The current theories suggest the fundamental role of semantic memory in creativity, mediating bottom-up (divergent thinking) and top-down (fluid intelligence) cognitive processes. However, the relationship between creativity, intelligence, and the organization of the semantic memory remains poorly-characterized in children. We investigated the…

Field independence describes the extent to which individuals are influenced by context when trying to identify embedded targets. It associates with cognitive functioning and is a predictor of academic achievement. However, little is known about the neural and cognitive underpinnings of field independence that lead to these associations. Here, we…

Differences exist between engineering and liberal arts students because of their educational backgrounds. Therefore, they solve problems differently. This study examined the brain activation of these two groups of students when they responded to 12 questions of verbal, numerical, or spatial intelligence. A total of 25 engineering and 25 liberal…

An enduring challenge in visual-spatial research has been to identify the factors contributing to individual differences in ability. This research investigated the overall, verbal, and nonverbal visual-spatial ability of 61 (34 boys) three- to five-year-olds (M[subscript age] = 57.3 months; SD = 7.9) and the following factors known to be related…

Intellectual abilities are consistently found to be associated to child functioning. To date, however, it is unclear how varying intellectual profiles relate to differential aspects of child functioning. We screened 513 fifth-grade children on their intellectual abilities and selected three groups of gifted children, scoring in the top 10%:…

Measures of head injury, executive functioning, and intelligence were given to a community sample composed of 102 male perpetrators of intimate partner aggression (IPA) and 62 nonaggressive men. A history of head injury and lower mean score on a measure of verbal intelligence were associated with the frequency of male-perpetrated physical IPA as…

The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of linguistic and intelligence factors in L2 writing. The sample included 347 Iranian learners of English. Six tests were administered to measure the participants' grammar knowledge, depth of vocabulary knowledge, breadth of vocabulary, verbal intelligence, narrative intelligence, and writing…

Although people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have severe problems with pragmatic aspects of language, little is known about their pragmatic reasoning. We carried out a behavioral study on high-functioning adults with autistic disorder (n = 11) and Asperger syndrome (n = 17) and matched controls (n = 28) to investigate whether they…

This article explores the thinking behind students' thinking. (Contains 2 endnotes.)

Using data from the Swedish Individual Statistics Project, changes in intelligence among 13-year olds are documented over a 25-year period. The average spatial and reasoning intelligence has risen successively. A clear increase is found for verbal intelligence in the 1960s, with more irregular growth since then. (SLD)

Changes in verbal, spatial, and reasoning intelligence among Swedish 13-year olds were studied from 1960 to 1990. Rising verbal scores until 1980 have been followed by a decline to essentially the 1960 level. Spatial and reasoning results have risen continuously. Gender and social class differences are discussed. (SLD)

As part of a continuing evaluation of the Swedish school system, changes in intelligence test scores from 1960 to 1995 were studied in relation to cohort, gender, and socioeconomic background. Changes in verbal, spatial, and reasoning ability were studied by comparing results on identical tests given to representative samples of Swedish…