The view that emotional intelligence should be included within the traditional cognitive abilities framework was explored in 3 studies (total N = 530) by investigating the relations among measures of emotional intelligence, traditional human cognitive abilities, and personality. The studies suggest that the status of the emotional intelligence construct is limited by measurement properties of its tests. Measures based on consensual scoring exhibited low reliability. Self-report measures had salient loadings on well-established personality factors, indicating a lack of divergent validity. These data provide controvertible evidence for the existence of a separate Emotion Perception factor that (perhaps) represents the ability to monitor another individual's emotions. This factor is narrower than that postulated within current models of emotional intelligence.There have been several recent attempts to incorporate emotional intelligence within the broad framework provided by theories of human cognitive abilities

Abstract:In this paper I argue that the emphasis on "g" has become a hindrance to the study of broadly defined human cognitive abilities. Abilities captured by the first-and second-stratum factors in the Cattel-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory have been neglected. The focus has been on a narrow range of cognitive processes that excludes those common to some sensory modalities and a host of new tasks and constructs that have become available through recent conceptual analyses and technological developments. These new areas have emerged from psychology itself (complex problem solving tasks and emotional intelligence) and from disciplines related to psychology like education and economics (economic games and cognitive biases in decision-making).

Understanding the genomic architecture and molecular mechanisms of cognitive functioning in healthy individuals is critical for developing tailored interventions to enhance cognitive functioning, as well as for identifying targets for treating impaired cognition. There has been substantial progress in uncovering the genetic composition of the general cognitive ability (g). However, there is an ongoing debate whether executive functioning (EF)–another key predictor of cognitive health and performance, is separable from general g. To provide an analytical review on existing findings on genetic influences on the relationship between g and EF, we re-analysed a subset of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) from the GWAS catalogue that used measures of g and EF as outcomes in non-clinical populations. We identified two sets of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with g (1,372 SNPs across 12 studies), and EF (300 SNPs across 5 studies) at p<5x10-6. A comparative analysis of GWAS-identified g and EF SNPs in high linkage disequilibrium (LD), followed by pathway enrichment analyses suggest that g and EF are overlapping but separable at genetic variant and molecular pathway levels, however more evidence is required to characterize the genetic overlap/distinction between the two constructs. While not without limitations, these findings may have implications for navigating further research towards translatable genetic findings for cognitive remediation, enhancement, and augmentation.