Self-awareness in g (with processing efficiency and reasoning)

This article presents three studies that were designed to map the dimensions involved in g, with an emphasis of the place of self-awareness in it. The first study involved preschoolers from 3 to 7 years of age. These were examined in three domains (spatial, quantitative and categorical reasoning) with both actual tasks and tasks addressed to the awareness of the cognitive processes involved in the tasks. The second study examined 11 to 16 year olds in five domains: quantitative, causal, social reasoning, drawing, and ideational fluency. Participants solved two tasks in each domain; they were asked to evaluate their performance on each task, and they answered an inventory addressed to perceived competence in each of these five domains. The third study examined participants from 11 to 15 years of age with tasks addressed to processing efficiency and capacity, reasoning, and perceived competence in three domains (quantitative, verbal, and spatial cognition). Confirmatory factor models involving first-order domain-specific factors, second-order process-specific factors, and a third-order general factor having very strong and more or less equal relations with the second-order factors were always found. General efficiency and domain-specific processes are accurately projected into self-awareness. The accuracy of self-awareness functions was found to develop with age. The implications of these findings for the general theory of intelligence and intellectual development are discussed.