Predicting Intellectual Ability and Scholastic Outcomes with a Single Item: From Early Childhood to Adulthood

Previous research shows that perceived intelligence judgments significantly correlate with measured intelligence scores. The present study investigated the developmental trajectory of the association between perceived intelligence and measured intelligence. Using the Block and Block longitudinal dataset, we examined the relationship between a single rating of “high intellectual ability” made in early childhood by targets’ preschool teachers with future intellectual ability and scholastic outcome measures, including IQ scores, grade-point average, SAT scores, and educational attainment. Even when controlling for variables including attractiveness, parental education levels, the General Factor of Personality, and socioeconomic status, correlations between early childhood intelligence perceptions and later intellectual measures were significant, large, and robust. Results are discussed in terms of potential mechanisms and cues in early childhood that may reveal future intellectual abilities