noncognitive
non-KOG-ni-tiv
Definition
Relating to personality traits, emotional skills, or behavioral tendencies rather than purely intellectual or reasoning-based abilities.
Etymology
Derived from the Latin 'cognitio' (knowledge or learning) prefixed with 'non-' to denote the absence or negation of that quality. It became standard in psychological and educational research to categorize human skills beyond traditional IQ.
In the news
In this article, the term describes factors like personality traits that researchers compare against IQ to see how well each predicts life outcomes. It distinguishes these behavioral patterns from purely cognitive measures of intelligence.
Nobel laureate James Heckman’s research found that IQ accounts for only around 1–2% of differences in income, while traits such as conscientiousness can predict important adult outcomes surprisingly well — a reminder that being smart is only one small par
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com