IQ's Corner: April 2022

Thursday, April 28, 2022

The Unique Role of Spatial Working Memory for Mathematics Performance| Journal of Numerical Cognition

The Unique Role of Spatial Working Memory for Mathematics Performance| Journal of Numerical Cognition
https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/7159

Abstract

We explored the multi-dimensionality of mathematics and working memory (WM) by examining the differential relationships between different areas of mathematics with visual, spatial, and verbal WM. Previous research proposed that visuospatial WM is a unique predictor of mathematics, but neuroimaging and cognitive research suggest divisions within visuospatial WM. We created a new WM task to isolate visuospatial WM's visual and spatial components and maintained consistent design across tasks and found that spatial WM predicted mathematics and visual WM did not. We also found that verbal WM predicted all mathematics areas included, while spatial WM was a unique predictor of numerical understanding and geometry, not arithmetic and estimation. These findings integrate previous neuroimaging, cognitive and educational psychology research and further our understanding of the relationship between WM and mathematics.

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Kevin S. McGrew, PhD
Educational & School Psychologist
Director
Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP)
https://www.themindhub.com
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Tuesday, April 26, 2022

The sexes do not differ in general intelligence, but they do in some specifics - ScienceDirect

The sexes do not differ in general intelligence, but they do in some specifics - ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289622000320

Abstract
Reliable and meaningful sex differences exist in specific cognitive abilities despite no reliable or meaningful sex difference in general intelligence. Here we use Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory to highlight research findings related to sex differences in intelligence, with a focus on studies of test scores from comprehensive intelligence measures that were obtained from large and representative samples of children and adolescents. Female advantages in latent processing speed and male advantages in latent visual processing are the most meaningful and consistently reported sex differences regarding CHC broad cognitive abilities. Differences have been reported in narrow and specific ability constructs such as mental rotation and object memory location. In academic achievement, the largest and most consistent findings are female advantages in writing, whereas male advantages at higher math ability levels are also found. Empirical descriptions of sex differences should consider the breadth of the construct under study and incorporate analysis beyond simple mean differences. Score analysis methods that utilize multiple-group confirmatory factor models and multiple-indicator multiple cause models are useful to address the former, and analysis methods such as quantile regression and male-female ratio calculations along score distributions are useful to address the latter. An understanding of why specific ability differences exist in combination and in the presence of similarities will improve researchers' understanding of human cognition and educational achievements.

Monday, April 11, 2022

Moving Beyond the Ableist Roots of Educational Psychology: Audit of the Field and a Path Forward | SpringerLink

Moving Beyond the Ableist Roots of Educational Psychology: Audit of the Field and a Path Forward | SpringerLink
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-022-09673-6

In the current literature review, we studied the articles published between 2010 and July 2020 in six prominent educational psychology journals to determine the extent to which students with disabilities (SWD) have recently been included in the field's most visible literature, and the nature of that inclusion when it occurred. Although scholars routinely cite articles from special education journals, findings indicated that SWD were specifically included in only 11.4% of the studies that were published. Most of these studied detailed interventions to support students' math and reading skills, with far fewer articles addressing the remaining breadth of topics across the field of educational psychology. After demonstrating the extent to which SWD have been underrepresented in the field's top journals over the previous decade, we draw on DisCrit theory to describe how constructs such as ableism and multiple models of disability can help scholars resist deficit mindsets about SWD in their classroom-based research samples. We argue for a proliferation of epistemologies (and subsequently methodologies), enabling educational psychologists not only to account for the experiences of SWD in ways that uphold our field's commitment to rigorous and ecologically valid research, but also to better ensure that educational psychology theories account for the full breadth of human diversity.