Lazar Stankov | National Institute of Education (original) (raw)

Books by Lazar Stankov

Prior research within the area of metacognition indicates that a Self-confidence construct exists... more Prior research within the area of metacognition indicates that a Self-confidence construct exists among both adults and primary school children aged 9–12. In this chapter, we review findings from several recent studies that demonstrate good predictive validity of the Self-confidence construct and examine the predictors of this construct. In these studies, the students’ academic, non-academic and metacognitive self-concepts were assessed. We also assessed students’ perceptions of their key environments: classroom and family. The results from these studies demonstrate stable individual differences in confidence ratings. Higher levels of Self-confidence predicted greater school achievement, irrespective of a student’s cognitive ability, age and gender. Metacognitive and academic self-concept acted as both important predictors of the students’ levels of confidence and as mediators of the predictions that other variables had on Self-confidence. Classroom factors (goal orientation) were linked to metacognitive and academic self-concepts, which in turn positively predicted academic outcomes and Self-confidence. Such results support the claim for the existence of a broad Self-confidence construct, signifying its pertinence for school achievement. The results also suggest that a student’s perception of classroom and family dynamics has an important influence on both confidence and achievement. We discuss the implications of our findings for both parents and teachers and we consider ways to improve academic outcomes for students.

This Chapter reviews the item content, intended use, and psychometric properties of two main kind... more This Chapter reviews the item content, intended use, and psychometric properties of two main kinds of assessments that have been employed in studies of individual differences in confidence: Self-report questionnaires assessing one's own beliefs to accomplish different tasks; and on-line, on-task confidence judgments of performance accuracy. First, we review six self-report measures that assess either cognitive (academic and vocational tasks) or physical (sports) confidence. We then briefly describe the use of confidence measures in studies of self-efficacy, outlining their differences and similarities with broader on-task measures of confidence. Finally, we focus on the on-line, performance-based, assessment of confidence and consider different indices of confidence calibration with accuracy. To date, on-line on-task measures have demonstrated the sound psychometric properties. This includes demonstrations of the greatest predictive validity for a range of outcomes such as educational achievement and decision-making behavior. Currently, no evidence exists relating self-report and on-line measures of confidence. Directions for future studies are offered for both types of assessments.

Papers by Lazar Stankov

PLOS ONE

Understanding the genomic architecture and molecular mechanisms of cognitive functioning in healt... more Understanding the genomic architecture and molecular mechanisms of cognitive functioning in healthy individuals is critical for developing tailored interventions to enhance cognitive functioning, as well as for identifying targets for treating impaired cognition. There has been substantial progress in uncovering the genetic composition of the general cognitive ability (g). However, there is an ongoing debate whether executive functioning (EF)–another key predictor of cognitive health and performance, is separable from general g. To provide an analytical review on existing findings on genetic influences on the relationship between g and EF, we re-analysed a subset of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) from the GWAS catalogue that used measures of g and EF as outcomes in non-clinical populations. We identified two sets of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with g (1,372 SNPs across 12 studies), and EF (300 SNPs across 5 studies) at p<5x10-6. A comparative analysi...

This study investigates group differences in Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM) measures of Pro-vio... more This study investigates group differences in Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM) measures of Pro-violence, Divine Power, Utopianism, Vile World, and West, together with several variables building its nomological network. The study was based on groups from domicile population living within and outside the conflict zone and a sample of refugees/asylum seekers. We hypothesize that refugees as a group do not present a higher risk for engagement in militant extremism and, consequently, terrorism. Therefore, they do not present security risks for the host countries. Findings show that groups living in a conflict zone tend to endorse all aspects of militant extremism and conservative ideology. Furthermore, our results do not support the widely held belief that refugees are a security threat, as they tend to reject violent extremism as a means to achieve goals.

Aggressive Behavior, Jan 26, 2022

This study aimed to examine the role of socio‐political attitudes and motivational tendencies sup... more This study aimed to examine the role of socio‐political attitudes and motivational tendencies supposed to mark closed‐mindedness, as well as other relevant variables of individual differences (Disintegration, i.e., proneness to psychotic‐like experiences/behaviors and Death Anxiety), in the Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM). A community sample of 600 young respondents (Serbs, Bosniaks, and Albanians, aged 18–30) was recruited within a multiethnic region of Serbia that experienced armed conflict during the break‐up of the former Yugoslavia. The best‐fitted SEM model, incorporating measurement and structural relationships between the variables, showed that the latent factor of Closed‐mindedness predicted all three aspects of MEM as well as Neighborhood Grudge, that is, resentment toward neighboring ethnicities. The effects of Disintegration and Death Anxiety on MEM were entirely mediated by Closed‐mindedness. Compared to previous findings, Closed‐mindedness appears to represent the most important set of cognitive and motivational tendencies that channel protracted intergroup tensions into militant extremism.

SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks, 2023

Journal of Educational Psychology, Aug 1, 1983

This article reviews empirical evidence to show that two conceptsattention and intelligenceare ... more This article reviews empirical evidence to show that two conceptsattention and intelligenceare related at the empirical level. Data are presented to demonstrate that intelligence correlates with different types of attention, in-cluding sustained attention, search, ...

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

We examined the global competence of 15-year-old students based on PISA 2018 data ( N = 355,579 f... more We examined the global competence of 15-year-old students based on PISA 2018 data ( N = 355,579 from 57 countries). Our multilevel latent profile analysis identified two groups at both individual and country levels, resulting in a total of four groups (2 x 2; “competent” and “less competent”). While individual-level differences were pronounced and consistent across all seven global competence indicators, the country-level differences were small overall, with only “attitude towards immigrants” and “respect for people from other cultures” showing somewhat salient group differences. There were more globally “less competent” students in 52 of 57 countries, suggesting the needs to improve students’ global competence in virtually all participating countries. Global competence was related to family socioeconomic status, academic achievement, and countries’ standing on the conservatism/liberalism dimension. We considered different ways to enhance global competence among students and society...

Frontiers in Psychology

IntroductionThe UK Biobank cognitive assessment data has been a significant resource for research... more IntroductionThe UK Biobank cognitive assessment data has been a significant resource for researchers looking to investigate predictors and modifiers of cognitive abilities and associated health outcomes in the general population. Given the diverse nature of this data, researchers use different approaches – from the use of a single test to composing the general intelligence score, g, across the tests. We argue that both approaches are suboptimal - one being too specific and the other one too general – and suggest a novel multifactorial solution to represent cognitive abilities.MethodsUsing a combined Exploratory Factor (EFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling Analyses (ESEM) we developed a three-factor model to characterize an underlying structure of nine cognitive tests selected from the UK Biobank using a Cattell-Horn-Carroll framework. We first estimated a series of probable factor solutions using the maximum likelihood method of extraction. The best solution for the EFA...

Journal of Intelligence

Under the Meta-reasoning model, the process of giving up when a solution may not be feasible refl... more Under the Meta-reasoning model, the process of giving up when a solution may not be feasible reflects an adaptive metacognitive strategy, where individuals opt-out of responding to mitigate error and resource costs. However, research is still needed to determine whether individuals systematically vary in this behaviour and if so, which variables it meaningfully relates with. The current study (N = 176) is the first to examine factorial stability in giving up tendencies and its relationships with on-task confidence, cognitive ability, decision-making predispositions, and academic performance. To measure giving up tendencies, participants completed three cognitive tests which allowed for opting out, thereby capturing giving up frequency within each test and its consistency across tests. Participants also completed five other cognitive tasks embedded with confidence ratings, and a decision-making styles questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on all giving up, confid...

This study aimed to examine the role of socio-political attitudes and motivational tendencies sup... more This study aimed to examine the role of socio-political attitudes and motivational tendencies supposed to mark closed-mindedness, as well as other relevant variables of individual differences (Disintegration, i.e., proneness to psychotic-like experiences/ behaviors and Death Anxiety), in the Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM). A community sample of 600 young respondents (Serbs, Bosniaks, and Albanians, aged 18-30) was recruited within a multiethnic region of Serbia that experienced armed conflict during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. The best-fitted SEM model, incorporating measurement and structural relationships between the variables, showed that the latent factor of Closed-mindedness predicted all three aspects of MEM as well as Neighborhood Grudge, i.e., resentment toward neighboring ethnicities. The effects of Disintegration and Death Anxiety on MEM were entirely mediated by Closed-mindedness. Compared to previous findings, Closed-mindedness appears to represent the most ...

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2020

This study investigates the attitudinal and motivational bases of militant extremist beliefs in a... more This study investigates the attitudinal and motivational bases of militant extremist beliefs in a postconflict society ( N = 600; 51% female). Militant extremist mindset (MEM) measures of proviolence, divine power, utopianism, vile world, and West, together with the Ethos of Conflict- Grudge Scale (EOC-grudge), were used to assess militant-extremist beliefs. Data about the socioeconomic status (SES) of participants, ethnocentrism, intergroup contact, trust in the system, and the level of conflict in the sampled areas were also collected. The main hypotheses were that extremist beliefs are associated with a high level of ethnocentrism, low socioeconomic status, decreased intergroup contact, low trust in the system, and recent intergroup conflict. A structural model in which all relations between the measures were simultaneously tested showed that recent intergroup conflict was related to the most malignant aspect of MEM—proviolence—predominantly through negative experiences with memb...

Personality and Individual Differences, 2021

Abstract This paper reviews our work that points to a link between the psychological aspects of s... more Abstract This paper reviews our work that points to a link between the psychological aspects of social conservatism, intelligence, educational achievement, and militant extremist mindset (MEM). Conservative outlooks did not change under communist rule. Three ingredients of Social Conservatism are Religiosity, Nastiness/Social Dominance, and Social Awareness/Morality. There is a negative correlation between cognitive abilities and Social Conservatism. An increasing proportion of people with tertiary education contributes to a split in society between better-educated liberals and conservatives. Two ingredient processes of MEM (Pro-violence and Excuse) are conceptually similar to aspects of Social Conservatism. A critical ingredient of MEM that distinguishes it from Social Conservatism is Grudge. Three components of Grudge – Vile World, West, and Neighborhood Grudge – are important predictors of animosity towards outgroups. While nationalism/ethnocentrism has a significant correlation with all aspects of MEM, measures of trust in the system and socioeconomic status (SES) have essentially zero correlations. Terrorism motivated by right-wing ideology and MEM is also on the rise. Two recently completed studies produced outcomes that may be useful to policymakers. First, Serbs living in an area of recent conflict with Albanians show higher levels of Ethnocentrism, Neighborhood Grudge, and Pro-violence than Serbs living outside the conflict area. Second, asylum seekers hold lower levels of Grudge towards Western nations than do domicile populations from Southern Europe.

PLOS ONE

Aggressive Behavior, Jan 26, 2022

SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks, 2023

Journal of Educational Psychology, Aug 1, 1983

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Frontiers in Psychology

Journal of Intelligence

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2020

Personality and Individual Differences, 2021

Personality and Individual Differences, 2018

We present new data about the correlation between religiosity and cognitive abilities. At the ind... more We present new data about the correlation between religiosity and cognitive abilities. At the individual level of analysis the correlation is r = −0.199 and at the country level of analysis the correlation is r = −0.420 with a test of fluid intelligence and r = −0.536 with PISA 2015 science scores. These correlations can be reduced by partialling out measures of traditional values, power distance and conservatism/liberalism. They can also be reduced by partialling out economic and political indices. Our findings indicate that it is the broad Conservative Syndrome that correlates negatively with cognitive abilities, and religiosity is only a part of it. Cognitive ability is becoming an increasingly important predictor of social conservatism. Literature on the relationship between cognitive abilities and religiosity is extensive. A meta-analysis by Zuckerman, Silberman, and Hall (2013) was based on 63 empirical studies from 52 sources. They report that correlations between intelligence and strength of religious beliefs at the individual level range from r = −0.20 to r = −0.25. Some recent work has also utilized data from large-scale international surveys (see Lynn, Harvey, & Nyborg, 2009; Stoet & Geary, 2017) and reported even higher negative correlations (i.e., above r = −0.60), at the country level of analysis. Some of the reported findings have been criticized. Webster and Duffy (2016) claim that intelligence-religiosity individual-level correlation is r = −0.149 and country-level correlation, after controlling for key covariates, is almost of the same magnitude (r = −0.159).

Metacognition and Learning, 2019

This special issue is a timely contribution to the literature on metacognition. Among the seven p... more This special issue is a timely contribution to the literature on metacognition. Among the seven papers presented in this volume, three are clearly applied in that they use measures of metacognitive processing to address practical, real-world issues related to the detection of phishing attacks online (Canfield et al. 2019), determinants of the accuracy of eyewitness memory (Shapira and Pansky 2019), and factors influencing perceived technical competence in an educational game (Kapp et al. 2019). They all present new data and apply novel methodology to study important activities related to work in contemporary society. Across these three topics, eyewitness memory has a relatively long and detailed history of research, but phishing and game-based learning/ assessment are newer topics. Particularly promising is the work on the development of a digital educational game aiming to increase perceived competence among females, which ultimately may contribute to bridging the gender gap in STEM professions (Kapp et al. 2019). I hope that future volumes will expand the applied domain to include, for example, reports on medical decision-making and managerial activities in organizations since the existing literature in these areas already includes measures of metacognition. Among the remaining four papers, the article investigating the monitoring of object-level and same-level performance (Koriat 2019) can be classified as largely theoretical while the other three lie somewhere in-between. Most of this commentary will be focused on the issues that arose from our own work that belongs to the discipline of correlational psychology (Cronbach 1957) and the study of individual differences. The emphasis in these studies of ours was on psychometrics (i.e., reliability and validity) of measures employed for the assessment of cognitive and non-cognitive processes.