Monday, December 16, 2024
“Be and see” the #WISC-V correlation matrix: Unpublished analyses of the WISC-V #intelligence test
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Research byte: Prediction of human #intelligence (#g #Gf #Gc) from #brain (#network) #connectivity - #CHC
Choosing explanation over performance: Insights from machine learning-based prediction of human intelligence from brain connectivity
Abstract
A growing body of research predicts individual cognitive ability levels from brain characteristics including functional brain connectivity. The majority of this research achieves statistically significant prediction performance but provides limited insight into neurobiological processes underlying the predicted concepts. The insufficient identification of predictive brain characteristics may present an important factor critically contributing to this constraint. Here, we encourage to design predictive modeling studies with an emphasis on interpretability to enhance our conceptual understanding of human cognition. As an example, we investigated in a preregistered study which functional brain connections successfully predict general, crystallized, and fluid intelligence in a sample of 806 healthy adults (replication: N = 322). The choice of the predicted intelligence component as well as the task during which connectivity was measured proved crucial for better understanding intelligence at the neural level. Further, intelligence could be predicted not solely from one specific set of brain connections, but from various combinations of connections with system-wide locations. Such partially redundant, brain-wide functional connectivity characteristics complement intelligence-relevant connectivity of brain regions proposed by established intelligence theories. In sum, our study showcases how future prediction studies on human cognition can enhance explanatory value by prioritizing a systematic evaluation of predictive brain characteristics over maximizing prediction performance (emphasis added).
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Research Byte: A special contribution from #spatial ability to #math word problem solving: Evidence from #SEM and #networkanalysis
Click here to see journal page.
Abstract
Saturday, November 07, 2020
More support for the Gs—>Gwm—>—Gf/ Gc developmental cascade model as per CHC taxonomy
Sunday, May 06, 2018
Research suggests that Gq acquired knowledge has distinct neuro basis from other types of semantic knowledge (Gc)
Cortical circuits for mathematical knowledge: evidence for a major subdivision within the brain's semantic networks
Cite this article: Amalric M, Dehaene S. 2017
Cortical circuits for mathematical knowledge: evidence for a major subdivision within the brain's semantic networks. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B373: 20160515.
Marie Amalric and Stanislas Dehaene
Abstract
Is mathematical language similar to natural language? Are language areas used by mathematicians when they do mathematics? And does the brain comprise a generic semantic system that stores mathematical knowledge alongside knowledge of history, geography or famous people? Here, we refute those views by reviewing three functional MRI studies of the representation and manipulation of high-level mathematical knowledge in professional mathematicians. The results reveal that brain activity during professional mathematical reflection spares perisylvian language-related brain regions as well as temporal lobe areas classically involved in general semantic knowledge. Instead, mathematical reflection recycles bilateral intra-parietal and ventral temporal regions involved in elementary number sense. Even simple fact retrieval, such as remembering that ‘the sine function is periodical' or that ‘London buses are red', activates dissociated areas for math versus non-math knowledge. Together with other fMRI and recent intra-cranial studies, our results indicated a major separation between two brain networks for mathematical and non-mathematical semantics, which goes a long way to explain a variety of facts in neuroimaging, neuropsychology and developmental disorders. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The origins of numerical abilities'.
Click on image to enlarge

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, April 26, 2018
Meta-analytic SEM of literacy and language development relations
Jamie M. Quinn Richard K. Wagner
The purpose of this review was to introduce readers of Child Development to the meta-analytic structural equa-tion modeling (MASEM) technique. Provided are a background to the MASEM approach, a discussion of its utility in the study of child development, and an application of this technique in the study of reading compre-hension (RC) development. MASEM uses a two-stage approach: first, it provides a composite correlation matrix across included variables, and second, it fits hypothesized a priori models. The provided MASEM application used a large sample (N = 1,205,581) of students (ages 3.5–46.225) from 155 studies to investigate the factor structure and relations among components of RC. The practical implications of using this technique to study development are discussed.
Click on images to enlarge.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, July 01, 2017
Wednesday, October 05, 2016
Language acquisition: Figure for the Gv Gallery Hall of Fame
A cool Gv figure in this article that earns my nomination of the Gv Gallery Hall of Fame. Click on images to enlarge
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Research Byte: Short-term memory for faces is related to general intelligence: A possible new CHC narrow ability taxonomy candidate?
Short-term memory for faces relates to general intelligence moderately ☆
Highlights
- •
- Short-term memory for faces correlated positively with several stratum II factors.
- •
- Short-term memory for faces was associated with general intelligence at .34.
- •
- Short-term memory for faces should not be considered “special” (i.e., independent of g).
- •
- Prosopagnosia may be best characterised as a learning disability.
Abstract
Keywords
- Intelligence;
- CHC theory;
- Face identity recognition;
- Prosopagnosia
Thursday, May 12, 2016
"Intelligent" intelligence testing with the WJ IV Tests of Cognitive Ability #6: Within-Gc assessment tree
A PDF copy, which is quite clean, can be downloaded here.
Relevant broad and narrow definitions are below
Comprehension-knowledge (Gc): The depth and breadth of declarative and procedural knowledge and skills valued by one’s culture. Comprehension of language, words, and general knowledge developed through experience, learning and acculturation.
- General (verbal) information (K0): The breadth and depth of knowledge that one’s culture deems essential, practical, or worthwhile for most everyone to know.
- Language development (LD): The general understanding of spoken language at the level of words, idioms, and sentences. An intermediate factor between broad Gc and other narrow Gc abilities. It usually represents a number of narrow language abilities working together in concert—therefore it is not likely a unique ability.
- Lexical knowledge (VL): The knowledge of the word definitions and the concepts that underlie them. Vocabulary knowledge.
- Listening ability (LS): The ability to understand speech, starting with comprehending single words and increasing to long complex verbal statements.
- Knowledge of culture (K2): The range of knowledge about the humanities (e.g., philosophy, religion, history, literature, music, and art).
Click on images to enlarge and for clearer image.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Language and Speech in Autism: Annual Review of Linguistics
Language and Speech in Autism
Annual Review of Linguistics
Thursday, February 04, 2016
Research Byte: The relations between CHC cognitive abilities and aspects of social support
Which aspects of social support are associated with which cognitive abilities for which people?
Abstract
Objectives.To assess the relations between 11 aspects of social support and five cognitive abilities (vocabulary, reasoning, spatial visualization, memory, and speed of processing) and to determine whether these relations between social support and cognition are moderated by age or sex.
Method.
A sample of 2,613 individuals between the ages of 18 and 99 years completed a battery of cognitive tests and a questionnaire assessing aspects of social support. A measure of general intelligence was computed using principal components analysis. Multiple regressions were used to evaluate whether each aspect of support and/or its interactions with age or sex predicted each cognitive ability and g.
Results.
Several aspects of social support were significantly related to all five cognitive abilities and to g. When g was included as a predictor, there were few relations with specific cognitive abilities. Age and sex did not moderate any of the relations.
Discussion.
These results suggest that contact with family and friends, emotional and informational support, anticipated support, and negative interactions are related to cognition, whereas satisfaction with and tangible support were not. In addition, these aspects of support were primarily related to g, with the exception of family contact. Social support– cognition relations are comparable across the life span and the sexes.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Research Byte: Study suggests writing places greater demands on working memory than reading and listening

Writing, Reading, and Listening Differentially Overload Working Memory Performance Across the Serial Position Curve
Abstract
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Vocabulary development and reading comprehension
File under Grw and Gc-VL (lexical knowledge) in the CHC taxonomy. Click on images to enlarge.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
WISC-V expanded index scores: Verbal Expanded Crystallized (Gc) and Expanded Fluid (Gf) index scores and tables
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
The WJ IV ASB # 3: The WJ IV Gf-Gc Composite and SLD identifcation
The authors of the Woodcock-Johnson IV (WJ IV; Schrank, McGrew, & Mather , 2014a) discuss the WJ IV Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ IV COG; Schrank, McGrew, & Mather , 2014b) Gf-Gc Composite, contrast its composition with that of the WJ IV COG General Intellectual Ability (GIA) score, and synthesize important information that supports its use as a reliable and valid measure of intellectual development or intellectual level. The authors also suggest that the associated WJ IV COG Gf-Gc Composite/Other Ability comparison procedure can yield information that is relevant to the identification of a specific learning disability (SLD) in any model that is allowed under the 2004 reauthorization of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA).

Click on image to enlarge
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad