Contributions of the general and the specific factors for the intelligence and school achievement relationship

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which factors more specific cognition, content associated with verbal, numerical or figurative, complement a reasoning general factor in predicting students´ academic achievement at the beginning and the end of adolescence. Taking a Portuguese students sample (n=4,899) from 5th to 12th grades, the reasoning tests battery (BPR – Bateria de Provas de Raciocínio) was administrated in its three versions. Academic achievement was estimated on base of students´ classifications at Portuguese Language and Mathematics. The structural equation modelling shows a more expressive impact of general factor (inductive and fluid factor) associated to all BPR tests in academic achievement prediction, even tough its importance decreases progressively when we advance on school grades. At same time, specific components in each test are present in a second model namely for the 5th and 6th grades. From 9th to 12th grades the specific contributes of tests are confined to the verbal reasoning test (numerical reasoning test appears in 9th grade too). So we can conclude for the importance of g factor to explain the academic performance, but specific cognitive components can also contribute to reinforce the relation between intelligence and school achievement.

Key words: Intelligence, G factor, specific factors, Gf-Gc, academic achievement