Many links between IQ and memory have been found throughout the years, but what aspects of memory are the best predictors of IQ? Who has the higher IQ – the person who recalls six of 10 items but only in vague detail or the person who recalls only four items, but in clear detail?
A study by the University of Oregon answered this question: the number of items stored in memory has the greatest correlation with fluid intelligence, or IQ. While “resolution,” or clarity of detail, has no relationship with IQ.
Previous studies have established the strong relationship between IQ and the number of items stored in short term memory before. However the University of Oregon aimed to take a more comprehensive look at which specific aspects of memory capacity related to IQ. In the study, 79 undergraduate students were put through a series of experiments measuring the number of items they could maintain, the resolution of those memories maintained, and their IQ scores.
"The number of things people can remember is robustly correlated with fluid intelligence - the larger number remembered, the higher the IQ,” said Edward Awh, a psychology professor and member of the Oregon Visual Working Memory & Attention Lab. “Resolution in memory is not predictive of IQ at all.”
Although resolution does not factor into IQ score, researchers emphasize that this does not mean that resolution is unimportant.
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