Temporal relations and intelligence: Correlating relational performance with performance on the WAIS-III

Relational frame theory (RFT) explicitly suggests that derived relational responding underlies complex verbally-based cognitive performances. The current study investigated whether the ability to respond in accordance with temporal relations between stimuli was predictive of performance on the four indices of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, third edition (WAIS-III). In line with RFT predictions, for 81 undergraduate students between 18 and 48 years old, successfully completing a temporal relational task predicted better performance on the Verbal Comprehension and Perceptual Organization indices but not on the Working Memory or Processing Speed indices. In addition, correlations observed between the percentage of correct temporal relational responses and individual subscales demonstrated strong within-index homogeneity, which highlights the utility of the index factor structure in WAIS-III.