The Role of Noncognitive Skills in Explaining Cognitive Test Scores
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Borghans, Lex
Meijers, Huub
ter Weel, Bas
Abstract / Description
This paper examines whether noncognitive skills - measured both by personality traits and economic preference parameters - influence cognitive tests performance. The basic idea is that noncognitive skills might affect the effort people put into a test to obtain good results. We experimentally varied the rewards for questions in a cognitive test to measure to what extent people are sensitive to financial incentives. To distinguish increased mental effort from extra time investments we also varied the questions' time constraints. Subjects with favorable personality traits such as high performance-motivation and an internal locus of control perform relatively well in the absence of rewards; consistent with a model in which trying as hard as you can is the best strategy. In contrast, favorable economic preference parameters (low discount rate, low risk aversion) are associated with increases in time investments when incentives are introduced, consistent with a rational economic model in which people only
invest when there are monetary returns. The main conclusion is that individual behavior at cognitive tests depends on noncognitive skills.
Keyword(s)
Kognition Test Testwerte cognitive test scores noncognitive skillsPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2006
Is part of series
Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit/ Institute for the Study of Labor: IZA Discussion Paper Series;2429
Citation
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dp2429.pdfAdobe PDF - 121.58KBMD5: 664dadd917034ebeeafc4408dc7afb13
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Borghans, Lex
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Meijers, Huub
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Author(s) / Creator(s)ter Weel, Bas
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-11-17T11:05:32Z
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Made available on2008-06-06
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Made available on2015-12-01T10:32:12Z
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Made available on2022-11-17T11:05:32Z
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Date of first publication2006
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Abstract / DescriptionThis paper examines whether noncognitive skills - measured both by personality traits and economic preference parameters - influence cognitive tests performance. The basic idea is that noncognitive skills might affect the effort people put into a test to obtain good results. We experimentally varied the rewards for questions in a cognitive test to measure to what extent people are sensitive to financial incentives. To distinguish increased mental effort from extra time investments we also varied the questions' time constraints. Subjects with favorable personality traits such as high performance-motivation and an internal locus of control perform relatively well in the absence of rewards; consistent with a model in which trying as hard as you can is the best strategy. In contrast, favorable economic preference parameters (low discount rate, low risk aversion) are associated with increases in time investments when incentives are introduced, consistent with a rational economic model in which people only invest when there are monetary returns. The main conclusion is that individual behavior at cognitive tests depends on noncognitive skills.en
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Persistent Identifierhttps://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bsz:291-psydok-16469
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11780/1109
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.9078
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Language of contenteng
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Is part ofIZA Discussion Paper Series No. 2429
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Is part of seriesForschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit/ Institute for the Study of Labor: IZA Discussion Paper Series;2429
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Keyword(s)Kognitionde
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Keyword(s)Testde
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Keyword(s)Testwertede
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Keyword(s)cognitive test scoresen
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Keyword(s)noncognitive skillsen
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleThe Role of Noncognitive Skills in Explaining Cognitive Test Scoresen
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DRO typereport
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Visible tag(s)PsyDok