diferencial de los mismos con la inteligencia fluida. Su estudio es especialmente importante durante los primeros años de la escuela primaria, donde los procesos inhibitorios estarían diferenciados y tanto ellos como la inteligencia fluida se vinculan con el desempeño de los niños en el ámbito escolar. Por estos motivos, este trabajo se propuso analizar la relación y contribución de la inhibición perceptual, cognitiva y de la respuesta con la inteligencia fluida en niños en los primeros años de la escuela primaria. Para ello, una muestra de niños de seis a ocho años de edad (N = 178) fue evaluada con una tarea de inhibición perceptual (test de percepción de diferencias y similitudes), una tarea de inhibición cognitiva (tarea de interferencia proactiva), una tarea de inhibición de la respuesta (basada en el paradigma stop signal) y una tarea de inteligencia fluida (test de matrices progresivas). Se encontraron correlaciones significativas entre la inhibición perceptual y de la respuesta con la inteligencia fluida (controlando la edad), pero solo la inhibición perceptual explica de manera significativa parte del rendimiento en la tarea de inteligencia fluida. Este estudio aporta datos específicos sobre la contribución de un tipo inhibitorio a la inteligencia fluida durante la niñez, así como evidencia empírica a favor del modelo no-unitario de la inhibición. Inhibition constitutes one of the main executive functions and it is important to more complex skills such as fluid intelligence. Actually, there is an agreement on distinguishing three inhibitory types: perceptual, cognitive and response inhibition. Several studies show the differential engagement of these inhibitory types in different skills. However, there is no registered evidence about the differential relation of inhibitory types with fluid intelligence. This inquiry is especially important during the first school years, since in this stage, inhibitory processes would already be differentiated, and inhibitory processes and fluid intelligence are linked to the performance of children in the school setting. For these reasons, the goal of this work is to study the relation and contribution of perceptual, cognitive, and response inhibition with fluid intelligence, in children in the first years of primary school. For that purpose, a sample of children from six to eight years old (N = 178) was tested with a perceptual inhibition task (perception of similarities and differences task); a cognitive inhibition task (proactive interference task); a response inhibition task (stop signal task); and a fluid intelligence task (progressive matrices task). We observed significant correlations between perceptual and response inhibition and fluid intelligence (controlling for age), but only perceptual inhibition explains significantly part of the performance in the fluid intelligence task. This study provides data about the specific contribution, during childhood, of an inhibitory type to fluid intelligence and contributes empirical evidence in support of the non-unitary approach of inhibition. Fil: Aydmune, Yésica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Psicología. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología.; Argentina Fil: Introzzi, Isabel Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Psicología. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología.; Argentina Fil: Zamora, Eliana Vanesa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Psicología. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología.; Argentina Fil: Stelzer, Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Psicología. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología.; Argentina

Working memory has been examined extensively using the N-back task. However, less is known about the neural bases underlying individual variation in the accuracy rate (AR) and reaction time (RT) as metrics of N-back performance. Whereas AR indexes the overall performance, RT may more specifically reflect the efficiency in updating target identify. Further, studies have associated fluid intelligence (Gf) with working memory, but the cerebral correlates shared between Gf and N-back performance remain unclear. We addressed these issues using the Human Connectome Project dataset. We quantified the differences in AR (critical success index or CSI) and RT between 2- and 0-backs (CSI2–0 and RT2–0) and identified the neural correlates of individual variation in CSI2–0, RT2–0, and Gf, as indexed by the number of correct items scored in the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) test. The results showed that CSI2–0 and RT2–0 were negatively correlated, suggesting that a prolonged response time did not facilitate accuracy. At voxel p 2–0 and positive correlation with RT2–0. In contrast, a cluster in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) bordering the SMA showed activities in positive correlation with CSI2–0 and negative correlation with RT2–0. Further, path analyses showed a significant fit of the model dACC → RT2–0 → CSI2–0, suggesting a critical role of target switching in determining performance accuracy. Individual variations in RT2–0 and Gf were positively correlated, although the effect size was small (f2 = 0.0246). RT2–0 and Gf shared activities both in positive correlation with the preSMA, biFPC, rAI, and dorsal precuneus. These results together suggest inter-related neural substrates of individual variation in N-back performance and highlight a complex relationship in the neural processes supporting 2-back and RSPM performance.

Objectives: To analyze the impact of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ambient air at the time of delivery and five years of age on cognitive development in five year old children. Materials and Methods: Two cohorts of children born in the years 2013 and 2014 from Karvina (Northern Moravia, n = 70) and Ceske Budejovice (Southern Bohemia, n = 99) were studied at the age of five years for their cognitive development related to the exposure to PAHs, determined in the ambient air as the concentration of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and OH&ndash, PAH (hydroxy-PAH) metabolites in urine of the newborns at the time of delivery. As psychological tests, the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BG test) and the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM test) were used. Results: Concentrations of B[a]P in the third trimester of mother&rsquo, s pregnancies were 6.1 &plusmn, 4.53 ng/m3 in Karvina, and 1.19 &plusmn, 1.28 ng/m3 (p &lt, 0.001) in Ceske Budejovice. Neither the outcome of the RCPM test nor the BG test differed between children in Karvina vs. Ceske Budejovice, or boys vs. girls. Cognitive development in five year old children was affected by the higher exposure to PM2.5 during the third trimester in girls in Karvina. Conclusions: We did not observe any significant effect of prenatal PAH exposure on psychological cognitive tests in five year old children.

Although prior theory suggests that rumination contributes to cognitive impairments associated with depression, recent work suggests that rumination is associated with higher levels of intelligence. The present study examined the relations between two ruminative subtypes (brooding and reflective pondering) and multiple measures and types of intelligence (verbal and performance) after controlling for rumination's overlapping variance with depression. Participants were 751 individuals from the Colorado Longitudinal Twin Study who completed the Ruminative Response Scale; the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale and a fully structured clinical interview as measures of depression; and verbal and performance intelligence tasks at age 16 and the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices at age 23. Reflective pondering was positively associated with all measures of intelligence, whereas brooding was not associated with intelligence. Our findings indicate that any negative associations between rumination and intelligence are attributable to shared variance with depression, and that examination of rumination as a multifaceted construct may provide new insights into the relations between rumination and cognition.

