Why do some individuals learn more quickly than others, or perform better in complex cognitive tasks? In this article, we describe how differential and experimental research methods can be used to study intelligence in humans and non-human animals. More than one hundred years ago, Spearman (1904) discovered a general factor underpinning performance across cognitive domains in humans. Shortly thereafter, Thorndike (1935) discovered positive correlations between cognitive performance measures in the albino rat. Today, research continues to shed light on the underpinnings of the positive manifold observed among ability measures. In this review, we focus on the relationship between cognitive performance and attention control: the domain-general ability to maintain focus on task-relevant information while preventing attentional capture by task-irrelevant thoughts and events. Recent work from our laboratory has revealed that individual differences in attention control can largely explain the positive associations between broad cognitive abilities such as working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. In research on mice, attention control has been closely linked to a general ability factor reflecting route learning and problem solving. Taken together, both lines of research suggest that individual differences in attention control underpin performance in a variety of complex cognitive tasks, helping to explain why measures of cognitive ability correlate positively. Efforts to find confirmatory and disconfirmatory evidence across species stands to improve not only our understanding of attention control, but cognition in general.

为什么有些人比其他人学习更快，或者在复杂的认知任务中表现更好？在本文中，我们描述了如何使用差异和实验研究方法来研究人类和非人类动物的智力。一百多年前，斯皮尔曼（Spearman（1904））发现了影响人类认知领域性能的一个普遍因素。此后不久，Thorndike（1935）发现白化病大鼠的认知表现指标之间存在正相关。今天，研究继续阐明在能力测度中观察到的积极流形的基础。在这篇评论中，我们着重于认知表现和注意力控制之间的关系：领域一般的能力，可以保持对与任务相关的信息的关注，同时防止与任务无关的思想和事件引起注意。我们实验室的最新工作表明，注意力控制方面的个体差异可以在很大程度上解释广泛的认知能力（如工作记忆能力和体液智力）之间的正相关关系。在对小鼠的研究中，注意力控制与反映路线学习和解决问题的一般能力因素密切相关。综上所述，两条研究线都表明，注意力控制的个体差异是各种复杂认知任务中表现的基础，有助于解释为什么认知能力的测量结果呈正相关。