g: Formative, reflective, or both?

Elena Kazali, George Spanoudis and Andreas Demetriou

Intelligence, 2024, vol. 107, issue C

Abstract: This study examined how general cognitive ability, g, is formed from preschool to late childhood and how it interacts with specific mental processes. A large sample (N = 401), about equally drawn from each of the age years 4 through 12 were examined with a large array of attention control, working memory, relational integration, Raven-like matrices, and awareness of perceptual and inferential origins of representations. Confirmatory Factor Analysis examined if g is a reflective construct causally affecting these processes or a formative construct gradually emerging from mastering these processes, and how it varies throughout this age period. We found that g is a reflective construct gearing on a core of relational integration and mental awareness, which changes in cycles: it is primarily based on attention control and perceptual awareness from 4 to 6, inferential awareness and working memory from 7 to 9, and inhibition, inferential awareness, and complex inductive reasoning from 10 to 12 years. The implications of the study for the century-old dispute about the nature and development of human general intelligence and modern theories of intelligence and cognitive development are discussed.

Keywords: Cognitive development; Reflective g; Executive functions; Working memory; Reasoning; Awareness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289624000643
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:intell:v:107:y:2024:i:c:s0160289624000643

DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2024.101870

Access Statistics for this article

Intelligence is currently edited by R.J. Haier

More articles in Intelligence from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().