Intelligence, Executive Functions and Academic Achievement in Adolescents of 13 and 14 years old

Abstract

The study of the relationship between executive functions, intellectual abilities, and academic achievement plays an important role in the field of cognitive neuroscience, particularly for their implications in the educational field. Intelligence has been linked to executive functions. In fact, core aspects of intelligence, such as reasoning, problem-solving and planning, are often included in the wide range of frontal lobe functions and over laps with the so-called higher-level executive functions. In addition, executive functioning abilities are associated with skills put in play when participating in learning activities at school. In this sense, different studies have demonstrated that a lower performance on executive function measures typically is associated with a lower performance across different academic areas. The aim of this work was focused on the relationship between intelligence and executive functions, and their ability to predict academic achievement. In the present study, a non-experimental, transversal and descriptive-correlational design was implemented to explore the relationship between intellectual abilities, executive functions, and academic performance in a sample of 37 adolescents (17 girls) aged 13-14 years. The information was collected through the school reports of participants, and their performance on tests BANFE-2 (neuropsychological battery of the executive functions and frontal lobes) and WISC-IV (Wechsler intelligence scale for children 4th Ed.). Also, adolescents were classified into two groups (high and low performers) based on their performance on the general intelligence score. Participants with IQ scores below the median were assigned to the low-performing group, while participants with IQ scores above the median were assigned to the high-performing group. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive, correlation and regression analyses. Results showed a pattern of positive and significant correlations between executive functions variables (BANFE-2) and intelligence scores (WISC-IV). The 69 % of significant correlations indicated a moderate – strong degree of association (i. e., 49 < 73), while the remaining of significant correlations showed a weak degree of association (i. e., 37 < 50). Particularly, executive functions variables, such as working memory, mental flexibility, and planning, were highly correlated with the IQ score, verbal comprehension index, and processing speed index. Further, academic achievement was predicted by intelligence scores (i. e., IQ score, verbal comprehension index, working memory index and processing speed index) and variables related to metafunctions (i. e., abstract reasoning and metacognition). On average, intelligence scores and metafunctions explained a 20 % of the variance in academic achievement. Finally, results revealed significant differences according to the general intelligence level of the adolescents, especially in executive function variables that had shown a larger association with intelligence scores. In particular, differences in executive skills between adolescents with high and low intelligence scores, were mainly characterized by differences in the performance of tasks with working memory and/or mental flexibility demands. These results confirm the association between intelligence and executive functions, and the capacity of intelligence abilities and higher-level executive functions in predicting academic achievement in different areas. Likewise, these findings highlight the important role of intelligence and executive functions in learning and academic achievement, and contribute to the consideration of different cognitive domains in the design of pedagogical strategies with the aim of promoting student performance. However, it is difficult to generalize findings beyond the study sample and arrive at more precise conclusions. The sample size was small and the scores were below expected standards in both WISC-IV and BANFE-2. In a future work, would be required a wider experimental study to conduct complex models of analysis that allow more precise and rigorous examinations