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Visuospatial working memory (VSWM) is essential to human cognitive abilities and is associated with important life outcomes such as academic performance. Recently, a number of reliable measures of VSWM have been developed to help understand psychological processes and for practical use in education. We sought to extend this work using Item Response Theory (IRT) and Computerised Adaptive Testing (CAT) frameworks to construct, calibrate and validate a new adaptive, computerised, and open-source VSWM test. We aimed to overcome the limitations of previous instruments and provide researchers with a valid and freely available VSWM measurement tool. The Jack and Jill (JaJ) VSWM task was constructed using explanatory item response modelling of data from a sample of the general adult population (Study 1, N = 244) in the UK and US. Subsequently, a static version of the task was tested for validity and reliability using a sample of adults from the UK and Australia (Study 2, N = 148) and a sample of Russian adolescents (Study 3, N = 263). Finally, the adaptive version of the JaJ task was implemented on the basis of the underlying IRT model and evaluated with another sample of Russian adolescents (Study 4, N = 239). JaJ showed sufficient internal consistency and concurrent validity as indicated by significant and substantial correlations with established measures of working memory, spatial ability, non-verbal intelligence, and academic achievement. The findings suggest that JaJ is an efficient and reliable measure of VSWM from adolescent to adult age.

Background. Individual differences in personality, behavioural, and academic outcomes of gifted adolescents remain under-explored. Aims. The present study directly compared selected and unselected adolescents on multiple measures of personality, behavioural strengths and difficulties, and achievement. Sample. Nine hundred seventy-three adolescents selected for high performance in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematical (STEM) fields (M = 15.23; SD = 1.11), and one thousand two hundred sixty-one unselected adolescents (M = 15.07; SD = 1.18) participated in the study. Methods. Participants completed self-report measures that assess the Big Five, the Dark Triad, and Behavioural Strengths and Difficulties. Demographic information and academic achievement in Maths and Russian were also obtained. Results. The observed differences in personality and behaviour traits between selected and unselected samples were negligible as measured by ANOVAs. The selected sample had on average slightly lower scores on conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and subclinical narcissism, partial Eta Squared (ES) = [.01 to .05]; slightly lower scores on prosocial behaviour; and slightly higher scores on internalizing and externalizing problems, ES = [.01 to .04]. The selected group also showed higher Year and Examination grades (ES = .05 and .23, respectively). However, MANOVA results showed larger differences between samples (ES = .15). Conclusion. Our results showed no pronounced differences between selected and unselected samples in any trait apart from examination performance. However, This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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