Chronotype, Time of Day, and Performance on Intelligence Tests in the School Setting

Research suggests the existence of an association between chronotype and intellectual performance, but the nature of this link remains unclear. Studies conducted in a laboratory setting point to the synchrony effect (better performance at a person’s preferred time of day) for fluid intelligence, but...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Jankowski, Konrad S., Díaz Morales, Juan Francisco, Vollmer, Christian
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/72254
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/72254
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Chronotype
Morningness–eveningness
Fluid intelligence
Crystallized intelligence
High school
Educación
58 Pedagogía
Descripción
Sumario:Research suggests the existence of an association between chronotype and intellectual performance, but the nature of this link remains unclear. Studies conducted in a laboratory setting point to the synchrony effect (better performance at a person’s preferred time of day) for fluid intelligence, but not for crystallized intelligence, whereas studies that have analyzed students’ grades suggest that the effect exists for both. In the present study, we aimed to verify the synchrony effect by applying direct measures of crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence, and subjective sleepiness–alertness in a sample of high school students during their morning or afternoon class. The results revealed a synchrony effect for crystallized, but not for fluid intelligence. During morning class, students with a morning chronotype performed better than evening chronotypes on a test of crystallized intelligence, whereas during afternoon class there was no difference between chronotypes. The association resulted from decreased performance during morning class in evening chronotypes that improved during afternoon class and constant performance in morning chronotypes. These effects were independent of sleepiness–alertness levels. The results suggest that individual differences between chronotypes may be important for tasks performed during morning classes, but not during afternoon ones, and that performance across school days may depend on time of day in evening chronotypes.