Cognitive Abilities and Intelligence
Research articles on cognitive abilities and intelligence.
- Average IQ by Age Across the Lifespan
How does IQ change with age? Explore average IQ scores by age group, when cognitive abilities peak, and what research shows about intelligence across the lifespan.
- Does Bilingualism Make You Smarter?
Does speaking two languages boost intelligence? Explore what research actually shows about bilingualism and cognitive ability — including the bilingual advantage debate...
- Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities: What the Data Show
Where do men and women actually differ cognitively, and by how much? The evidence on mean scores, variability, and specific abilities, without the spin.
- IQ of 130, 140, or 150: Rarity and Real-World Meaning
How rare is an IQ of 130, 140, or 150, and what does each level actually predict? The percentiles, rarity, and real-world meaning of very high scores.
- Fluid vs. Crystallized Intelligence
Intelligence is not a single ability. One of the most important distinctions in cognitive science — and one that affects everything from how IQ tests are designed to how...
- IQ vs. EQ: Which Matters More?
Few claims in pop psychology are as widely repeated as “EQ matters more than IQ.” It originated with Daniel Goleman’s 1995 trade book, was adopted enthusiastically by...
- The Flynn Effect: Are Humans Getting Smarter?
In 1984, political scientist James Flynn published a finding that would reshape how we think about intelligence: IQ scores had been rising steadily across the developed...
- SAT Scores and IQ: How Closely Are They Correlated?
The SAT is the most widely taken standardized test in the United States, completed by over two million students annually.
- Can You Actually Increase Your IQ?
Few questions in psychology generate as much debate as whether intelligence is fixed or malleable. The idea that IQ is set in stone — hardwired by genetics and sealed by...
- High IQ Ranges: Percentiles and Meaning
“High IQ” is one of the most loosely used phrases in popular discussion of intelligence. The answer to what counts as a high IQ depends on whose classification is...
- Physical Activity and Cognitive Health
A 2024 study in Annals of Behavioral Medicine measured something most exercise-and-cognition research has not: not whether a structured exercise program improves brain...
- Cognitive Ability and Decision-Making Biases
Whether smarter people make better decisions is a long-running question in cognitive psychology, and the answer is more nuanced than the popular framing suggests.
- The Neuroscience of High Intelligence
The science of high intelligence sits at the intersection of psychometrics, neuroimaging, and cognitive neuroscience. The basic question is simple: what is different...
- Flynn Effect Trends: The Rise, Stall, and Reversal of IQ
For a century IQ scores rose about three points per decade — then the gains stalled and reversed in several countries. What the trend data show, and why.
- Cognitive Ability and Top Earners
The richest people are the smartest people, and people who reach the top of professional hierarchies do so because of cognitive ability. Both claims are widely held and...
- Intelligence and Music Aptitude in Piano Learning
Two folk explanations dominate when an adult picks up piano faster than the person sitting next to them in the same beginner class. The first is innate musical talent —...
- Spatial vs. Abstract Reasoning: One Factor or Two?
Spatial reasoning and abstract reasoning are routinely treated as two distinct cognitive abilities in lay accounts and in some applied testing contexts.
- Reaction Time and Intelligence
The observation that smarter people respond faster is one of the oldest empirical findings in psychology. Francis Galton documented it in the 1880s; Charles Spearman put...
- SAT Scores and General Cognitive Ability
The SAT was designed as a college admissions test, not an IQ test. But empirical work over the past two decades has shown that the two are very closely related — close...
- Cognitive Measures of Reasoning and Language
The SAT is the most widely taken standardised cognitive test in the United States, and its results are interpreted by college admissions offices as if they reveal...
- Gender, Education, and Cognitive Outcomes
A 2010 study by Jouve, drawing on 251 examinees of the Jouve Cerebrals Test of Induction (JCTI), found that males scored higher than females on inductive reasoning at...
- CHC Cognitive Abilities and Writing Achievement
Writing is one of the most cognitively demanding skills children acquire. It draws simultaneously on language, memory, motor coordination, attention, and reasoning, and...