@article{VockPreckelRolling2011,
  author    = {Vock, Miriam and Preckel, Franzis and Rolling, Heinz},
  title     = {Mental abilities and school achievement a test of a mediation hypothesis},
  series = {Intelligence},
  volume    = {39},
  journal   = {Intelligence},
  number    = {5},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {New York},
  issn      = {0160-2896},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.intell.2011.06.006},
  pages     = {357 -- 369},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {This study analyzes the interplay of four cognitive abilities - reasoning, divergent thinking, mental speed, and short-term memory - and their impact on academic achievement in school in a sample of adolescents in grades seven to 10 (N = 1135). Based on information processing approaches to intelligence, we tested a mediation hypothesis, which states that the complex cognitive abilities of reasoning and divergent thinking mediate the influence of the basic cognitive abilities of mental speed and short-term memory on achievement. We administered a comprehensive test battery and analyzed the data through structural equation modeling while controlling for the cluster structure of the data. Our findings support the notion that mental speed and short-term memory, as ability factors reflecting basic cognitive processes, exert an indirect influence on academic achievement by affecting reasoning and divergent thinking (total indirect effects: beta=.22 and .24. respectively). Short-term memory also directly affects achievement (beta=.22).},
  language  = {en}
}