Psychometric structure
Use correlations and latent models to identify general and specific dimensions of performance across cognitive tasks.
Side 232Side Studies / Research
Subject
Intelligence & Individual Differences
Purpose
Variation in cognitive performance studied through psychometrics, general and specific abilities, development, environment and predictive validity.
Structure
05 movesSystem mapV0
Components → constraints → flows → control → failure
Separate measurement structure from explanations of ability.
Individual-differences research can describe stable covariance among tasks without by itself explaining the biological, developmental or social mechanisms that produce it.
Measurement quality
Study reliability, invariance and test validity before interpreting score differences as differences in a stable construct.
Development
Track how cognitive abilities change across childhood, education and aging while distinguishing cohort and practice effects.
Genes & environments
Interpret heritability and environmental influence at population level without converting either into individual determinism.
Prediction & fairness
Evaluate educational and occupational prediction alongside group differences, measurement invariance and consequences of test use.
Keep the boundaries visible.
IQ score ≠ person's total intelligence
heritability ≠ immutability
group mean ≠ individual prediction
Questions that organize the Side.
What does a general factor summarize, and what does it fail to explain?
How can a test be reliable yet invalid for a particular inference?
Why does high heritability not imply that an intervention cannot change outcomes?
What should carry weight here?
Psychometric claims require representative samples, measurement invariance and transparent models; causal explanations need evidence beyond covariance and heritability estimates.