Change in intelligence (Gf,Gc): Good explanations of Mathew effect, compensation effect, and knowledge-is-power hypothesis

Click on image to enlarge" According to a first perspective, higher initial levels of knowledge (or reasoning) could facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge (or reason-ing abilities), which has also been labeled Matthew effect1 (Fig. 1, Panel A). Even though the term was originally coined to describe the phenom-enon that eminent researchers often get more credit for the same scien-tific contribution than their unknown competitors (Merton, 1968), it has been applied to various psychological phenomena (e.g., Shaywitz et al., 1995; Stanovich, 1986). In the context of intelligence research, the knowledge-is-power hypothesis (Hambrick, 2004; Hambrick& Engle, 2002) assumes that prior knowledge is the best predictor of fu-ture learning within a given domain of expertise, even stronger than reasoning (beside the fact that the empirical support for corresponding compensation effects is rather weak). As a consequence, students who are already knowledgeable should show the strongest knowledge gains and the achievement gap would widen. Research on expertise suggested several psychological mechanisms accounting for such “fan-spread” effects (Walberg& Tsai, 1983), that is, with a profound knowl-edge base new knowledge can be processed faster, integrated deeper and retrieved more accurately (e.g., Chase& Simon, 1973; Hambrick& Engle, 2002). "Footnote re Mathew Effect origin: The name refers to the bible verse: “To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abund...
Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs