Intelligence and Information Processing
A Mismatch Negativity Analysis Using a Passive Auditory Backward-Masking Task
Abstract
The relationship between mental ability (MA, Raven Progressive Matrices) and speed of information processing was examined by recording mismatch negativity (MMN) parameters from 41 women during passive listening to auditory standard and deviant stimuli with backward masking. The intertone interval (ITI) between the offset of the standard or deviant tone and the onset of the masking tone was varied between conditions (25, 50, or 150 ms). Three versions of a trail-making test (Zahlen-Verbindungs-Test, ZVT) were also presented to obtain a behavioral index of information processing speed. Multiple regression analysis showed that the more difficult versions of the ZVT and midline frontal MMN latency at 25-ms ITI were both significant predictors of MA. Across all ITI conditions, the higher ability (HA) group exhibited a shorter MMN latency than the lower ability (LA) group. Finally, the HA group also had a larger MMN amplitude than the LA group for the 25-ms ITI condition. These results indicate that low-level auditory discrimination, indexed by MMN, contributes to individual differences in fluid intelligence. In this regard, MMN provides a valuable tool for examining individual differences in intelligence in individuals who are not able to comply with psychometric testing.
References
(1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. W. Spence J. T. Spence, Eds., The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 2, pp. 89–195). New York: Academic Press.
(2002). Intelligence and information processing during an auditory discrimination task with backward masking: An event-related potential analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 998–1008.
(2006). The chronometry of mental ability: An event-related potential analysis of an auditory oddball discrimination task. Intelligence, 34, 571–586.
(2000). Looking down on human intelligence: From psychometrics to the brain. New York: Oxford University Press.
(1996). Intelligence and inspection time: Achievements, prospects and problems. American Psychologist, 51, 599–608.
(2005, July). Intelligence, mismatch negativity and P3 component of the event-related potential during an auditory discrimination task. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, Adelaide, Australia.
(2008). Intelligence and P3 components of the event-related potential elicited during an auditory discrimination task with masking. Intelligence, 36, 35–47.
(1980). Temporal integration in visual memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 109, 75–97.
(1966). Temporal luminance effects in backward and forward masking. Perception and Psychophysics, 1, 87–92.
(1983). A new method for off-line removal of ocular artifacts. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 55, 468–484.
(1998). Intelligence and the effects of perceptual processing demands, task difficulty and processing speed on P300, reaction time, and movement time. Intelligence, 26, 9–25.
(2000). Correlations between ERP parameters and intelligence: A reconsideration. Biological Psychology, 55, 137.
(1998). The g factor. Westport, CT: Praeger.
(2006). Clocking the mind: Mental chronometry and individual differences. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
(2004). Sex differences on three factors identified in Raven Standard Progressive Matrices. Intelligence, 32, 411–424.
(2005). What do Raven Matrices measure? An analysis in terms of sex differences. Intelligence, 33, 663–674.
(1992). Intelligence, reaction time, and event-related potentials. Intelligence, 16, 289–313.
(1990). The role of attention in auditory information processing as revealed by event-related potentials and other brain measures of cognitive function. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 201–208.
(1992). Attention and brain function. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(1997). Mismatch negativity (MMN) – the measure for central sound representation accuracy. Audiology and Neuro-Otology, 2, 341–353.
(2007). The mismatch negativity (MMN) in basic research of central auditory processing: A review. Clinical Neurophysiology, 118, 2544–2590.
(1993). Attention and mismatch negativity. Psychophysiology, 30, 436–450.
(2001). “Primitive intelligence” in the auditory cortex. Trends in the Neurosciences, 24, 283–288.
(1999). The concept of auditory stimulus representation in cognitive neuroscience. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 826–859.
(1996). The mental speed–IQ relationship: Unitary or modular? Intelligence, 22, 23–48.
(1978). Der Zahlen-Verbindungs-Test (ZVT) [
The number-connection test ]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.(1938). Progressive matrices: A perceptual test of intelligence. London: H. K. Lewis.
(1954). Standard Progressive Matrices. Firenze: O. S. Organizzazioni Speciali.
(2002). E-prime user’s guide. Pittsburgh, PA: Psychology Software Tools.
(2004). Attention and working memory as predictors of intelligence. Intelligence, 32, 329–347.
(2009). Mental ability and the effect of pattern violation discrimination on P300 and mismatch negativity. Intelligence, 37, 405–411.
(2001). Mental ability and P300: A critical analysis. In R. Riemann F. M. Spinath F. OstendorfEds., Personality and temperament: Genetics, evolution, and structure (pp. 129–145). Lengerich: Pabst Science.
(1995). Event-related potentials, personality, and intelligence: Concepts, issues, and evidence. In D. H. Saklofske M. Zeidner, Eds., International handbook of personality and intelligence (pp. 349–365). New York: Plenum.
(2007). A new view on the MMN and attention debate. Journal of Psychophysiology, 21, 164–175.
(1994). Temporal integration of auditory information in sensory memory as reflected by mismatch negativity. Biological Psychology, 38, 157–167.
(
in press ). Auditory and visual cortical activity during selective attention in fragile X syndrome: A cascade of processing deficiencies. Clinical Neurophysiology.(2000). A Rasch analysis of Raven Standard Progressive Matrices. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 45–64.
(1987). The continuing problem of false positives in repeated measures ANOVA in psychophysiology: A multivariate solution. Psychophysiology, 24, 479–486.
(1990). An overview of chronometric measures of intelligence. School Psychology Review, 19, 399–410.
(1993). Biological approaches to the study of human intelligence. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
(1993). Predicting intelligence with multiple speed of information-processing tests. Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 413–419.
(1972). Perceptual indices of performance: The measurement of “inspection time” and “noise” in the visual system. Perception, 1, 263–295.
(1986). The rationale for the inspection time index. Personality and Individual Differences, 7, 609–623.
(1993). Event-related potentials reflect traces of echoic memory in humans. Perception and Psychophysics, 53, 443–449.
(1989). Evoked potentials, inspection time, and intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 1079–1094.
