An elementary cognitive task (ECT) is any of a range of basic tasks which require only a small number of mental processes and which have easily specified correct outcomes.Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies By John Bissell Carroll 1993 Cambridge University Press p11 Although ECTs may be cognitively simple there is evidence that performance on such tasks correlates well with other measures of

general intelligence The ''g'' factor (also known as general intelligence, general mental ability or general intelligence factor) is a construct developed in psychometric investigations of cognitive abilities and human intelligence. It is a variable that summarizes ...

such as

Raven's Progressive Matrices Raven's Progressive Matrices (often referred to simply as Raven's Matrices) or RPM is a non-verbal test typically used to measure general human intelligence and abstract reasoning and is regarded as a non-verbal estimate of fluid intelligence. I ...

Arthur R. Jensen Arthur Robert Jensen (August 24, 1923 – October 22, 2012) was an American psychologist and writer. He was a professor of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen was known for his work in psychometrics ...

Process differences and individual differences in some cognitive tasks Intelligence, Volume 11, Issue 2, April–June 1987, Pages 107-136 For example, corrected for attenuation (random measurement error), the

correlation In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statisti ...

between IQ test scores and

inspection time Inspection time refers to the exposure duration required for a human subject to reliably identify a simple stimulus. Typically a stimulus made up of two parallel lines differing in length and joined at the tops by a cross bar is presented (similar ...

(how long the subject needs to discriminate between 2 stimuli at a specified level of accuracy) is about 0.5. It has been found that when a battery of ECTs is factor analyzed, the general factor that emerges from this is strongly correlated with general intelligence extracted from traditional IQ batteries, and relates similarly to other variables.

Arthur Jensen Arthur Robert Jensen (August 24, 1923 – October 22, 2012) was an American psychologist and writer. He was a professor of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen was known for his work in psychometrics an ...

invented a simple measurement tool for easily collecting reaction time data, subsequently called a

Jensen box The Jensen box was developed by University of California, Berkeley psychologist Arthur Jensen as an experimental apparatus for measuring choice reaction time (RT) and individual differences in intelligence. Design and measurement The standard ...

. Using this, he restarted research on the link between general intelligence and ECTs in the 1970s which had previously been considered a dead end. This earlier conclusion was based on research conducted around 1901-1911 by

Clark Wissler Clark David Wissler (September 18, 1870 – August 25, 1947) was an American anthropologist, ethnologist, and archaeologist. Early life Clark David Wissler was born in Cambridge City, Indiana on September 18, 1870 to Sylvania (née Needler) ...

with methodology considered very problematic by today's standards. Today, mental chronometry is a significant research topic with about 3800 papers published per year in the period 2005-2015. The term was proposed by

John Bissell Carroll John Bissell Carroll (June 5, 1916 – July 1, 2003) was an American psychologist known for his contributions to psychology, linguistics and psychometrics.Stansfield, Charles W. “Carroll, John Bissell.” ''Concise Encyclopedia of Educati ...

in 1980, who posited that all test performance could be analyzed and broken down to building blocks called ECTs. Test batteries such as Microtox were developed based on this theory and have shown utility in the evaluation of test subjects under the influence of

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

See also

References

Further reading