The moderating effect of prior knowledge on the relationship between intelligence and complex problem solving – Testing the Elshout-Raaheim hypothesis

Julius J. Weise, Samuel Greiff and Jörn R. Sparfeldt

Intelligence, 2020, vol. 83, issue C

Abstract: Although the relation between intelligence and complex problem solving (CPS) has been investigated repeatedly, the moderating effect of prior knowledge on this relation still remains an open question. The Elshout-Raaheim hypothesis (see Leutner, 2002) predicts a higher correlation between intelligence and CPS at a medium level of problem specific prior knowledge and lower correlations at higher as well as lower levels of prior knowledge, thus a curvilinear moderation. We investigated this hypothesis in a sample of N = 495 high school students by using general intelligence (g) and a minimal complex systems approach (MCS) of CPS. Strategic prior knowledge in the sense of the relative frequency of the vary-one-thing-at-a-time strategy (VOTAT; Tschirgi, 1980) increased across MCS tasks in the knowledge acquisition phase of CPS. With increasing prior knowledge, correlations followed the predicted inverted U-shaped pattern in the knowledge acquisition phase and the knowledge application phase of CPS, thus supporting the Elshout-Raaheim hypothesis. The moderating effect of strategic prior knowledge for the intelligence–CPS relation and its relevance are discussed.

Keywords: Complex problem solving; Elshout-Raaheim hypothesis; Intelligence; Prior knowledge; Vary-one-thing-at-a-time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289620300805
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:83:y:2020:i:c:s0160289620300805

DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2020.101502

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 ().