Introduction
Recognition memory is fundamental to guide our behavior in changing environment and keep a stable picture of the world. It has been showed that object (items from the real world) and face recognition is rather independent from general cognitive ability (Shakeshaft&Plomin, 2015). In the present study we test if recognition of abstract stimuli shows the same pattern of relationship.
Materials and Methods:
327 from Russia and Kyrgyzstan adolescents took part in the study (180 girls, aged 11-18, mean=13, sd=2,18). We used “Raven Standard Progressive Matrices” (RSPM) (Raven & Court, 1998) to measure general cognitive abilities. We also compared 2 different measures of abstract pattern recognition. We used mean latency of the answers in the “Pattern recognition memory” (PRM) subtest of the CANTAB automated neuropsychological battery (CantabEclipse, 2006). However, mean latency consisted from recognition-specific and non-specific information processing. Thus, we made composite variable which included just recognition-specific processing, subtracting reaction time measures of RTI subtest of the CANTAB from mean latency. The composite variable is referred to as “recognition time”
Results:
Total RSPM scores was significantly and negatively correlated with both mean latency and recognition time (r=-.214, p=.001 and r=-.205, p<.001, respectively). Mean latency showed slightly higher correlation than recognition time, however, Fisher r-to-z transformation showed that differences were not significant (z=.45, p=.32).
Conclusions:
Our results are consistent with the results of Shakeshaft & Plomin, showing that not only face and items from the real world recognition are independent from general cognitive abilities but the abstract pattern recognition as well. The relationship between general cognitive abilities and recognition memory remained the same after controlling for non-specific information processing.