Genetic quality may be expressed through many traits simultaneously, and this would suggest a phenotype-wide fitness factor. In humans, intelligence has been positively associated with several potential indicators of genetic quality, including ejaculate quality. We conducted a conceptual replication of one such study by investigating the relationship between intelligence (assessed by the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices Test–Short Form) and ejaculate quality (indexed by sperm count, sperm concentration, and sperm motility) in a sample of 41 men (ages ranging 18 to 33 years; M = 23.33; SD = 3.60). By self-report, participants had not had a vasectomy, and had never sought infertility treatment. We controlled for several covariates known to affect ejaculate quality (e.g., abstinence duration before providing an ejaculate) and found no statistically significant relationship between intelligence and ejaculate quality; our findings, therefore, do not match those of Arden, Gottfredson, Miller et al. or those of previous studies. We discuss limitations of this study and the general research area and highlight the need for future research in this area, especially the need for larger data sets to address questions around phenotypic quality and ejaculate quality.

Research on sex differences in the association of psychopathy with fluid intelligence is limited, and it remains unknown if fluid intelligence plays a meaningful role in explaining the psychopathy–aggression link for men and women. The present study aimed to test for sex differences in the relation between the four-facet model of psychopathy and intelligence, and to assess whether fluid intelligence moderates the link between psychopathy and aggression. In a community sample of men ( n = 356) and women ( n = 196), we assessed psychopathy using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), fluid intelligence using the Raven’s Progressive Matrices, and types of aggression using the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ). Hierarchical regressions showed that the psychopathy lifestyle facet was negatively associated with intelligence and there were no sex differences. Our analyses for types of aggression revealed sex differences and similarities. For both men and women, total AQ scores were predicted by higher antisocial facet scores. Lower intelligence moderated the link between higher antisocial facet scores and aggression in men, but not for women. Physical aggression in women was associated with higher interpersonal, affective, and antisocial facet scores, whereas for men, it was only associated with higher antisocial facet scores. Verbal and indirect aggression were associated with higher intelligence in both men and women. For men only, higher antisocial facet scores were associated with verbal and indirect aggression. Higher intelligence moderated the link between the lifestyle facet and indirect aggression for women, whereas for men, it moderated the link between the affective facet and indirect aggression. This study further highlights sex differences in mechanisms of psychopathy-related aggression, which need to be considered in the development of violence interventions and risk assessment.

Introduction : Occupational therapists perform assessment of cognitive abilities, including executive functions, in adults in a variety of practice fields. In vocational rehabilitation, these assessments are performed to determine how impairment in cognitive ability impacts on occupational performance. Executive function is understood to be cognitive processes associated with inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, reasoning and problem solving. The Hirebright Cognitive Ability Test (H-CAT), a general cognitive ability measuring instrument developed for pre-employment screening, has not been validated for clinical use in South Africa. Methodology : The aim of this study was two-fold: first, to evaluate the content validity of the H-CAT through content expert rating and item-objective congruency (IOC). Secondly, the researchers evaluated the convergent validity of the H-CAT through correlating scores of the H-CAT with an existing measure, the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), using retrospective data from the Hirebright database. Results : Item-objective congruency calculation yielded results indicating acceptable content validity (IOC values from 0.60 to 0.80) in the majority of the items (43/45) in the H-CAT. In a sample of N=20, correlation of the Raven SPM raw scores and the H-CAT raw scores yielded evidence (r = 0.89; p = 0.00) for convergent validity. Key words : general cognitive ability, executive function, content validity, convergent validity

Roma children have been discriminated against for many years as they are denied access to high-quality education based on their scores on general non-verbal IQ tests. Rushton et al. (2007) showed that Roma perform more poorly than non-Roma on one such test (i.e., Raven Progressive Matrices), but suggest that this underperformance could be explained by Roma’s low socio-economic status. In this paper, we tested the non-verbal abilities of Roma children and expanded on the research of Rushton et al. (2007) by investigating empirically the potential mediating effects of socio-economic status on children’s performance on Raven Progressive Matrices. Results showed that the performance of Roma children was, on average, significantly lower than the performance of their non-Roma peers; however, the effect of ethnicity was partially mediated by the parents’ education and living conditions (while the parents’ income had no significant effect). As hypothesized by Rushton et al. (2007) some socio-economic factors can explain important variability in the performance of Roma children on general non-verbal tests, and their poor performance on such tests may lead to an underestimation of the true population mean.

Cognitive disorders are increasing in prevalence. Nutritional or metabolic stressors during early life, and female sex, are predisposing conditions towards the development of cognitive diseases, including Alzheimer&rsquo, s disease. Though there is evidence that breastfeeding may play a beneficial role in children&rsquo, s neurocognitive development, the literature remains controversial. In this study we aimed at assessing the association between exclusive breastfeeding and children&rsquo, s cognitive development from six months to five years of age, addressing sex differences. In 80 mother-child pairs from the Pisa birth cohort (PISAC), we measured cognitive development in groups of children of 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, and 60 months by Griffiths Mental Development Scales, parents&rsquo, intelligence quotient (IQ) by Raven&rsquo, s progressive matrices, and maternal and infants&rsquo, anthropometric parameters. We found that exclusive breastfeeding was associated with higher hearing-language development in five years old girls, independent of maternal IQ, age and BMI (body mass index). Exclusive breastfeeding in the first three months of life seemed sufficient to establish this positive relationship. In conclusion, our data indicate that exclusive breastfeeding is a positive predictor of cognitive development in preschool-age girls, paving the way for the implementation of sex-specific cognitive disease risk detection and prevention strategies from early life. Further studies are warranted to explore causality and longer term effects.

The last series of Raven’s standard progressive matrices (SPM-LS) test was studied with respect to its psychometric properties in a series of recent papers. In this paper, the SPM-LS dataset is analyzed with regularized latent class models (RLCMs). For dichotomous item response data, an alternative estimation approach based on fused regularization for RLCMs is proposed. For polytomous item responses, different alternative fused regularization penalties are presented. The usefulness of the proposed methods is demonstrated in a simulated data illustration and for the SPM-LS dataset. For the SPM-LS dataset, it turned out the regularized latent class model resulted in five partially ordered latent classes. In total, three out of five latent classes are ordered for all items. For the remaining two classes, violations for two and three items were found, respectively, which can be interpreted as a kind of latent differential item functioning.

The world population is rapidly aging, bringing together the necessity to better understand the advancing age. This characterization may be used to aid early diagnosis and to guide individually-tailored interventions. While some event-related potential (ERP) components, such as the P300 and late positive complex (LPC), have been associated with fluid intelligence (Gf) in young population; little is known whether these associations hold for older people. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to assess whether these ERP components are associated with Gf in the elderly. Fifty-seven older adults performed a continuous performance task (CPT) and a visual oddball paradigm while EEG was recorded. Participants were divided into two groups, according to their performance in the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices test: high-performance (HP) and low-performance (LP). Results showed that the HP group, compared to the LP group, had higher LPC amplitudes in the CPT and shorter P300 latencies in the oddball task, highlighting the role of ERP components as a potential electrophysiological proxy of Gf abilities in the elderly., We thank Camara Municipal de Vila Nova de Famalicao (Dr. Rui Baptista and Bruno Gomes), Associacao Geracoes (Dr. Cristiana Oliveira, Clara and Daniela Silva), Santa Casa da Misericordia de Barcelos (Dr. Ricardo Vieira and Dr. Helder Longras), and Fundacao Bomfim (Dr. Raquel Polonia) for hosting the study; all the volunteers for their participation, as well as, Silvia Alves, Carla Barros, Anabela Fernandes and our colleagues from the Psychological Neuroscience Laboratory for all the help during data collection and recruitment. This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [Doctoral Grants No. SFRH/BD/80965/2011 (awarded to ACT) and No. PD/BD/105964/2014 (awarded to DRP)] and by the Bial Foundation (Grant Number #286/16). It was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (Grant Number UID/PSI/01662/2019), through the national funds (PIDDAC). DP was supported by FCT (Grant Number SFRH/BPD/120111/2016). SC was funded by the FCT (Grant Number IF/00091/2015) and COMPETE 2020 (Grant Number PTDC/PSI-ESP/29701/2017).

Raven’s Progressive Matrices are a benchmark originally designed to test the cognitive abilities of humans. It has recently been adapted to test relational reasoning in machine learning systems. For this purpose the so-called Procedurally Generated Matrices dataset was set up, which is so far one of the most difficult relational reasoning benchmarks. Here we show that deep neural networks are capable of solving this benchmark, reaching an accuracy of 98.0 percent over the previous state-of-the-art of 62.6 percent by combining Wild Relation Networks with Multi-Layer Relation Networks and introducing Magnitude Encoding, an encoding scheme designed for late fusion architectures.

Summary Background Nutrition plays a pivotal role in brain development throughout life. Sub-optimal intellectual ability and poor school performance are said to be among the long term effects of malnutrition. The aim of this study was to determine the association between nutritional status of the participants, their intelligence quotient (IQ) and academic performance. Methods Children aged 6–12 years who met the inclusion criteria were recruited from the public and private primary schools in the local government area using a proportionate multistage sampling technique. Weight and height were measured using standard protocols and interpreted as normal or abnormal using the World Health Organization AnthroPlus®. IQ was assessed using the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices and was grouped into optimal and suboptimal. Academic performance was assessed using the past records of class assessment, and was classified into high, average and low academic performance. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain data such as–age, gender, socioeconomic indices and family size of the study participants. Results The prevalence of underweight, thinness (wasting), stunting, overweight and obesity were 2.0%, 3.6%, 2.1%, 6.7%, and 4.2%, respectively. Indices of over-nutrition were significantly associated with optimal IQ and good academic performance. There was a trend in the association between wasting and suboptimal intelligence [AOR (95%CI) = 1.5 (1.0–3.0), p = 0.06]. Conclusion Acute and chronic under-nutrition did not adversely affect the IQ and academic performance of the study population. The relationship between over-nutrition, IQ and academic performance disappeared when socio-economic status was controlled for.

We analyze a 12-item version of Raven&rsquo, s Standard Progressive Matrices test, traditionally scored with the sum score. We discuss some important differences between assessment in practice and psychometric modelling. We demonstrate some advanced diagnostic tools in the freely available R package, dexter. We find that the first item in the test functions badly&mdash, at a guess, because the subjects were not given exercise items before the live test.

Humans create teams to be more successful in a large variety of tasks. Groups are characterized by an emergent property called collective intelligence, which leads them to be smarter than single individuals. Previous studies proved that collective intelligence characterizes both real and online environments, focusing on adults&rsquo, performances. In this work, we explored which factors promote group success in an offline and online logical task with adolescents. Five hundred and fifty high school students participated in the experiment and faced Raven&rsquo, s Advanced Progressive Matrices, first by themselves using the computer, then in a group. Groups interactions could have been computer-mediated or face-to-face, and the participants were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions. Results suggest that groups perform better than singles, regardless of the experimental condition. Among adolescents, online groups performance was negatively affected by participants&rsquo, average perception of group cohesion, the difficulty of the problem, and the number of communicative exchanges that occur in the interaction. On the contrary, the factors that improve their performances were the average intelligence of the teammates, their levels of neuroticism, and the group heterogeneity in terms of social abilities. This work contributes to the literature with a comprehensive model of collective intelligence among young people.

Background:. Epilepsy correlates with high limitation value, disability and function loss which can give negative impact to patient's quality of life. This negative impact correlates with either epilectic seizures (motoric, sensory and behavior) or effects of anti-epileptic drugs that can cause cognitive impairment, which in this case is intelligence aspect with handicap in epilepsy patients. We determined correlation between intelligence level and handicap degree in epilepsy patients. Methods: The research was conducted in patients of Neurological Department of Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia, who met inclusion and exclusion criteria, consecutively from July 2013-December 2013. Intelligence test was conducted using Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) test, while test on handicap degree was conducted using Subjective Handicap Epilepsy (SHE) test. Results: There were 40 research subjects (19 females and 21 males) with average age of 30.9±9.6. The average score of SHE was 70.08±16/69, while the average score of SPM was 88.53±10.34. There was a weak positive correlation and statistically significant correlation between SPM and SHE scores (r = 0.345 and p = 0.029). Conclusion: There was a correlation between intelligence level and handicap degree in epilepsy patients.

Introduction:intellectual capacity measured as intelligence quotient (IQ) is one of the determinants of school performance of children. It influences academic achievement, future personal health, social well-being and therefore, is of public health significance. The objectives of the study was to determine the intelligence quotient (IQ) and academic performance of primary school children in Enugu-East LGA. Methods:children who met the inclusion criteria were recruited from both public and private primary schools in the Local Government Area (LGA) using a proportionate multistage sampling technique. Academic performance was classified into high, average and low academic using past records of class assessment. Intelligence Quotient was assessed using the Raven´s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) and was grouped into optimal and suboptimal. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain data such as-age, gender, socio-economic indices and family size of the study participants. Analysis was done with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS). Results:a total of 1,122 pupils aged 6 to 12 years were recruited. Optimal IQ and high academic performance was found in 54.0% and 58.8% of the study participants. Being from upper social class, in private school, and family size less than 4 were the significant determinants of high IQ and good academic performance (p4 children) and improve the socio-economic status of families are needed environmental measures to improve intelligence and academic performance.

To investigate factors associated with cognitive functioning in healthy adolescents, a school-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 1370 adolescents aged 11–16 years that were randomly selected from all governorates of Kuwait. Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), a non-verbal test of intelligence, was used to measure cognitive functioning of the study participants. Data on predictors of cognitive functioning were collected from parents and adolescents. Weight and height of the participants were measured in a standardized manner and blood samples were tested in an accredited laboratory under strict measures of quality control. In multivariable linear regression analysis, factors that showed significant association with the SPM score were gender (p = 0.002), season of birth (p = 0.009), place of residence (p

Background: The study aimed to investigate the relationships between F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F)FDG uptake and neuropsychological assessment in Alzheimer&rsquo, s disease (AD). Methods: We evaluated 116 subjects with AD according to the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. All the subjects underwent a brain PET/CT with (18F)FDG, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assay, mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and further neuropsychological tests: Rey auditory verbal learning test, immediate recall (RAVLT immediate), Rey auditory verbal learning test, delayed recall (RAVLT, delayed), Rey complex figure test, copy (RCFT, copy), Rey complex figure test, delayed recall (RCFT, delayed), Raven&rsquo, s colored progressive matrices (RCPM), phonological word fluency test (PWF) and Stroop test. We performed the statistical analysis by using statistical parametric mapping (SPM12, Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, London, UK). Results: A significant relationship has been reported between (18F)FDG uptake and RAVLT immediate test in Brodmann area (BA)37 and BA22 and with RCFT, copy in BA40, and BA7. We did not find any significant relationships with other tests. Conclusion: In the AD population, brain (18F)FDG uptake is moderately related to the neuropsychological assessment, suggesting a limited impact on statistical data analysis of glucose brain metabolism.

Multilingualism and linguistic diversity are the norm in India. Although studies have shown a relation between bilingualism and cognitive gains, linguistic diversity has so far been ignored as a potential factor affecting cognitive skills. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how cognitive skills&mdash, as measured by the n-back and Raven&rsquo, s Colored Progressive Matrices tasks&mdash, are affected by multilingualism and/or sociolinguistic diversity in a large cohort of socioeconomically disadvantaged primary school children in two urban sites of India: Delhi and Hyderabad. We present a questionnaire estimating sociolinguistic diversity and show that this measure assesses a distinct construct, as compared to a child&rsquo, s multilingualism. Children were classified as growing up monolingually or bilingually, depending on whether they grew up with one or more languages in the home. Regarding cognitive performance, bilinguals were found to outperform monolinguals on the n-back task, as well as on the Raven&rsquo, s task. In addition, a socially and linguistically diverse environment seems to enhance cognitive performance for children who are not multilingual themselves. Finally, several contextual factors such as city were found to influence cognitive performance. Overall, this shows that cognitive tasks are subject to contextual effects and that bilingualism and linguistic diversity can enhance cognitive performance of children in disadvantaged contexts.

Distractors might display discriminatory power with respect to the construct of interest (e.g., intelligence), which was shown in recent applications of nested logit models to the short-form of Raven&rsquo, s progressive matrices and other reasoning tests. In this vein, a simulation study was carried out to examine two effect size measures (i.e., a variant of Cohen&rsquo, s &omega, and the canonical correlation RCC) for their potential to detect distractors with ability-related discriminatory power. The simulation design was adopted to item selection scenarios relying on rather small sample sizes (e.g., N = 100 or N = 200). Both suggested effect size measures (Cohen&rsquo, only when based on two ability groups) yielded acceptable to conservative type-I-error rates, whereas, the canonical correlation outperformed Cohen&rsquo, in terms of empirical power. The simulation results further suggest that an effect size threshold of 0.30 is more appropriate as compared to more lenient (0.10) or stricter thresholds (0.50). The suggested item-analysis procedure is illustrated with an analysis of twelve Raven&rsquo, s progressive matrices items in a sample of N = 499 participants. Finally, strategies for item selection for cognitive ability tests with the goal of scaling by means of nested logit models are discussed.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether EEG resting state connectivity correlates with intelligence. One-hundred and sixty five participants took part in the study. Six minutes of eyes closed EEG resting state was recorded for each participant. Graph theoretical connectivity metrics were calculated separately for two well-established synchronization measures [weighted Phase Lag Index (wPLI) and Imaginary Coherence (iMCOH)] and for sensor- and source EEG space. Non-verbal intelligence was measured with Raven’s Progressive Matrices. In line with the Neural Efficiency Hypothesis, path lengths characteristics of the brain networks (Average and Characteristic Path lengths, Diameter and Closeness Centrality) within alpha band range were significantly correlated with non-verbal intelligence for sensor space but no for source space. According to our results, variance in non-verbal intelligence measure can be mainly explained by the graph metrics built from the networks that include both weak and strong connections between the nodes.

In cognitive tasks, solvers can adopt different strategies to process information which may lead to different response behavior. These strategies might elicit different eye movement patterns which can thus provide substantial information about the strategy a person uses. However, these strategies are usually hidden and need to be inferred from the data. After an overview of existing techniques which use eye movement data for the identification of latent cognitive strategies, we present a relatively easy to apply unsupervised method to cluster eye movement recordings to detect groups of different solution processes that are applied in solving the task. We test the method's performance using simulations and demonstrate its use on two examples of empirical data. Our analyses are in line with presence of different solving strategies in a Mastermind game, and suggest new insights to strategic patterns in solving Progressive matrices tasks.

The study aimed to investigate the effect of a training program on improving working memory for students with learning difficulties in reading Arabic. The study sample consisted of (10) students with learning disabilities from Basic Education students from the fifth and sixth grades, and those between the ages (10-11) years as a pilot group and (10) students from the same stage and of the same age as a control group. The researcher used a working memory battery, Raven Test, and a training program he prepared to achieve the study goal. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences in the fields of working memory scale between the members of the experimental and control groups in the dimensional measurement, and in favor of the experimental group to which the training program was applied, by applying the measure of working memory in its three fields. The results also showed that there are statistically significant differences between the pre and post measurements of the areas of the working memory scale in favor of the post application, and for the benefit of the experimental group,This confirms the effectiveness of the training program used. Some recommendations were suggested.

Distractors might display discriminatory power with respect to the construct of interest (e.g., intelligence), which was shown in recent applications of nested logit models to the short-form of Raven’s progressive matrices and other reasoning tests. In this vein, a simulation study was carried out to examine two effect size measures (i.e., a variant of Cohen’s ω and the canonical correlation RCC) for their potential to detect distractors with ability-related discriminatory power. The simulation design was adopted to item selection scenarios relying on rather small sample sizes (e.g., N = 100 or N = 200). Both suggested effect size measures (Cohen’s ω only when based on two ability groups) yielded acceptable to conservative type-I-error rates, whereas, the canonical correlation outperformed Cohen’s ω in terms of empirical power. The simulation results further suggest that an effect size threshold of 0.30 is more appropriate as compared to more lenient (0.10) or stricter thresholds (0.50). The suggested item-analysis procedure is illustrated with an analysis of twelve Raven’s progressive matrices items in a sample of N = 499 participants. Finally, strategies for item selection for cognitive ability tests with the goal of scaling by means of nested logit models are discussed.

Background: Educational psychology research has linked fluid intelligence (Gf) with working memory (WM), but it is still dubious whether electroencephalography (EEG) markers robustly indicate Gf. This study addresses this issue and notes the relationship between WM task-related EEG markers with Gf and academic performance. Method: A sample of 62 healthy children between the ages of 9 and 12 years was selected to perform three tasks: (1) Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) test to assess Gf; (2) 2-back task to assess central executive system (CES); and (3) the delayed match-to-sample task to assess short-term storage. These subjects were divided into high ability (HA) and low ability (LA) groups based on their RSPM scores. Support vector machine and logistic regression were used to train the EEG candidate indicators. A multiple regression was used to predict children’s academic performance using P3 amplitude, P2 latency, and θ-ERS. Results: Behavioral results demonstrated that the correct rate of the HA group is higher than that of the LA group. The event-related potential results of the 2-back task showed that the P3 amplitude of the HA group was relatively larger and that the P2 latency was shorter than that observed in the LA group. For the delayed matching to sample task, the θ-ERS of the LA group was higher than that of the HA group. However, the area under curve of these three indicators for Gf was

The aim of the study was to investigate the associations between fluid intelligence and creativity among young adults. The sample consisted of 26 university students who were recruited through convenience sampling method. The Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) 9 item-form and a divergent thinking test were used to measure fluent intelligence and creativity, respectively. In order to examine the associations between creativity and fluent intelligence correlational analysis was applied. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient revealed that there was no significant relationship between the tests of divergent thinking and RSPM total score. On the other hand, the results showed a significant positive correlation between the RSPM visuospatial factor and both fluency (r=.47, p

The aim of the current research is to analyse the relationship between the socioeconomic status (SES) of parents and intellectual abilities (IQ) of preschool children of Serbian territory, and in particular how SES factors relate to preschool children’s IQ measured with Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM), in the different age groups. The research included 430 parents and 430 preschool children. A confirmatory factor analysis of the SES questionnaire revealed five factors: educational and professional status of father and mother, residential and educational status of the family, sport status of parents and comfort of family housing. No gender differences in IQ levels were found in children. Multiple linear regression at four age groups showed that the educational status of the parents and residential and educational status of the family was positively correlated with the IQ at the older groups of preschool children. Two groups of children with the lowest and highest Raven’s CPM scores (1st and 4th quartiles) were used in the Logistic Regression, which determined the significant predictive value of SES factor in children with low Raven’s CPM scores. The results of the current research are in line with other studies on the topic, emphasizing the critical role of social environment for cognitive abilities of children.

Background The Landscape Montage Technique was originally developed by Hisao Nakai, a Japanese psychiatrist, to pursue the possibility and application of a psychotherapeutic approach using drawing for patients with schizophrenia. Drawing was initially adopted to evaluate patients with an impaired ability for verbal expression, particularly for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Since its development, the Landscape Montage Technique has been utilized in various clinical settings throughout Japan. This study aimed to evaluate the psychiatric conditions of a patient diagnosed as having primary progressive aphasia using the Landscape Montage Technique at a 3-year follow-up. Case presentation We present the case of a 64-year-old, right-handed Japanese woman initially diagnosed as having logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia or logopenic aphasia. At a 3-year follow-up, logopenic aphasia progressed to behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia or frontotemporal dementia. According to her husband, she began to have speech difficulties approximately 5 years before her first visit. The results of neurocognitive tests suggested mild cognitive impairment or early stages of dementia. Her clinical dementia rating score was 0.5, suggesting a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment. She had a Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices score of 31 out of 36, which indicated a nonverbal cognitive ability that was greater than the 90th percentile for her age. The Japanese Standard Language Test of Aphasia, which was performed at two points during the follow-up, indicated the possibility for a diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia given the progression of her aphasia. Based on her clinical symptoms and Japanese Standard Language Test of Aphasia results, a diagnosis of logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia was established. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed severe predominant left frontal and anterior temporal atrophy, as well as bilateral parietal atrophy. Amyloid beta deposition was negative. At the 3-year follow-up, logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia had progressed to behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. However, the Landscape Montage Technique allowed for the diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia only 2 years after baseline. Conclusions The present study showed that the Landscape Montage Technique can be useful for diagnosing behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia that starts as logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia at earlier stages.

794 working people aged around 30 years completed three intelligence (Ravens Progressive matrices: GMA Numerical and GMA Verbal) and one personality test (16PF) before entering jobs in public service. They were all graduates and there were various sex differences on all measures. They were rated by supervisors each year after they joined the organisation and data were kept on their promotions. Correlations between individual difference factors and the rated criterion scores showed many significant patterns. A series of multiple regressions entered demographic factors (sex, age, social class), arts vs science background, impression management, intelligence test scores, and the personality variables. A mean rating score as well as three years supervisor ratings and number of promotions acted as the criterion scale. Whilst there were some differences between the different criteria, there were some consistent findings. Gender was a consistent predictor whilst there were relatively few personality and ability correlates. Limitations are acknowledged.

In early childhood education, socio-emotional learning is not always considered with appropriate planning nor based on scientific evidence. Aiming to analyze impact of an Emotional Regulation (ER) Intervention in school achievement and social skills (SS), fifty-five children from public schools were evaluated by Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM), School Achievement Test (TDE) and Social Skills Rating System (SSRS-BR). After nine 50-minute meetings addressing ER strategies, evaluation of SS by the teacher indicated improvement in all aspects of SS in Intervention Group (IG) and worsening of the self-control in Comparison Group (CG). Self-evaluation of SS showed that IG overcame the initial difference in assertiveness and problem avoidance. Results suggest that ER programs can bring benefits to the development of SS. Resumo Aprendizagem socioemocional nem sempre é contemplada, com devido planejamento e embasamento científico, na educação infantil. Avaliou-se impacto de intervenção de Regulação Emocional (RE) no desempenho escolar e Habilidades Sociais (HS) de 55 crianças de escolas públicas, utilizando-se Matrizes Progressivas Coloridas de Raven (CPM), Teste de Desempenho Escolar e Sistema de Avaliação de Habilidades Sociais (SSRS-BR).Após nove encontros de 50 minutos abordando estratégias de RE, avaliação de HS pelo professor indicou melhora em todos os aspectos de HS noGrupo Intervenção (GI) e piora no autocontrole no GrupoComparação (GC). Autoavaliação de HS mostrou que GI superou diferença inicial na assertividadee evitação de problemas. Os resultados sugerem que programas de RE podem trazer benefícios para o desenvolvimento das HS.

Original manuscript received May 05, 2020. Revised manuscript accepted July 27, 2020. First published online November 13, 2020. The paper raises the problem of the relationship between executive functions and intelligence in preschool period of the development. Based on the discussion about the components of executive functions proposed by different authors, two components (inhibitory control and working memory) were selected for analysis. Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices were chosen for the assessment of the intelligence. We chose this method due to the fact that there are a lot of preschoolers who have speech problems that prevent an adequate assessment of verbal intelligence. The go/go and go/no-go paradigms to evaluate inhibitory control of Vergunov and Nikolaeva, and a test of Razumnikova and Savinykh aimed at evaluating working memory were used. The specificity of the test aimed at the level of inhibitory control assessment was a fractal structure of the sensory flow. Both go/go and go/no-go series included two identical parts, but children did not know about this. Some children, however, showed better results in the second part of the series rather than the first one. This could indicate that children intuitively discovered the structure of the sensory flow and learned to respond more effectively. In go/go series, children were asked to respond to each presented stimulus (circles of different colors). In the go/no-go series, they were forbidden to respond to a target stimulus (red circles). Calculating the mistakes (reactions to the red circles), we could assess the inhibitory control level. To assess a working memory, the subjects were offered three series including the same set of visual stimuli, and the order of the stimuli was changed in each series. The number of recalling stimuli in each series and interference inhibition resulting from the presentation of the same set of stimuli were calculated. The study involved 90 preschoolers (average age 6.5±0.4 years) of normative development, parents of all children signed informed consents, and all children were told about the goals of the study. It was shown that nonverbal intelligence has no correlation with any parameters of the inhibitory control or parameters of working memory in preschool age. Immaturity of the prefrontal cortex at this age was suggested to be the main reason for the lack of such a link. The low levels of both inhibitory control and interference inhibition could not provide a high level of correlation with intelligence. It was proved that nonverbal intelligence is associated with greater performance in the second part of the go/go series. This suggests that the higher the child’s intelligence is, the better they are able to navigate the sensory flow. В статье рассматривается проблема взаимосвязи исполнительных функций и интеллекта. Анализируются компоненты исполнительных функций, предлагаемые разными авторами, выбирается два компонента, включенных практически во все исследования: тормозный контроль и рабочая память. Для оценки интеллекта применяется тест Дж. Равена, направленный на описание невербальной памяти. Такой выбор обусловлен тем, что в дошкольном возрасте еще достаточно много детей, имеющих речевые проблемы, препятствующие адекватной оценке вербального интеллекта. Для оценки тормозного контроля использовались парадигмы go/go и go/no-go Е. Г. Вергунова и Е. И. Николаевой и тест О. М. Разумниковой и М. А. Савиных, направленный на оценку рабочей памяти. Специфика теста, определяющего уровень тормозного контроля, состояла в том, что сенсорный поток, который предлагался ребенку, имел фрактальную структуру и состоял из двух одинаковых частей, о чем ребенку не сообщалось. Некоторые дети тем не менее вторую часть теста выполняли лучше, чем первую. Это могло свидетельствовать о том, что дети интуитивно обнаружили закономерность и научились реагировать эффективнее. В рамках серии go/go у детей вырабатывалась реакция отвечать на каждый предъявляемый стимул. В рамках серии go/no-go запрещалось реагировать на целевой стимул, на который ранее уже была выработана реакция. Предполагалось, что так можно оценить тормозный контроль. При оценке рабочей памяти испытуемым предлагалось три серии, включающие один и тот же набор зрительных стимулов, в каждой серии порядок их предъявления менялся. Оценивались объем воспроизведения материала в каждой серии и интерференционное торможение, возникающее вследствие предъявления одного и того же набора стимулов. В исследовании приняли участие 90 дошкольников (средний возраст 6.5±0.4 года), их всех знакомили с целями исследования. Родители детей подписывали информированное согласие. Было установлено, что в этом возрасте невербальный интеллект не связан ни с параметрами тормозного контроля, ни с параметрами рабочей памяти. В качестве основной причины отсутствия такой связи можно предполагать незрелость префронтальной коры в данном возрасте, что приводит к низким оценкам как тормозного контроля, так и интерференционного торможения. Было показано, что невербальный интеллект связан с большей эффективностью выполнения второй части теста go/go. Это позволяет предположить, что чем выше интеллект ребенка, тем лучше он ориентируется в сенсорном потоке вокруг него. The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 18‑013‑00323 “Formation of sensorimotor integration and inhibitory control in children with different lateral preferences.”

Studies on the structure of intelligence refer to two main theoretical models: the first one considers intelligence as a unitary construct, the second one assumes the involvement of a plurality of factors. Studies using Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) tasks have often highlighted the involvement of different cognitive abilities and brain structures, but in the clinical setting, RCPM measurement continues to be used as a single score. The current study aimed to analyse the RCPM performance following qualitative clustering, in order to provide an interpretation of the intelligence assessment through a factorial criterion. The RCPM have been administered to a large group of typically developing children between 6 and 11 years of age. The sample was divided into twelve age groups, and the performance of each age group was shown. Three qualitative item clusters were identified through a factorial criterion. Data showed that performance on RCPM may arise from different cognitive abilities, starting from basic attentional skills up to the more complex ones that require perceptual or analogical reasoning. The qualitative parameters could provide more effective diagnostic and treatment suggestions than a single total score in the clinical setting, and may be crucial for focusing on strength and weakness in the intellectual functionality evaluation of children.

The scientific approach to the study of creative problem solving has shifted from using classic insight problems (e.g., the Nine-dots problem), towards sets of problems that have more robust psychometric properties, such as the Remote Associate Test (RAT). Because it is homogeneous, compact, quickly solvable, and easy to score, the RAT has been used more frequently in recent creativity studies. We applied the Item Response Theory (IRT) to develop an Italian version of this task. The final 51-item test was reliable (α = .89) and provided information over a wide range of ability levels, as revealed by the IRT analysis. The RAT correlated with five measures of creative performance: The Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), three classic insight problems, a set of anagrams purposefully developed, the fluency and flexibility scores of the Alternative Uses Task (AUT), and the Creative Achievements Questionnaire (CAQ). The new measure provided is meant to encourage the study of creativity and problem solving in the Italian language.

