Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Borghans Lex 
Author-Name: Meijers Huub 
Author-Name: Weel Bas ter
Author-workplace-name: ROA rm
Title: The Role of Noncognitive Skills in Explaining Cognitive Test Scores
Abstract: AbstractThis paper examines whether noncognitive skills — measures both by personality traits andeconomic preference parameters — influence cognitive tests performance. The basic idea isthat noncognitive skills might affect the effort people put into a test to obtain good results. We experimentally varied the rewards for questions in a cognitive test to measure to what extent people are sensitive to financial incentives. To distinguish increased mental effort from extra time investments we also varied the question’ time constraints. Subjects withfavorable personality traits such as high performance-motivation and an internal locus of control perform relatively well in the absence of rewards; consistent with a model in which trying as hard as you can is the best strategy. In contrast, favorable economic preference parameters (low discount rate, low risk aversion) are associated with increases in time investments when incentives are introduced, consistent with a rational economic model in which people only invest when there are monetary returns. The main conclusion is that individual behavior at cognitive tests depends on noncognitive skills.
Keywords: education, training and the labour market; 
Series: Research Memoranda
Creation-Date: 2006
Number: 006
File-URL: http://edocs.ub.unimaas.nl/loader/file.asp?id=1216
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 121587
Handle: RePEc:unm:umaror:2006006