Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 18, 2025

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
Attention control: The missing link between sensory discrimination and intelligence
Jason S Tsukahara1, Tyler L Harrison2, Christopher Draheim3
1School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA. jason.tsukahara@gatech.edu.
Abstract:
Intelligence is correlated with the ability to make fine sensory discriminations. Although this relationship has been known since the beginning of intelligence testing, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still unknown. In two large-scale structural equation-modelling studies, we investigated whether individual differences in attention control abilities can explain the relationship between sensory discrimination and intelligence. Across these two studies, we replicated the finding that attention control fully mediated the relationships of intelligence/working-memory capacity to sensory discrimination. Our findings show that attention control plays a prominent role in relating sensory discrimination to higher-order cognitive abilities.
Related Concept Videos
Perception
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...
Information Processing Approach
Environmental Influences on Intelligence
Biological Influences on Intelligence
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Intelligence

