{"title":"Empathy in subjects with high intellectual potential (HIP): Rethinking stereotypes through a multidimensional and developmental review","authors":"Nathalie Lavenne-Collot , Pascale Planche , Laurence Vaivre-Douret","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101935","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101935","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Empathy is often portrayed as a defining trait of individuals with High Intellectual Potential (HIP), frequently associated with heightened sensitivity, emotional depth, or altruistic tendencies. However, such generalizations oversimplify a multidimensional construct and overlook intra-group variability in empathic functioning.</div></div><div><h3>Objective and methods</h3><div>This review adopts a multidimensional and developmental perspective to examine empathy in HIP individuals. Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, and psychopathology, it analyzes how emotional, motivational, cognitive, regulatory, and embodied components of empathy interact with high-level intellectual functioning. Specific focus is placed on developmental asynchrony, contextual modulation, and the cognitive–emotional balance of empathy.</div></div><div><h3>Results and discussion</h3><div>Current evidence suggests that empathy in HIP individuals may not conform to a uniform pattern. Rather, diverse and dynamic configurations appear to emerge, potentially involving a relative dominance of cognitive empathy (CE) over emotional empathy (EE), modulated by regulatory capacities, sensory traits, motivational states, and contextual demands. While such profiles could support analytical detachment in emotionally charged situations, they might also limit affective attunement. These possible configurations—some of which may intersect with neurodevelopmental or psychopathological traits—underscore the need for cautious interpretation, subgroup differentiation, and further empirical investigation.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Understanding empathy in HIP individuals requires a flexible, integrative framework that accounts for developmental plasticity, regulatory diversity, and contextual influences. Such an approach refines empathy models and supports individualized interventions in educational and clinical settings. Future research should prioritize ecologically valid, embodied, and neurophysiological methods to better capture empathic variability across developmental stages.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"112 ","pages":"Article 101935"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144703562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IntelligencePub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101936
Timo Gnambs
{"title":"Reciprocal effects between information and communication technology literacy and conventional literacies","authors":"Timo Gnambs","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101936","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101936","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Information and communication technology (ICT) literacy encompasses a range of cognitive abilities that facilitate the effective use of digital technologies. Two studies on German students investigated the role of reading comprehension and mathematical competence in the development of ICT literacy in adolescence. A variance decomposition analysis (<em>N</em> = 13,335) revealed that both competence domains together accounted for nearly half of the explained item variances in two ICT literacy assessments. Additionally, a cross-lagged panel analysis (<em>N</em> = 4,872) demonstrated that reading and mathematical competencies predicted ICT literacy growth over three years, while ICT literacy also had reciprocal effects on domain-specific competencies. These findings emphasize that ICT literacy is not merely a technical skill set but is also closely related to other cognitive abilities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 101936"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144604507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IntelligencePub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101934
Gilles E. Gignac , Katja Schlegel
{"title":"Age and ability-based emotional intelligence: Evidence from the Geneva Emotional Competence Test","authors":"Gilles E. Gignac , Katja Schlegel","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101934","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101934","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One criterion for considering emotional intelligence (EI) a true intelligence is the observation of an increase in EI across age. However, findings in this area have been mixed and predominantly based on a single measure, the MSCEIT. This study examined the relationship between age and ability-based emotional intelligence (EI) using the Geneva Emotional Competence Test (GECo) in a sample of 456 adults. Results indicated that total EI increases from early adulthood to approximately age 40 (≈ 9 EQ points), after which it plateaus and shows a modest decline in later adulthood. Notably, the emotion regulation subdimension showed no evidence of decline. Overall, these findings support the view that EI may be considered an intelligence, one that may be shaped by gains in crystallized abilities, but also potentially susceptible to later declines in fluid cognitive functioning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 101934"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144524339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cognitive performance from infancy to adulthood in Japan from 1998–2001 to 2014–2019: A study using the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development","authors":"Hideyo Goma , Shun Tanaka , Toshiki Matsuoka , Hiroyuki Shimizu , Satomi Shimizu , Yui Zen , Emi Adachi , Motoko Ishikawa , Karri Silventoinen","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101937","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101937","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Declines in cognitive performance have been observed in many Western countries in the 21st century, but it is still unclear whether similar declines are occurring in East Asian countries. We examined trends in cognitive performance over a 20-year period in Japan and analyzed how these trends varied from infancy to adulthood and between males and females. Data were collected between 1998 and 2001 (<em>n</em> = 2677; 49 % females) and 2014 and 