A pesar de la relativamente corta historia de la Psicologia como ciencia, existen pocos constructos psicologicos que perduren 90 anos despues de su formulacion y que, aun mas, continuen plenamente vigentes en la actualidad. El factor «g» es sin duda alguna uno de esos escasos ejemplos y para contrastar su vigencia actual tan solo hace falta comprobar su lugar de preeminencia en los modelos factoriales de la inteligencia mas aceptados en la actualidad, bien como un factor de tercer orden en los modelos jerarquicos o bien identificado con un factor de segundo orden en el modelo del recientemente desaparecido R.B.Cattell.

The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability

The authors examined relations between the Big Five personality traits and academic outcomes, specifically SAT scores and grade-point average (GPA). Openness was the strongest predictor of SAT verbal scores, and Conscientiousness was the strongest predictor of both high school and college GPA. These relations replicated across 4 independent samples and across 4 different personality inventories. Further analyses showed that Conscientiousness predicted college GPA, even after controlling for high school GPA and SAT scores, and that the relation between Conscientiousness and college GPA was mediated, both concurrently and longitudinally, by increased academic effort and higher levels of perceived academic ability. The relation between Openness and SAT verbal scores was independent of academic achievement and was mediated, both concurrently and longitudinally, by perceived verbal intelligence. Together, these findings show that personality traits have independent and incremental effects on academic outcomes, even after controlling for traditional predictors of those outcomes.

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Personality predictors of academic outcomes: big five correlates of GPA and SAT scores.

and general: a + b = b + a. All algebraic formulas and equations are decontextualized statements. Syllogisms can be decontextualized: Which statement (1 or 2) is false? (1) All Xs are Y; all Ys are Z; therefore all Xs are Z. (2) All Ps are Q; all Ns are Q; therefore all Ps are N. Now notice how much easier equivalent syllogisms seem when they are contextualized: (1) All men are persons; all persons are human; therefore all men are human. (2) All chickens are fowl; all ducks are fowl; therefore all chickens are ducks. A person who is unable to decontextualize a syllogism would most likely declare the following syllogism to be false, although in terms of pure logic (but not experience) it is true: All apples are fruit; all fruits are green; therefore all apples are green. Syllo­ gisms are no longer used in IQ tests, because syllogisms are uniformly easy for persons who solve them by using Venn diagrams. Since knowing or not knowing the ' 'trick'' of using a Venn diagram is the main determinant of passing or failing a syllogism, syllo­ gisms are poor items for an IQ test. Different persons with the same IQ differ much too markedly on \"syllogism ability,\" a difference often attributable to their either having learned or not having learned the \"trick\" of using Venn diagrams for verifying syllo­ gisms. However, syllogisms would be suitable items in an achievement test, to determine whether a student had mastered the use of Venn diagrams after receiving instruction. 28. Lynn, 1987a, 1987b, 1989, 1990a, 1990b; Lynn & Pagliari, 1994. 29. Schoenthaler et al., 1991. A good, though far from comprehensive, article on the effects of nutrition on IQ (Ricciuti, 1994) offers a somewhat more conservative assess­ ment than the articles by Lynn and by Schoenthaler. Eysenck (1995) discusses the use of nutrients as a means of sudying intelligence differences experimentally. Eysenck and Schoenthaler (1997) provide the most recent and comprehensive review of experimental studies of the effects of nutrition on IQ. 30. Jensen (1997a) reviews much of the recent literature on the effects of the biological environmental factors (including mother-fetus immunogenic incompatibility factors) on mental development. Most of the environmental variance in IQ is attributable to the cumulative effect of such biological factors. Jensen (1996a) replies to an article by Flynn (in the same book) and summarizes the specific environmental factors hypothesized to play some part in the secular rise in IQ. 31. Modern mass-production poultry farms make use of this phenomenon, by keeping chicks under bright electric lighting twenty-four hours a day, to hasten their rate of growth and the time needed to reach their maximum egg-laying capacity. 32. (a) Lucas et al., 1992; (b) Ryan et al., 1991.

The g factor.

There is little evidence showing the relationship between the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and g (general intelligence). This research established the relationship between SAT and g, as well as the appropriateness of the SAT as a measure of g, and examined the SAT as a premorbid measure of intelligence. In Study 1, we used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Measures of g were extracted from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and correlated with SAT scores of 917 participants. The resulting correlation was .82 (.86 corrected for nonlinearity). Study 2 investigated the correlation between revised and recentered SAT scores and scores on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices among 104 undergraduates. The resulting correlation was .483 (.72 corrected for restricted range). These studies indicate that the SAT is mainly a test of g. We provide equations for converting SAT scores to estimated IQs; such conversion could be useful for estimating premorbid IQ or conducting individual...

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Scholastic Assessment or g?: The Relationship Between the Scholastic Assessment Test and General Cognitive Ability

Critics of educational admissions tests assert that tests measure nothing more than socioeconomic status (SES) and that their apparent validity in predicting academic performance is an artifact of SES. The authors examined multiple large data sets containing data on admissions and related tests, SES, and grades showing that (a) SES is related to test scores (r = .42 among the population of SAT takers), (b) test scores are predictive of academic performance, and (c) statistically controlling for SES reduces the estimated test?grade correlation from r = .47 to r = .44. Thus, the vast majority of the test?academic performance relationship was independent of SES: The authors concluded that the test?grade relationship is not an artifact of common influences of SES on both test scores and grades.

Does socioeconomic status explain the relationship between admissions tests and post-secondary academic performance?

The study of psychometric g, a focus of research in both educational and occupational settings, recently has been raised to new levels by advances in covariance structure modeling, which allows relations among observed and latent variables to be investigated. This type of modeling was applied to the study of psychometric g in relation to collegiate academic performance and socioeconomic status. The results showed that psychometric g accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in academic performance. The addition of the socioeconomic latent variable into any of the covariance structure models did not improve fit.

R. J. Brodnick

Papers

A Structural Model of Academic Performance, Socioeconomic Status, and Spearman's g: