The purpose of this study is to explore how creativity and the cognitive variables (mental capacity, cognitive style & mobilityfixity dimension) can explain academic performance of high school students. Students at a high school in Maturín (Venezuela) were tested to determine creativity (Torrance Tests), cognitive variables and academic performance. Results based on multiple regression analyses showed that the mobility-fixity dimension was the most consistent predictor of academic performance, by explaining a significant amount of the variance in Spanish, English, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathematics, Physics and the Mean score. Creativity scores explained a significant amount of the variance in Spanish, Geography, Earth Science and the Mean score. It appears that the mobility-fixity dimension and creativity although related, perhaps represent different aspects of academic performance.The relationship between students' academic performance, cognitive variables, and creativity has been the subject of considerable interest in the research literature (Cooper, 1991;

No abstract

No abstract

According to R. Case, a subject's Total Processing Space is the sum of his Short-term Storage Space (STSS) and Operating Space (OS). Case has hypothesized a trade-off between the two, that is, an increase in operational efficiency leads to a decrease in Operating Space and consequently more Short-term Storage Space is available for information processing. To test this hypothesis 137 high school students were tested to estimate operational efficiency (assigned a time limit to finish the Figural Intersection Test), Pascual-Leone's Structural M-capacity, Ms (i.e., STSS in Case's model), and Functional M-capacity, Mf. Besides other results a significant positive correlation of .37 was obtained between operational efficiency and Ms/STSS, which suggests that subjects find it difficult to distribute attentional load from one reserve (OS) to another (STSS).