2019 (<em>n</em> = 3243; 51 % females) using the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development and analyzed using linear regression models. We found that cognitive performance had improved over the years for boys and girls aged 3 to 10 years old, with only minor changes observed at younger and older ages. Girls showed an advantage in cognitive development over boys from 1 to 3 years of age, while boys outperformed girls from 10 years of age into adulthood. We found suggestive evidence of slightly faster improvement in cognitive development over the years in boys compared to girls. These results were roughly similar for general cognitive development, cognitive-adaptive development, and language-social development. These findings suggest that the cognitive performance of Japanese children has continued to improve over the past two decades. Japan provides an example that the decline in cognitive performance observed in many industrialized countries in the 21st century is not inevitable.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 101937"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144611600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IntelligencePub Date : 2025-06-21DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101933
Jüri Allik, Helle Pullmann
{"title":"How accurately does self-reported intelligence reflect psychometrically measured IQ?","authors":"Jüri Allik, Helle Pullmann","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101933","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101933","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Studies have demonstrated that people's self-reported intelligence (SRI) is only weakly correlated with their psychometrically measured IQ, which challenges the idea that asking someone how intelligent they are can serve as a reliable proxy for formal ability testing. Data collected from a large sample of Estonian schoolchildren aged 7 to 18 years (<em>N</em> = 4544) showed that only by around age of 10 do children's cognitive abilities develop to a level that allows them to make reasonably accurate self-assessments, as measured by the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM). We conclude that meaningful comparisons of one's intellectual abilities with those of peers are only possible once general cognitive development has reached a stage of reflective intelligence, capable of using formal operations and aligning mental concepts with reality. One way to improve the agreement between the SRI and IQ test scores is to increase the reliability of subjective ratings, either by using more items or by enhancing inter-item correlations. However, this agreement has an upper limit, as discrepancies remain between psychologists' definitions of intelligence and lay conceptions, which often conflate intelligence with self-esteem and other unrelated constructs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 101933"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144329659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IntelligencePub Date : 2025-06-18DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101932
Alexa K. Bushinski, Thomas S. Redick
{"title":"Individual differences in spatial navigation and working memory","authors":"Alexa K. Bushinski, Thomas S. Redick","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101932","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101932","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Spatial navigation is a complex skill that relies on many aspects of cognition. Our study aims to clarify the role of working memory in spatial navigation, and particularly, the potentially separate contributions of verbal and visuospatial working memory. We leverage individual differences to understand how working memory differs among types of navigators and the predictive utility of verbal and visuospatial working memory. Data were analyzed from <em>N</em> = 253 healthy, young adults. Participants completed multiple measures of verbal and visuospatial working memory and a spatial navigation task called Virtual Silcton. We found that better navigators may rely more on visuospatial working memory. Additionally, using a relative weights analysis, we found that visuospatial working memory accounts for a large majority of variance in spatial navigation when compared to verbal working memory. Our results suggest individual differences in working memory are domain-specific in this context of spatial navigation, with visuospatial working memory being the primary contributor.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 101932"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144306984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IntelligencePub Date : 2025-06-04DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101931
Joseph L. Nedelec , Curtis S. Dunkel , Dimitri van der Linden
{"title":"Heritability of metacognitive judgement of intelligence: A twin study on the Dunning-Kruger effect","authors":"Joseph L. Nedelec , Curtis S. Dunkel , Dimitri van der Linden","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101931","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101931","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Metacognition is a process that relates to thinking about thinking. Observed variation in metacognitive processes related to intelligence have often been referred to as the Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE). The DKE describes how individuals often overestimate their competence in a field where they lack expertise, while experts tend to slightly underestimate their competence. Applied to general intelligence, the DKE suggests discrepancies between self-assessed intelligence (SAI) and objective measures of intelligence. Recently, however, the methods used to assess the DKE have been subject to critique. The current study innovatively assessed the DKE by using a mechanistic and genetically informed approach. ACE decomposition models were estimated on a large sample of twins (<em>n</em> = 920; [<em>n</em><sub>MZ</sub> = 388; <em>n</em><sub>DZ</sub> = 532]) drawn from the restricted version of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Findings illustrated that about 44 % of the variance in a traditional measure of the DKE (difference scores: SAI – objective IQ) was accounted for by genetic factors in the full sample. However, the pattern differed over quartiles of objective IQ where genetic factors accounted for less of the variance in the lower quartiles (about 30 %) and increased to over 75 % of the variance in the highest quartile (remaining variance was due to nonshared environmental factors). Limitations notwithstanding (including a weak and relatively isolated DKE), the current study adds potential support for the validity of the DKE.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 101931"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144205195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IntelligencePub Date : 2025-05-29DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101923
Sofie Van Cauwenberghe , Stijn Schelfhout , Elisabeth Roels , Jordi Heeren , Lieve De Wachter , Wouter Duyck , Nicolas Dirix
{"title":"Validating Rules: A non-verbal free fluid intelligence test","authors":"Sofie Van Cauwenberghe , Stijn Schelfhout , Elisabeth Roels , Jordi Heeren , Lieve De Wachter , Wouter Duyck , Nicolas Dirix","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101923","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101923","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Intelligence is one of the strongest predictors of academic achievement. Fluid intelligence is one part of the construct, that can be measured by deductive and inductive reasoning. We set up a validation study of a free, non-verbal fluid intelligence test (Rules) in the context of study orientation. In this study, we investigate the reliability, distribution and structural validity of Rules, consisting of 28 items. Evidence from confirmatory multidimensional item response theory models suggests structural validity of the non-verbal reasoning test. For construct validity, a cross-validation between Rules and Raven's 2 Progressive Matrices in a sample of 235 last-year secondary school students resulted in a correlation of 0.62. Furthermore, we analyzed the predictive validity of the non-verbal reasoning test, which was administered to 32,585 last-year secondary school students. A standardized mathematics and language test were administered as a proxy for academic achievement scores. The results confirmed the predictive validity of the non-verbal reasoning test for cognitive achievement, with correlations of <em>r</em> = 0.61 for mathematics and <em>r</em> = 0.41 for language. Findings support the use of Rules in psychological practice, in particular for large-scale study exploration tools and low-stakes testing as a proxy for cognition or fluid reasoning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 101923"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144170440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IntelligencePub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101930
Michael Zakharin, Timothy C. Bates
{"title":"Higher cognitive ability linked to weaker moral foundations in UK adults","authors":"Michael Zakharin, Timothy C. Bates","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101930","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101930","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Existing research on the relationship between cognitive ability and moral foundations has yielded contradictory results. While some studies suggest that higher cognitive ability is associated with more enlightened moral intuitions, others indicate it may weaken moral foundations. To address this ambiguity, we conducted two studies (total <em>N</em> = 1320) using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire-2 (MFQ-2) with UK residents. Both Study 1 and Study 2 (preregistered) revealed negative links between cognitive ability and moral foundations. In Study 1, structural models showed negative links between general intelligence (g) and both binding (−0.24) and individualizing (−0.19) foundations. These findings replicated closely in Study 2, with similar coefficients (−0.25 and − 0.18, respectively). Higher verbal ability was specifically associated with lower purity scores. These findings suggest a negative association between cognitive ability and moral foundations, challenging existing theories relating to intelligence and moral intuitions. However, causal direction remains uncertain.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 101930"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144147068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IntelligencePub Date : 2025-05-01DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101922
Gilles E. Gignac , David Ilić
{"title":"Psychometrically derived 60-question benchmarks: Substantial efficiencies and the possibility of human-AI comparisons","authors":"Gilles E. Gignac , David Ilić","doi":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101922","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.intell.2025.101922","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Large Language Model (LLM) benchmark evaluation tests often comprise thousands of questions. Based on psychometric principles, reliable and valid benchmark tests can likely be developed with as few as 60 items, comparable to human intelligence tests, which typically include only 15 to 60 items. The establishment of shorter benchmark tests offers numerous potential benefits, including more efficient evaluation of LLMs, the practical feasibility of creating parallel forms, and the ability to directly compare LLM performance with human capabilities. Consequently, we analysed the performance of 591 LLMs across three widely recognized benchmarks—HellaSwag, Winogrande, and GSM8K—and developed short-forms (≈ 60 questions each) using psychometric principles. The short-forms exhibited high internal consistency reliability, with coefficient omega values ranging from 0.96 for Winogrande to 0.99 for HellaSwag and GSM8K. Additionally, strong correlations between short- and long-form scores (<em>r</em> ≈ 0.90) provided evidence of concurrent validity. Finally, model size (number of parameters) was a slightly stronger predictor of overall LLM performance for the short-forms compared to the long-forms, indicating that the short forms exhibited comparable, if not slightly superior, convergent validity. It is concluded that shorter benchmarks may accelerate AI development by enabling more efficient evaluations. Additionally, research into the nature of intelligence may be facilitated by benchmark short-forms by enabling direct comparisons between AI and human performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13862,"journal":{"name":"Intelligence","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 101922"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144115844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}