Measuring Human Capabilities An Agenda for Basic Research on the Assessment of Individual and Group Performance Potential for Military Accession (2015) / Chapter Skim
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2 Fluid Intelligence, Working Memory Capacity, Executive Attention, and Inhibitory Control
2 Fluid Intelligence, Working Memory Capacity, Executive Attention, and Inhibitory Control
Pages 29-52
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From page 29... ...
The committee considers the areas of fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, executive attention, and inhibitory control as offering new constructs for the Army's consideration, even though some aspects of these ideas have been studied for decades. The newer research brings these several heretofore separate topics together and extends the relevance of the constructs beyond performance on specific tasks to broader issues of cognitive and emotional control.
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From page 30... ...
Fluid intelligence (Gf) is important for reasoning and novel problem solving, and there is strong and emerging evidence that it represents the heritable and biological aspect of intelligence (Plomin et al., 2008; Wright et al., 2007)
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Recent papers have suggested that the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is largely crystallized and that incremental validity can be added with measures of working memory capacity and fluid intelligence.
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. The psychological and biological mechanisms reflected in standard tests of fluid intelligence and responsible for individual differences in the construct have been largely ignored in the psychometric literature and only recently have been addressed in the cognitive psychology and neuroscience literature.
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If short-term memory was important to real-world cognition, then individual differences in measures of that memory should correspond to individual differences in reading, learning, decision making, etc., and there was little evidence supporting that conclusion. The picture clarified substantially when complex span measures were shown to have quite substantial correlations with reading and listening comprehension (Daneman and Carpenter, 1980; Engle and Kane, 2004)
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, has a very high relationship to the construct for fluid intelligence. The wide array of WMC tasks have been shown to be quite valid in predicting performance on a huge variety of real-world cognitive tasks.
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FIGURE 2-3 Path model for structural equation analysis of the relation between working memory capacity and reasoning factors.
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. Although the construct under discussion here is typically referred to as working memory capacity, there is strong and emerging evidence that the critical factor for regulation of thought and emotion is the ability to control one's attention, often referred to as executive attention (EA)
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From page 37... ...
He argued that greater WMC allows an individual to better manipulate, monitor, and control the behavioral tendencies resulting from alcoholism, and that this directly affects the ability to resist a prepotent behavior such as taking a drink in spite of being aware that such behavior is ultimately maladaptive. Individual differences in WMC/EA have also been shown to be important in emotion regulation (Hofmann et al., 2011)
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From page 38... ...
. These studies also showed WMC remained predictive of multitasking performance after controlling for fluid intelligence.
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From page 39... ...
For example, the meta-analysis relies on untested assumptions about the degree of range restriction in the samples, and there is variance associated with these meta-analytic mean estimates that deserves to be understood. Because short-term memory tests have been shown to be relatively unreliable and have reduced validity compared to measures of working memory capacity and executive attention (Engle et al., 1999a, 1999b)
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From page 40... ...
Bringing these research approaches under one roof will improve the identification and understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the constructs of WMC, fluid intelligence, and EA, thus making significant contributions to the basic understanding of individual differences. Research Recommendation: Fluid Intelligence, Working Memory Capacity, and Executive Attention The U.S.
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. For example, individual differences in WMC are related to the ability to prevent unwanted information from intruding into consciousness and negatively affecting task performance.
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. Given the evidence for a brain basis to executive capacity, it should be possible to quantify individual differences in inhibitory control through brain response measures as well as through personality scale or lab performance measures.
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. It comprises 23 unidimensional subscales indexing tendencies toward impulsivity versus planful control, irresponsibility versus dependability, aggression in various forms versus empathic concern, fraudulence versus honesty, excitement seeking, rebelliousness and blame externalization, and use/abuse of alcohol and other drugs.
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From page 44... ...
Variations in general tendencies toward impulsiveness versus restraint associated with the broad disinhibition factor can be assessed using a brief scale consisting of 20 ESI items, referred to as DIS-20. This disinhibition scale does not include any aggression- or substance-related items from the ESI, but it nonetheless strongly predicts tendencies toward antisocial-aggressive behavior and substance problems (Patrick et al., 2012, 2013a, 2013b)
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Importantly, variations in inhibitory control assessed in these ways show correlations with lab task measures of executive capacity as well as with brain response measures. For example, in a study of twins, Young and colleagues (2009)
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From page 46... ...
above certain bars denotes a negative correlation coefficient for the variable indicated. The data summarized by Figure 2-8 show that the psychoneurometric factor predicted criterion variables in the diagnostic and brain response domains to comparable robust degrees: the correlations for this factor with ERP composite scores and diagnostic composite scores (purple bars)
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, (2) mean of two P3 brain responses (ERP)
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. Thought suppression, intelligence, and working memory capacity.
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. Individual differences in working mem ory capacity and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence and functions of the prefrontal cortex.
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From page 50... ...
. Working memory capacity and fluid intelligence are strongly related constructs: Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle.
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. Measuring working memory capacity with automated complex span tasks.
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From page 52... ...
. Working memory capacity and the anti saccade task: Individual differences in voluntary saccade control.
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