Cognitive reflection, cognitive intelligence, and cognitive abilities: A meta-analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a series of psychometric meta-analysis on the relationship between cognitive reflection (CR) and several cognitive abilities (i.e., cognitive intelligence, numerical ability, verbal ability, mechanical-spatial ability, and working memory), and skills (i.e., numeracy skills). Also, the paper presents a bifactor analysis carried out to determine whether CR is a related but independent factor or a second-stratum factor in a hierarchical model of cognitive intelligence. Finally, the study also tested a path meta-analytic model of the CR-cognitive ability relationships. The results showed that CR correlated substantially with all the cognitive abilities and skills (K ranged from 3 to 44 and N ranged from 624 to 20,307). The bifactor analysis showed that CR variance was mainly accounted for by a general factor of cognitive intelligence plus a second-stratum factor of numerical ability. The results of the bifactor analysis were similar for numerical-CRT and verbal-CRT. It was not found evidence supporting the existence of a cognitive reflection factor. Finally, the path meta-analytic model showed that the combination of cognitive intelligence and numerical ability accounted for 69% of CR variance. The path model showed that cognitive intelligence and numerical ability have direct and indirect (through numeracy skills) effects on CR. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and future research is suggested.