Working memory and intelligence--their correlation and their relation: comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005).
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Methodological commentary and reanalysis of published meta-analysis (non-clinical, graded by design analogy)
PubMed 15631551 · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.61
What was done
The authors conducted a methodological critique and statistical reanalysis of meta-analytic correlation data from Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005) examining the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC), general intelligence (g), and reasoning ability.
What was found
The abstract reports no numbers or statistical estimates. It qualitatively states that WMC and g are "very highly correlated" when evaluated with corrected statistical procedures, challenging the prior finding that WMC shares less than 25% of its variance with g and reasoning ability.
Why it matters
The commentary supports working memory capacity as a major explanatory construct and strong predictor of reasoning ability and general fluid intelligence.
Limits
The abstract gives no sample sizes, specific numerical values, or effect sizes. As a commentary and secondary reanalysis, it relies entirely on the data gathered by the original authors and is restricted to correlational psychometric measures.
Cited by
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