Schooling and basic aspects of intelligence: A natural quasi-experiment in Malawi

The relationship between educational age and chronological age and measures of information processing and intelligence was studied in a group of children of 7 to 14 years of age (N = 268) in a rural area in the Ntcheu district (Malawi). There was a relatively weak relationship between chronological and educational age in this area, and the impact of factors often threatening the validity of the comparisons of schooled and unschooled children, such as socioeconomic status and sex, was small. Reaction time measures of different levels of cognitive complexity and Raven test scores showed significant relations with chronological age, educational age, and their interaction. The strength of the relations was similar for these three variables. These findings are in line with a view that in middle childhood and early adolescence basic information processing and intelligence are not enhanced by schooling and develop along similar lines in schooled and unschooled children. Our results suggest that the schooling is more efficacious by addressing skill transfer and the development of metacognitive knowledge than by addressing basic information processing.