TY  - JOUR
A1  - Vock, Miriam
A1  - Preckel, Franzis
A1  - Rolling, Heinz
T1  - Mental abilities and school achievement a test of a mediation hypothesis
JF  - Intelligence
N2  - 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).
KW  - Academic achievement
KW  - Mental speed
KW  - Short-term memory
KW  - Reasoning
KW  - Divergent thinking
KW  - Grades
KW  - Prediction
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2011.06.006
SN  - 0160-2896
VL  - 39
IS  - 5
SP  - 357
EP  - 369
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - New York
ER  -