Phillip L. Ackerman

Intelligence, personality, and interests: Evidence for overlapping traits.

The authors review the development of the modern paradigm for intelligence assessment and application and consider the differentiation between intelligence-as-maximal performance and intelligence-as-typical performance. They review theories of intelligence, personality, and interest as a means to establish potential overlap. Consideration of intelligence-as-typical performance provides a basis for evaluation of intelligence-personality and intelligence-interest relations. Evaluation of relations among personality constructs, vocational interests, and intellectual abilities provides evidence for communality across the domains of personality of J. L. Hollands (1959) model of vocational interests. The authors provide an extensive meta-analysis of personality-intellectual ability correlations, and a review of interest-intellectual ability associations. They identify 4 trait complexes: social, clerical/conventional, science/math, and intellectual/cultural.

Working Memory and Intelligence: The Same or Different Constructs?

Several investigators have claimed over the past decade that working memory (WM) and general intelligence (g) are identical, or nearly identical, constructs, from an individual-differences perspective. Although memory measures are commonly included in intelligence tests, and memory abilities are included in theories of intelligence, the identity between WM and intelligence has not been evaluated comprehensively. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 86 samples that relate WM to intelligence. The average correlation between true-score estimates of WM and g is substantially less than unity (p=.479). The authors also focus on the distinction between short-term memory and WM with respect to intelligence with a supplemental meta-analysis. The authors discuss how consideration of psychometric and theoretical perspectives better informs the discussion of WM-intelligence relations.

A theory of adult intellectual development: Process, personality, interests, and knowledge

Abstract The development of adult intelligence assessment early in this century as an upward extension of the Binet-Simon approach to child intelligence assessment is briefly reviewed. Problems with the use of IQ measures for adults are described, along with a discussion of related conceptualizations of adult intellectual performance. Prior intelligence theories that considered adult intelligence (Cattell, 1943, 1971/1987; Hebb, 1941, 1942, 1949; Vernon, 1950) are reviewed. Based on extensions of prior theory and new analyses of personality-ability and interest-ability relations, a developmental theory of adult intelligence is proposed, called PPIK. The PPIK theory of adult intellectual development integrates intelligence-as-process, personality, interests, and intelligence-as-knowledge. Data from the study of knowledge structures are examined in the context of the theory, and in relation to measures of content abilities (spatial and verbal abilities). New directions for the future of research on adult intellect are discussed in light of an approach that integrates personality, interests, process, and knowledge.

Individual differences in working memory within a nomological network of cognitive and perceptual speed abilities.

It has become fashionable to equate constructs of working memory (WM) and general intelligence (g). Few investigations have provided direct evidence that WM and g measures yield similar ordering of individuals. Correlational investigations have yielded mixed results. The authors assess the construct space for WM and g and demonstrate that WM shares substantial variance with perceptual speed (PS) constructs. Thirty-six ability tests representing verbal, numerical, spatial, and PS abilities; the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices; and 7 WM tests were administered to 135 adults. A nomological representation for WM is provided through a series of cognitive and PS ability models. Construct overlap between PS and WM is further investigated with attention to complexity, processing differences, and practice effects.

Learning and Individual Differences: Process, Trait, and Content Determinants.

Intelligence and Human Resources - Past, Present and Future Individual Differences in Learning and Memory - Psychometrics and the Single Case Minding Our Ps and Qs - On Finding Relationships Between Learning and Intelligence Investigating the Paths Between Working Memory, Intelligence, Knowledge and Complex Problem Solving Performances via Brunswik-Symmetry Intelligence and Visual and Auditory Information Processing Individual Differences in Priming - the Roles of Implicit Facilitation From Prior Processing Learning, Automaticity and Attention - an Individual Differences Approach The Structure of Ability Profile Patterns - a Multidimensional Scaling Perspective on the Structure of Intellect Investigating Theoretical Propositions Regarding Mental Abilities - Their Structure, Growth and Influence Exploiting the Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off Personality and Skill - a Cognitive-Adaptive Framework Measuring and Understanding G - Experimental and Correlational Approaches Individual Differences in Motivational Mechanisms - Traits and Skills Mining on the No-Mans Land Between Intelligence and Personality Sensory Processes Within the Structure of Human Cognitive Abilities Searching for Determinants of Superior Performance in Complex Domains Individual Differences in Reasoning and the Heuristics and Biases Debate Learner Profiles - Valuing Individual Differences Within Classroom Communities Traits and Knowlegde as Determinants of Learning and Individual Differences - Putting it all Together.

Individual Differences in Work Motivation: Further Explorations of a Trait Framework

Empirical evidence on the conceptual and construct validity of the motivational trait taxonomy proposed by Kanfer and Heggestad is presented. 228 adults completed a shortened form of the Motivational Trait Questionnaire (MTQ), along with a battery of personality and ability measures. Relationships of the MTQ with personality measures show evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for trait constructs of Personal Mastery, Competitive Excellence, and Motivation Related to Anxiety. In addition, MTQ scale scores were generally unrelated to composite measures of fluid and crystallised intelligence. Examination of age differences showed a pattern of developmental decline in the achievement trait complex, but not the anxiety complex.

Individual differences in information processing: An investigation of intellectual abilities and task performance during practice ☆

Abstract A conceptual theory for predicting the relations between intellectual abilities and performance during task practice is proposed and evaluated. This macro-theory integrates modern hierarchical theories of intellectual abilities with information-processing theories of automatic and controlled processing (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977) and performance-resource functions (Norman & Bobrow, 1975). An empirical evaluation of the theory is provided from an experiment with high school and college students. Subjects practiced for several hours on verbal and spatial memory tasks with consistent and varied information-processing manipulations. Derived correlations between ability factors and task performance measures indicate support for the theory and support for linkage of the concepts of intellectual abilities and attentional resources.

Age, ability, and the role of prior knowledge on the acquisition of new domain knowledge: promising results in a real-world learning environment.

Prior knowledge, fluid intelligence (Gf), and crystallized intelligence (Gc) were investigated as predictors of learning new information about cardiovascular disease and xerography with a sample of 199 adults (19 to 68 years). The learning environment included a laboratory multimedia presentation (high-constraint-maximal effort), and a self-directed at-home study component (low-constraint-typical performance). Results indicated that prior knowledge and ability were important predictors of knowledge acquisition for learning. Gc was directly related to learning from the video for both domains. Because the trajectory of Gc stays relatively stable throughout the life span, these findings provide a more optimistic perspective on the relationship between aging and learning than that offered by theories that focus on the role of fluid abilities in learning.

Assessing individual differences in knowledge: Knowledge, intelligence, and related traits.

Twenty academic knowledge tests were developed to locate domain knowledge within a nomological network of traits. Spatial, numerical, and verbal aptitude measures and personality and interest measures were administered to 141 undergraduates. Domain knowledge factored along curricular lines; a general knowledge factor accounted for about half of knowledge variance. Domain knowledge exhibited positive relations with general intelligence (g), verbal abilities after g was removed, Openness, Typical Intellectual engagement, and specific vocational interests. Spatial and numerical abilities were unrelated to knowledge beyond g. Extraversion related negatively to all knowledge domains. Results provide broad support for R. B. Cattells (1971/1987) crystallized intelligence as something more than verbal abilities and specific support for P. L. Ackermans (1996) intelligence-asprocess, personality, interests, and intelligence-as-knowledge theory of adult intelligence.

What we really know about our abilities and our knowledge

Recently, it has become popular to state that “people hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains” [Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognising ones own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 77(6), (1999) 1121]. Research that supports this point tells only half of the story—in a manner documented by Cronbach’s [Cronbach, L. J. (1957). The two disciplines of scientific psychology. American Psychologist, 12, (1957) 671] classic article on the “two disciplines of scientific psychology.” That is, the recent research has only documented the experimental side of the scientific divide (which focuses on means and ignores individual differences). The current paper shows that research from the other side of the scientific divide, namely the correlational approach (which focuses on individual differences), provides a very different perspective for people’s views of their own intellectual abilities and knowledge. Previous research is reviewed, and an empirical study of 228 adults between 21 and 62 years of age is described where self-report assessments of abilities and knowledge are compared with objective measures. Correlations of self-rating and objective-score pairings show both substantial convergent and discriminant validity, indicating that individuals have both generally accurate and differentiated views of their relative standing on abilities and knowledge.