IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intell/v66y2018icp122-127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The power of cognitive ability in explaining educational test performance, relative to other ostensible contenders

Author

Listed:
  • O'Connell, Michael

Abstract

The paper examines the relationship between cognitive ability at thirteen years of age and children's academic performance assessments at aged nine. Alongside cognitive ability, other variables considered predictive of academic success were assessed including personality measures, birthweight, handedness, socio-economic background, parental education, home language, and child-rearing practices such as breast-feeding and access to video-games. The final sample comprised 7525 children who participated in both wave 1 and wave 2 of the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) longitudinal study. Participants in the study were selected through the state school system using a 2-stage sampling method producing a large sample representative of the national population of nine-year-old children. Linear multiple regression identified five variables which significantly explained both reading and mathematics test scores: two cognitive ability measures, birthweight, wealthier households, and high attendance at parent-teacher meetings. Gender, parental education, and home language also made a contribution to reading test scores, while a general factor of personality was significant for mathematics. Overall the cognitive ability measures accounted for almost all of the explained variance, and other factors, while sometimes statistically significant, were of relatively minor importance.

Suggested Citation

  • O'Connell, Michael, 2018. "The power of cognitive ability in explaining educational test performance, relative to other ostensible contenders," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 122-127.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intell:v:66:y:2018:i:c:p:122-127
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2017.11.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289617301757
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intell.2017.11.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jo Blanden, 2004. "Family Income and Educational Attainment: A Review of Approaches and Evidence for Britain," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 20(2), pages 245-263, Summer.
    2. Hubert Strauss & Christine de la Maisonneuve, 2009. "The wage premium on tertiary education: New estimates for 21 OECD countries," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2009(1), pages 1-29.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guez, Ava & Panaïotis, Thelma & Peyre, Hugo & Ramus, Franck, 2018. "Predictors of the IQ-achievement gap in France: A longitudinal analysis," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 104-116.
    2. Lechner, Clemens M. & Miyamoto, Ai & Knopf, Thomas, 2019. "Should students be smart, curious, or both? Fluid intelligence, openness, and interest co-shape the acquisition of reading and math competence," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-1.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arnaud Chevalier & Colm Harmon & Vincent O’ Sullivan & Ian Walker, 2013. "The impact of parental income and education on the schooling of their children," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Cheng, Yawen & Kong, Dongmin & Wang, Qin, 2023. "Parents' early experience and children's years of schooling: The long-term impact of son preference," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. João Pereira dos Santos & José Tavares & José Mesquita, 2021. "Leave them kids alone! National exams as a political tool," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 405-426, December.
    4. Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe, 2018. "Long-run effects of public expenditure on poverty," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Vignoles Anna F & Powdthavee Nattavudh, 2009. "The Socioeconomic Gap in University Dropouts," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-36, April.
    6. Domenico Depalo & Raffaela Giordano & Evangelia Papapetrou, 2015. "Public–private wage differentials in euro-area countries: evidence from quantile decomposition analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 985-1015, November.
    7. Fernández, Raquel & Wong, Joyce Cheng, 2011. "The Disappearing Gender Gap: The Impact of Divorce, Wages, and Preferences on Education Choices and Women's Work," IZA Discussion Papers 6046, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Richter, Wolfram F., 2013. "Mincer Equation, Power Law of Learning, and Efficient Education Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 7280, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Arnaud Chevalier & Colm Harmon & Vincent O'Sullivan & Ian Walker, 2011. "The Impact of Parental Earnings and Education on the Schooling of Children," Working Papers 201112, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    10. Howley, Peter, 2017. "Less money or better health? Evaluating individual’s willingness to make trade-offs using life satisfaction data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 53-65.
    11. George Bulman & Robert Fairlie & Sarena Goodman & Adam Isen, 2021. "Parental Resources and College Attendance: Evidence from Lottery Wins," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(4), pages 1201-1240, April.
    12. Vandenberghe, Vincent, 2007. "Family income and tertiary education attendance across the EU: an empirical assessment using sibling data," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6214, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Antonio Di Paolo, 2012. "Parental Education And Family Characteristics: Educational Opportunities Across Cohorts In Italy And Spain," Revista de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Estructura Economica y Economia Publica, vol. 20(1), pages 119-146, Spring.
    14. Jessica Vechbanyongratana & Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat, 2015. "Transfer Payments And Upper Secondary School Outcomes: The Case Of Low-Income Female Students In Thailand," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 60(05), pages 1-19, December.
    15. Wölfel, Oliver & Heineck, Guido, 2012. "Parental risk attitudes and children's secondary school track choice," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 727-743.
    16. Mehmet Özbaş, 2020. "The Educational Inequalities in the Disadvantaged Social Strata of Romani Population," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(3), pages 218-235, September.
    17. Bruna BRUNO & Damiano FIORILLO, 2016. "Voluntary Work And Wages," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(2), pages 175-202, December.
    18. Jose L. Vilchez, 2017. "The Solution for the Behavioural Constellation of Deprivation," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 29(2), pages 246-263, September.
    19. Claire Crawford & Lindsey Macmillan & Anna Vignoles, 2015. "When and why do initially high attaining poor children fall behind?," DoQSS Working Papers 15-08, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    20. Francesco Vona, 2011. "Does the Expansion of Higher Education Reduce Educational Inequality? Evidence from 12 European Countries," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2011-12, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intell:v:66:y:2018:i:c:p:122-127. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/intelligence .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.