Issue 4
Vol. 44
2002

A cross-cultural comparison of the relationship between intelligence and speed of information processing in Austria vs. Guatemala
Aljoscha C. Neubauer, C. Benischke

Summary
Recently, the "mental speed approach" to human intelligence has provided evidence for a substantial association of high psychometric intelligence with a higher processing-speed in elementary cognitive tasks. As most of the relevant studies have been conducted in Western countries with their emphasis on time and speed some consider the relationship a cultural artifact that might not replicate in non-Western countries. Here, we compared the speed-intelligence relationship in a Western country (Austria) vs. a non-Western country (Guatemala) by testing 73 Austrian and 73 Guatemalan school children with the Standard Progressive Matrices and two tests for processing-speed. We found the expected significant speed-intelligence relationships (between .22 and .52), which did not differ significantly between the cultures. However, we observed significant cultural differences in average performance.

Key words: intelligence, speed of processing, cross-cultural comparison, complexity, elementary cognitive tasks

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Aljoscha Neubauer
University of Graz
Department of Psychology
Universitätsplatz 2/ III
A-8010 Graz
Austria
e-mail: aljoscha.neubauer@uni-graz.at