Gc at its Boundaries: A Cross-National Investigation of Declarative Knowledge

Crystallized intelligence (gc) is considered culture-specific, but this notion is rarely substantiated empirically. We investigated to what extent the measurement of declarative knowledge depends on the national specificity of its indicators and on individuals’ affinity for certain countries, respectively. Therefore, we administered a knowledge test with 75 items to participants from Germany, France, and the USA (Ntotal = 908), where each of the 15 domains was measured with both country-specific and global items. We found a strong national specificity of knowledge in the social sciences and humanities, but no systematic differences in the natural sciences. Country-specific knowledge shared common variance beyond a general knowledge factor and could be predicted by the respective country of residence. No association of affinity for and knowledge about other countries was observed. Regional variations in the composition of knowledge tests pose a substantial threat to cross-national comparison but might foster our understanding of gc.

晶体智力（gc）被视为文化特定，然而这一观念鲜有实证支撑。本研究旨在探讨声明性知识的测量在多大程度上依赖于其指标的国家特异性以及个体对特定国家的亲近感。因此，我们对来自德国、法国和美国的参与者（总计908人）进行了一项包含75个项目的知识测试，每个领域均通过国家特定项目和全球项目进行测量。研究发现，在社会科学和人文学科领域存在强烈的国家特异性，但在自然科学领域未发现系统性差异。国家特定知识在一般知识因素之外共享共同变异性，并可由居住国预测。未观察到对其他国家亲和力和知识的关联。知识测试组成的区域差异对跨国比较构成实质性威胁，但可能促进我们对晶体智力的理解。