title: A drop in performance on a fluid intelligence test due to instructed-rule mindset.
abstract: A 'mindset' is a configuration of processing resources that are made available for the task at hand as well as their suitable tuning for carrying it out. Of special interest, remote-relation abstract mindsets are introduced by activities sharing only general control processes with the task. To test the effect of a remote-relation mindset on performance on a Fluid Intelligence test (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, RAPM), we induced a mindset associated with little usage of executive processing by requiring participants to execute a well-defined classification rule 12 times, a manipulation known from previous work to drastically impair rule-generation performance and associated cognitive processes. In Experiment 1, this manipulation led to a drop in RAPM performance equivalent to 10.1 IQ points. No drop was observed in a General Knowledge task. In Experiment 2, a similar drop in RAPM performance was observed (equivalent to 7.9 and 9.2 IQ points) regardless if participants were pre-informed about the upcoming RAPM test. These results indicate strong (most likely, transient) adverse effects of a remote-relation mindset on test performance. They imply that although the trait of Fluid Intelligence has probably not changed, mindsets can severely distort estimates of this trait.
authors.affiliation: Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, 46150, Israel. hadaserel@gmail.com.|School of Behavioral Science, Netanya Academic College, Netanya, Israel. hadaserel@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hadas
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7099-6104
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: ErEl
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Nachshon
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Meiran
mesh_terms: D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007361:Intelligence Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*