El objetivo de este artículo es presentar los resultados definitivos del proyecto de investigación dedicado a la construcción de baremos para el Test de Raven, Escala General (Raven, Raven, & Court, 2003), para las edades de 19 a 30 años en la ciudad de La Plata, Argentina. La muestra estuvo conformada por 979 participantes y se dividió en cuatro intervalos de edad. Los resultados mostraron que a medida que aumenta la edad de los participantes, el rendimiento promedio de los grupos mejora; y que la heterogeneidad mostrada en sus respuestas resulta similar entre grupos. No se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre los rendimientos de ambos sexos, ni entre los resultados actuales y los baremos del año 2000. Se constata una detención del incremento de puntajes esperable según el efecto Flynn. Se ensayan discusiones en torno a las diferencias cognitivas intergeneracionales que podrían originar este fenómeno, y se compara estos resultados con los obtenidos en otros países., This article aims to show the final results of the research project devoted to build norms for Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven, Raven, & Court, 2003), on subjects aged 19 to 30 years old in the city of La Plata, Argentina. The sample consisted of 979 subjects of both sexes, and was divided into four age groups. The results show that as the participant’s age increases, the average group’s performance improves, and variability remains similar between groups. There were no statistically significant differences found between sexes, or between the current results and those from the 2000 norms. It was found that the scores’ increase, expected according to the Flynn effect, has stopped, and the possible intergenerational cognitive differences which could explain this phenomenon are discussed. These results are also compared with those from recent research made in other countries., Facultad de Psicología

Humans have a remarkable capacity to draw parallels between concepts, generalising their experience to new domains. This skill is essential to solving the visual problems featured in the RAVEN and PGM datasets, yet, previous papers have scarcely tested how well models generalise across tasks. Additionally, we encounter a critical issue that allows existing models to inadvertently ‘cheat’ problems in RAVEN. We therefore propose a simple workaround to resolve this issue, and focus the conversation on generalisation performance, as this was severely affected in the process. We revise the existing evaluation, and introduce two relational models, Rel-Base and Rel-AIR, that significantly improve this performance. To our knowledge, Rel-AIR is the first method to employ unsupervised scene decomposition in solving abstract visual reasoning problems, and along with Rel-Base, sets states-of-the-art for image-only reasoning and generalisation across both RAVEN and PGM.

The present study was designed to identify urban school children with poor handwriting in English and explore their level of writing readiness. A sample of 60 children from grade 3 in the age group of 7-9 years was drawn from two public schools of Ludhiana city with average or above average intellectual abilities. Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1965) was used to identify the intellectual abilities of children. Occupational Therapy Screening Test (Lilley, 2006) Set A was used to assess the handwriting skills of the children. Writing Readiness Assessment Tool was used to assess different pre-writing skills. Finding of the study revealed that more than half of the children with poor handwriting skills were found to have poor writing readiness skills followed by average and good level. It was further found that in all the dimensions of writing readiness, major proportion of children had poor level of performance. Out of all the dimensions of writing readiness, ‘Moving from freedom to confinement’ was found to be poorest skill in children with poor handwriting.

The use of online workers as research participants has grown in recent years, prompting interest in how online workers compare to traditional accounting research participants. To date, no study has compared the relative intelligence of online workers to student subjects. Such a comparison may be important to behavioral accounting researchers given the homogeneity of accounting students relative to online subject pools and given prior research suggesting accounting students have relatively high analytic ability. While graduate students outperform both undergraduate and MTurk participants on common intelligence tests and across two reasonably complex tasks, we find that MTurk participants perform similarly to undergraduate accounting students. Overall, our results provide incremental assurance that MTurk participants are suitable subjects when accounting expertise is not explicitly required. We also provide evidence that screening MTurk workers on intelligence scores may benefit researchers who require participants with relatively high cognitive ability.

Extant empirical research, despite some theoretical descriptions, has consistently demonstrated that the Dark Triad is not related to general mental ability. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the Dark Triad of personality (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and fluid intelligence. A sample of 128 Polish high school students (Mage = 16.89 years; SDage = 0.31; 28.1% of the sample were boys) completed the Polish translation of the Short Dark Triad and the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices. Hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model, which fit the data well. As predicted, we found that of the three Dark Triad traits, only Machiavellianism was significantly predicted by fluid intelligence. Our findings are discussed in light of previous research and theory.

Sex differences in intelligence are of great importance with regard to understanding intelligence's underlying evolutionary forces. Previous research in this area has had a strong focus on Western ...

IntroductionRecently popular sub-perceptual doses of psychedelic substances such as truffles, referred to as microdosing, allegedly have multiple beneficial effects including creativity and problem solving performance, potentially through targeting serotonergic 5-HT2Areceptors and promoting cognitive flexibility, crucial to creative thinking. Nevertheless, enhancing effects of microdosing remain anecdotal, and in the absence of quantitative research on microdosing psychedelics it is impossible to draw definitive conclusions on that matter. Here, our main aim was to quantitatively explore the cognitive-enhancing potential of microdosing psychedelics in healthy adults.MethodsDuring a microdosing event organized by the Dutch Psychedelic Society, we examined the effects of psychedelic truffles (which were later analyzed to quantify active psychedelic alkaloids) on two creativity-related problem-solving tasks: the Picture Concept Task assessing convergent thinking, and the Alternative Uses Task assessing divergent thinking. A short version of the Ravens Progressive Matrices task assessed potential changes in fluid intelligence. We tested once before taking a microdose and once while the effects were manifested.ResultsWe found that both convergent and divergent thinking performance was improved after a non-blinded microdose, whereas fluid intelligence was unaffected.ConclusionWhile this study provides quantitative support for the cognitive enhancing properties of microdosing psychedelics, future research has to confirm these preliminary findings in more rigorous placebo-controlled study designs. Based on these preliminary results we speculate that psychedelics might affect cognitive metacontrol policies by optimizing the balance between cognitive persistence and flexibility. We hope this study will motivate future microdosing studies with more controlled designs to test this hypothesis.

Raven’s Progressive Matrices are a broadly used tool for measuring cognitive ability. This paper develops and validates a set of nonverbal puzzles that can be viewed as an extension of or substitute for the well-known Ravens tasks. Specifically, we describe the characteristics of our puzzles and provide a calibration of the matrices in terms of response accuracy and response time as a function of these characteristics. Then we directly compare within-subject performance on our puzzles and Ravens tasks. Finally, we replicate a previous experimental paper, substituting our puzzles for the Ravens matrices, and show the two tools have similar predictive success. Our approach offers several benefits due to the relatively large number of novel puzzles of a given difficulty level that can be generated.

