Prediction of self-reported knowledge with over-claiming, fluid and crystallized intelligence and typical intellectual engagement

abstract Article history:Received 19 April 2011Received in revised form 7 September 2011Accepted 9 September 2011Keywords:Over-Claiming Technique (OCT)Over-Claiming Questionnaire (OCQ)Self-reported knowledgeFluid and crystallized intelligenceIntellectual engagement We investigated the usefulness of the Over-Claiming Questionnaire (OCQ) as a measure of cognitive abilities. InOCQs respondents are asked to rate their familiarity with items of academic or everyday knowledge (Paulhus,Harms, Bruce, & Lysy, 2003). Some items exist in reality (reals), and others do not (foils). We developed fourOCQs, each consisting of 40 reals and 8 foils from the domains of Science, Humanities and Civics. The OCQswere administered in a longitudinal rotation design to 112 participants who attended the 9th school grade atthe beginning ofthestudy. Inlatent variableregression analyses53% ofvariation inthe reals couldbeexplainedbyfluidandcrystallizedintelligenceandover-claimingasindicatedbyresponsestofoils.Furthervariationinre-sponses to reals and foils was explained by intellectual engagement. Our results show that self-reported knowl-edge, although positively related to measures of ability, to a large extent reflects over-claiming.© 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[1]  D. Paulhus,et al.  Measuring cognitive ability with the overclaiming technique , 2004 .

[2]  B. Pesta,et al.  The Wonderlic Personnel Test and elementary cognitive tasks as predictors of religious sectarianism, scriptural acceptance and religious questioning ☆ , 2009 .

[3]  J. H. Steiger.  Structural Model Evaluation and Modification: An Interval Estimation Approach. , 1990, Multivariate behavioral research.

[4]  Cristina C. Williams,et al.  Overconfidence and the Big Five , 2004 .

[5]  Stephen G. West,et al.  Validity of self-evaluation of ability: A review and meta-analysis , 1982 .

[6]  R. P. McDonald,et al.  Test Theory: A Unified Treatment , 1999 .

[7]  Heinz-Martin Süß,et al.  Interindividuelle Unterschiede im typischen intellektuellen Engagement , 2003 .

[8]  D. Phillips,et al.  Some Effects of "Social Desirability" in Survey Studies , 1972, American Journal of Sociology.

[9]  Phillip L. Ackerman,et al.  What we really know about our abilities and our knowledge , 2002 .

[10]  Sabina Kleitman,et al.  The Role of Individual Differences in the Accuracy of Confidence Judgments , 2002, The Journal of general psychology.

[11]  Xitao Fan,et al.  Sensitivity of Fit Indexes to Misspecified Structural or Measurement Model Components: Rationale of Two-Index Strategy Revisited , 2005 .

[12]  D. Paulhus,et al.  The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy , 2002 .

[13]  P. Ackerman,et al.  Personality-intelligence relations: assessment of typical intellectual engagement , 1992 .

[14]  P. Bentler,et al.  Comparative fit indexes in structural models. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[15]  Donald H. Kluemper,et al.  Overclaiming as a measure of faking , 2011 .

[16]  P. Harms,et al.  Integrating personality and intelligence: Typical intellectual engagement and need for cognition , 2007 .

[17]  Joey T. Cheng,et al.  Authentic and Hubristic Pride: The Affective Core of Self-esteem and Narcissism , 2009 .

[18]  D. Paulhus,et al.  The over-claiming technique: measuring self-enhancement independent of ability. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  John T Wixted,et al.  In defense of the signal detection interpretation of remember/know judgments , 2004, Psychonomic bulletin & review.