The relative role of executive control and personality traits in grit

Abstract

Although grit is predictive of wellbeing, educational achievement, and success in life, it has been conceptualized as largely distinct from cognitive ability. The present study investigated the link between grit and executive functions since regulation abilities might underlie the expression of grit. A hundred thirty-four people were administered personality questionnaires (grit, impulsiveness, and mindfulness) and four experimental tasks tapping into Miyake’s and Braver’s models of executive functioning (including measures of flexibility, inhibition, working memory, and control mode dimensions). Multivariate analyses showed that two composite scores (trait and executive functioning) were reliably predictive of grit, although it was the trait composite (characterized by low impulsivity and high mindfulness) that explained more variance. Importantly, gritty participants did not demonstrate enhanced executive functioning. Instead, they exhibited a different pattern of performance that might be reflecting a cautious profile of control, characterized by paying attention to all available information, less reliance on previous contextual cues but sensitive to conflicting information of the current context. These findings converge with Duckworth’s idea that high grit people do not necessarily have a greater cognitive capacity. Rather, they use it in a different way.

Grit Competency, Growth Mindset, and Mental Ability among Filipino High School Students

“…Eskreis-Winkler et al (2016) reported that grit and cognitive ability do not correlate with several studies. In connection to this, a more recent study conducted by Aguerre et al (2022) among 134 participants highlighted that higher grit scores did not correlate to higher overall cognitive ability. Despite this, they signified that higher grit scores were significantly related to higher levels of mindfulness and lower impulsivity, both factors highly associated with self-regulation.…”

“…These findings were parallel to the suggestions of Duckworth and Quinn (2009), which signified that people with high grit rely more on whatever kind of capacity they have rather than having a higher cognitive ability. Aguerre et al (2022) argued that future research should comprehensively evaluate grit and other fluid intelligence variables. Fluid intelligence pertains to one's ability to solve problems and reason without existing knowledge.…”

Electrophysiological correlates of dispositional mindfulness: A quantitative and complexity EEG study

“…One hundred twenty people (Mage = 23.11, SDage = 4.19, Range = 18-33, 69% female) completed the study in exchange for course credits (0.1credit/40 min) or monetary reward (7€/1 h). This sample took part in a larger individual differences study from which other non-overlapping findings have been already reported (Aguerre et al, 2020(Aguerre et al, , 2021(Aguerre et al, , 2022. To confirm that the sample size of the bigger project was enough to capture the desired effects, we calculated a priori power analysis (G*Power 3.1.9.2; Erdfelder et al, 1996) based on the effect of the linear regression reported by Kong et al (2016), with an R 2 = .14, as we also adopted an regression approach.…”