BACKGROUND: Discourse in adults with aphasia is increasingly the focus of assessment and therapy research. A broad range of measures is available to describe discourse, but very limited information is available on their psychometric properties. As a result, the quality of these measures is unknown, and there is very little evidence to motivate the choice of one measure over another. AIMS: To explore the quality of a range of discourse measures, targeting sentence structure, coherence, story structure and cohesion. Quality was evaluated in terms of the psychometric properties of acceptability (data completeness and skewness), reliability (inter- and intra-rater), and validity (content, convergent, discriminant and known groups). METHODS & PROCEDURES: Participants with chronic mild-to-moderate aphasia were recruited from community groups. They produced a range of discourses which were grouped into Cinderella and everyday discourses. Discourses were then transcribed orthographically and analyzed using macro- and microlinguistic measures (Story Grammar, Topic Coherence, Local Coherence, Reference Chains and Predicate Argument Structure-PAS). Data were evaluated against standard predetermined criteria to ascertain the psychometric quality of the measures. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: A total of 17 participants took part in the study. All measures had high levels of acceptability, inter- and intra-rater reliability, and had good content validity, as they could be related to a level of the theoretical model of discourse production. For convergent validity, as expected, 8/10 measures correlated with the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R) spontaneous speech scores, and 7/10 measures correlated with the Kissing and Dancing Test (KDT) scores (r ≥ 0.3), giving an overall positive rating for construct validity. For discriminant validity, as predicted, all measures had low correlations with Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) and WAB-R Auditory Verbal Comprehension scores (r < 0.3), giving an overall positive rating for construct validity. Finally, for known groups validity, all measures indicated a difference between speakers with mild and moderate aphasia except for the Local Coherence measures. Overall, Story Grammar, Topic Coherence, Reference Chains and PAS emerged as the strongest measures in the current study because they achieved the predetermined thresholds for quality in terms of each of the psychometric parameters profiled. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The current study is the first to psychometrically profile measures of discourse in aphasia. It contributes to the field by identifying Story Grammar, Topic Coherence, Reference Chains and PAS as the most psychometrically robust discourse measures yet profiled with speakers with aphasia. Until further data are available indicating the strength of other discourse measures, caution should be applied when using them.

Objectives Increasing evidence suggests that hearing loss may be linked to cognitive decline, and that cochlear implantation may lead to improvements in cognition. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of severe-to-profound hearing loss and cochlear implantation in post-lingually deafened adults, compared with age-matched normal-hearing (NH) peers. Participants were tested on several non-auditory measures of cognition: working memory (WM) (digit span, object span, symbol span), non-verbal reasoning (Raven's progressive matrices), information-processing speed and inhibitory control (Stroop test), speed of phonological and lexical access (Test of Word Reading Efficiency), and verbal learning and memory (California Verbal Learning Test). Demographic measures were also collected. Methods Cohort study at tertiary neurotology center. Forty-three post-lingually deafened experienced CI users, 19 post-lingually deafened CI candidates, and 40 age-matched NH controls with no cognitive impairment were enrolled. Comparisons among the groups on the cognitive measures were performed. Results Adult CI users and CI candidates demonstrated worse (or a trend towards worse) performance as compared with NH peers on non-verbal reasoning, information-processing speed, speed of lexical access, and verbal learning and memory. However, after controlling for gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and vocabulary knowledge among groups, some of these differences were no longer significant. Similarly, large differences were not found in most cognitive abilities between experienced CI users and CI candidates. Conclusions Adult CI users, CI candidates, and NH peers generally demonstrated equivalent non-auditory cognitive abilities, after controlling for gender, SES, and vocabulary knowledge. These findings provide support for a link between cognitive decline and hearing loss, but this association may be partly attributable to group differences in SES and vocabulary knowledge. Level of evidence 2b.

O objetivo geral do presente estudo foi investigar a relação entre o vínculo parental e o histórico de reprovação escolar de adolescentes e seus pais1. Como objetivos específicos buscou-se identificar o perfil cognitivo e comparar o tipo de vínculo parental estabelecido entre adolescentes com e sem reprovação escolar. Para tanto, utilizou-se um delineamento correlacional e comparativo, de caráter quantitativo e transversal. Participaram 140 adolescentes matriculados em escolas municipais de São Leopoldo/RS, que responderam ao Questionário de Dados Sociodemográficos, ao Teste Matrizes Progressivas de Raven e ao Parental Bonding Instrument. Os resultados indicaram que o número de reprovações da mãe e do pai esteve positivamente associado ao número de reprovações do filho, assim como o fator cuidado da mãe e do pai ao potencial intelectual do filho. Ainda, o fator cuidado do pai relacionou-se negativamente e o fator superproteção positivamente com o número de reprovações do filho. Também se constatou que os adolescentes sem histórico de reprovação escolar percebem seus pais como mais emocionalmente disponíveis, atentos e interessados para com eles. Tais resultados destacam a importância da participação dos pais no processo de ensino-aprendizagem dos filhos.

Due to the demand for instruments to assess aspects of the personality of children, we aimed find evidence for the validity of the Zulliger test in the Comprehensive System (ZSC). 173 children participated in this study of Fortaleza-CE with ages between 6 years and 11 years and 6 months, 48.5% were from public schools and 53.1% female. The children were divided into three age groups, 6 and 7 years, 8 and 9 years and 10 and 11 years. The instruments used were the Zulliger test and the test of Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices - Special Scale. We made the analysis of descriptive statistics and compared the variables of Zulliger test through the One Way ANOVA test. The significant variables were FQu (p

Considering the importance of validity evidence studies when designing psychological instruments, this study intended on verifying the construct validity of reasoning subtests, through convergent evidence and CFA, as part of a battery for giftedness assessment. A Manova was also applied to evaluate sex and grade differences. The sample was composed of 96 students, in which 49 were female, with 6th grade (n=15), 7th grade (n=12), 8th grade (n=49) students and 2nd year (n=20) students from a public school in the state of São Paulo, aged between 10 and 18 (M = 13.4 years, SD = 1.8). The participants answered the Raven Progressive Matrices Test (general scale) and reasoning subtests that belong to the Battery for Giftedness Assessment (BAHA/G). The results from Pearson's correlation indicated convergence as the majority of the factors composed in BAHA/G showed positive and significant correlations with the Raven test factors, and the CFA displayed two latent variables with strong correlations, particularly among their total score (r=.976). With these results, we found the moderate relationship between these instruments. Further studies are recommended on other types of validity evidence of these subtests to confirm its psychometric qualities.

This study aimed to investigate differences in the mathematical problem-solving and metacognitive skills of the fifth-grade students in Oman as a function of gender and level of academic achievement. The participants were 90 grade five students randomly selected from one educational governorate in the Sultanate of Oman. They were evenly divided into three groups based on gender and levels of academic achievement. Four instruments were used in the study: a mathematical problemsolving test, a non-verbal metacognitive scale, Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices and a long-term memory test. The results for metacognitive and mathematical problem-solving skills indicate that students with a high level of academic achievement obtained the highest score while students enrolled in a learning disability program obtained the lowest score. In addition, possible interventions were identified that may improve the metacognitive skills of students enrolled in the learning disability program, which could lead to improvement in their mathematical problem-solving skills. Keywords: Problem-solving, metacognition, learning disability, academic achievement.