Bardach Lisa, Kalinowski Robert, Bailey Drew H
Department of Psychology, University of Giessen.
Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen.
Psychol Sci. 2025 Mar;36(3):168-183. doi: 10.1177/09567976251321382. Epub 2025 Mar 18.
Understanding how the structure of cognitive abilities changes depending on age and ability (age and ability differentiation) has critical implications for cognitive-ability assessments and cognitive-developmental theories. Most differentiation research has focused on general intelligence; however, we argue that the investments children make in specific domains and school-taught subjects should rather affect their domain-specific ability structures. Leveraging a representative longitudinal sample of 17,979 U.S. children who were assessed in mathematics, reading, science, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, we found that loadings on a general intelligence factor remained similar, whereas most domain-specific factor loadings increased over time. Hence, age and ability differentiation are conceptually distinct, with the former pertaining to specific abilities and the latter to general intelligence. We find some evidence that domain-specific abilities can compensate for lower general intelligence. Overall, our results encourage a nuanced understanding of children's cognitive development.
了解认知能力结构如何随年龄和能力变化（年龄与能力分化）对认知能力评估和认知发展理论具有至关重要的意义。大多数分化研究都集中在一般智力上；然而，我们认为儿童在特定领域和学校教授科目上的投入应该会影响他们特定领域的能力结构。利用对17979名美国儿童进行数学、阅读、科学、工作记忆和认知灵活性评估的代表性纵向样本，我们发现一般智力因素的载荷保持相似，而大多数特定领域的因素载荷随时间增加。因此，年龄与能力分化在概念上是不同的，前者与特定能力相关，后者与一般智力相关。我们发现一些证据表明特定领域的能力可以弥补较低的一般智力。总体而言，我们的研究结果鼓励对儿童的认知发展进行细致入微的理解。
