The Nature and Organization of Individual Differences in Executive Functions : Four General Conclusions 

Akira Miyake and Naomi P. Friedman 

Executive functions (EFs)—a set of general-purpose control processes that regulate one’s thoughts and behaviors—have become a popular research topic lately and have been studied in many subdisciplines of psychological science. This article summarizes the EF research that our group has conducted to understand the nature of individual differences in EFs and their cognitive and biological underpinnings. In the context of a new theoretical framework that we have been developing (the unity/diversity framework), we describe four general conclusions that have emerged. Specifically, we argue that individual differences in EFs, as measured with simple laboratory tasks, (a) show both unity and diversity (different EFs are correlated yet separable), (b) reflect substantial genetic contributions, (c) are related to various clinically and societally important phenomena, and (d) show some developmental stability.

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Shaping achievement goal orientations in a mastery-structured environment and concomitant changes in related contingencies of self-worth 

Paul A. O’Keefe • Adar Ben-Eliyahu • Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia 

Across three time-points spanning 9 months, changes in achievement goal orientations and contingencies of self-worth were assessed as a function of participating in a mastery-structured academic program for high-ability adolescents (N = 126). Endorsement of mastery goal orientations increased during the program and remained high even after students returned to their home learning environments. In contrast, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations decreased during the summer program, but returned to previous levels when assessed 6 months later. Latent growth curve models assessed the covariation of performance goal orientations and two contingencies of self-worth (outperforming others and others’ approval) hypothesized to represent elements of performance goal orientations. Changes in the contingency of self-worth based on outperforming others positively covaried with observed changes in both performance goal orientations; however, changes in self-worth contingent on others’ approval did not. Results are discussed in terms of mastery-structured environments’ potential to alter achievement goal orientations via their underlying psychological processes. Implications for achievement goal theory and the design of achievement-oriented environments are discussed.

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Does Personal Intelligence Exist? Evidence From a New Ability-Based Measure 

John D. Mayer, A.T. Panter, and David Caruso

Personal intelligence has been defined as the ability to reason about personality and personality-relevant information and to use that information to guide one’s actions and more generally, one’s life. We constructed an initial version of an ability-based measure to test whether personal intelligence can be measured and whether it exists as a unitary intelligence. In 3 studies (N = 241, 308, and 385), we administered this Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI), composed of 4 sections, to undergraduates along with criterion measures. Results suggested that a personal intelligence can be measured, that it might exist as a unified area of mental abilities, and that it represents psychological qualities that have intriguing predictive aspects.

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STUDY ALERT: Dopamine, Working Memory, and Training Induced Plasticity: Implications for Developmental Research

Robots, men and sex tourism    

Ian Yeoman, Michelle Mars

In 2050, Amsterdam’s red light district will all be about android prostitutes who are clean of sexual transmitted infections (STIs), not smuggled in from Eastern Europe and forced into slavery, the city council will have direct control over android sex workers controlling prices, hours of operations and sexual services. This paper presents a futuristic scenario about sex tourism, discusses the drivers of change and the implications for the future. The paper pushes plausibility to the limit as boundaries of science fiction and fact become blurred in the ever increasing world of technology, consumption and humanity, a paradigm known as liminality.

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An integrative architecture for general intelligence and executive function revealed by lesion mapping 

Aron K. Barbey, Roberto Colom, Jeffrey Solomon, Frank Krueger, Chad Forbes, and Jordan Grafman10 

Although cognitive neuroscience has made remarkable progress in understanding the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in executive control, the broader functional networks that support high-level cognition and give rise to general intelligence remain to be well characterized. Here, we investigated the neural substrates of the general factor of intelligence (g) and executive function in 182 patients with focal brain damage using voxel-based lesion–symptom mapping. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System were used to derive measures of g and executive function, respectively. Impaired performance on these measures was associated with damage to a distributed network of left lateralized brain areas, including regions of frontal and parietal cortex and white matter association tracts, which bind these areas into a coordinated system. The observed findings support an integrative framework for understanding the architecture of general intelligence and executive function, supporting their reliance upon a shared fronto-parietal network for the integration and control of cognitive representations and making specific recommendations for the application of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System to the study of high-level cognition in health and disease. 

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Does BDNF genotype influence creative output in bipolar I manic patients?    

Márcio Gerhardt Soeiro-de-Souza a,⁎, Robert M. Post b, Mario Lucio de Sousa c, Giovani Missio a, Carolina Martins do Prado d, Wagner F. Gattaz d, Ricardo A. Moreno a, Rodrigo Machado-Vieira d 

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Incremental variance of the core self-evaluation construct compared to fluid intelligence and personality traits in aspects of decision-making 

Annamaria Di Fabio, Letizia Palazzeschi    

This study investigated the role of fluid intelligence, personality traits and core self-evaluation in relation to aspects of decision-making (career decision-making difficulties, decisional styles, indecisiveness). The Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM), the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ), the Core Self-Evaluation Scale (CSES), the Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ), the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (MDMQ), and the Indecisiveness Scale (IS) were administered to 143 Italian high school students. The study revealed that the core self-evaluation construct added a significant percentage of incremental variance compared to variances due to fluid intelligence and personality traits with respect to aspects of decision-making. The results highlight the role of the core self-evaluation construct and its relationship with aspects of decision-making thereby offering new research and intervention perspectives.

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How the Dark Triad traits predict relationship choices    

Peter K. Jonason, Victor X. Luevano, Heather M. Adams

While previous studies have correlated the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machia- vellianism) with a preference for short-term relationships, little research has addressed possible correla- tions with short-term relationship sub-types. In this online study using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk system (N = 210) we investigated the manner in which scores on the Dark Triad relate to the selection of different mating environments using a budget-allocation task. Overall, the Dark Triad were positively correlated with preferences for short-term relationships and negatively correlated with preferences for a long-term relationship. Specifically, narcissism was uniquely correlated with preferences for one-night stands and friends-with-benefits and psychopathy was uniquely correlated with preferences for booty- call relationships. Both narcissism and psychopathy were negatively correlated with preferences for seri- ous romantic relationships. In mediation analyses, psychopathy partially mediated the sex difference in preferences for booty-call relationships and narcissism partially mediated the sex difference in prefer- ences for one-night stands. In addition, the sex difference in preference for serious romantic relationships was partially mediated by both narcissism and psychopathy. It appears the Dark Triad traits facilitate the adoption of specific mating environments providing fit with people’s personality traits.

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Marcus Crede and Nathan R. Kuncel

ABSTRACT

Study habit, skill, and attitude inventories and constructs were found to rival standardized tests and previous grades as predictors of academic performance, yielding substantial incremental validity in predicting academic performance. This meta-analysis (N 5 72,431, k = 344) examines the construct validity and predictive validity of 10 study skill constructs for college students. We found that study skill inventories and constructs are largely independent of both high school grades and scores on standardized admissions tests but moderately related to various personality constructs; these results are inconsis- tent with previous theories. Study motivation and study skills exhibit the strongest relationships with both grade point average and grades in individual classes. Academic specific anxiety was found to be an important negative predictor of performance. In addition, significant variation in the validity of specific inventories is shown. Scores on traditional study habit and attitude inventories are the most predictive of performance, whereas scores on inventories based on the popular depth-of-processing perspective are shown to be least predictive of the examined criteria. Overall, study habit and skill measures improve prediction of academic performance more than any other noncognitive individual difference variable examined to date and should be regarded as the third pillar of academic success. 

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