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Category: Project

Description: Cognitive abilities are one key ingredient for students’ learning progress at school. Particularly fluid intelligence shows substantial and systematical associations with both school grades and different subject-specific academic competencies (Brandt et al., 2019; Deary et al., 2007; Roth et al., 2015). Over and above cognitive abilities, inter-individual differences in how people habitually think, feel, and act—their personality traits—explain students’ academic success (Lechner et al., 2017; Poropat, 2009, 2014). Here, the Big Five trait conscientiousness emerged as the most consistent predictor of academic performance (Dumfart & Neubauer, 2016; Laidra et al., 2007; Lechner et al., 2017) and, to a lesser extent, increases over time in academic performance (Heaven & Ciarrochi, 2008; Israel et al., 2019, Spengler et al., 2016). Whereas previous research was mainly interested in extracting the unique and incremental contributions of cognitive ability and personality, less is known about their possible interaction. Do students profit disproportionately from being both smart and diligent?