Fluid intelligence and school performance and its relationship with social variables in Latin American samples Carmen Flores-Mendoza a, ⁎, Marcela Mansur-Alves a , Rubén Ardila b , Ricardo D. Rosas c , Maria Karla Guerrero-Leiva d , Maria Emilia Lucio-Gómez Maqueo e , Miguel Gallegos f , Norma Reategui Colareta g , Andrés Burga León h a Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil b Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia c Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile d Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru e Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico f Universidad de Rosario Argentina g Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Peru h Unidad de Medición de la Calidad Educativa del Ministerio de Educación, Peru article info abstract Article history: Received 6 May 2014 Received in revised form 22 December 2014 Accepted 29 December 2014 Available online xxxx As part of the project, “Study of the Latin-American Intelligence” (SLATINT), this study was conducted in six Latin American cities (Rosario-Argentina, Belo Horizonte-Brazil, Santiago-Chile, Bogota-Colombia, Mexico City-Mexico and Lima-Peru) and one European city (Madrid-Spain). The goal was to verify the effect of school performance on fluid intelligence and vice versa after controlling the socioeconomic variables. Students (N = 3724) between the ages of 14 and 15 years (51% females) that were enrolled in 66 schools from different socioeconomic levels, participated in this study. The Raven Standard Progressive Matrices test (SPM, fluid intelligence measure), the 2003 PISA test (school performance measure) and a short socioeconomic questionnaire were administered. Diverse multilevel analyses were conducted. The results were: 1) a positive relationship between PISA and SPM, although a stronger correlation was observed as aggregated (r = .89), rather than individual scores (r = .58) were used; 2) after controlling social variables, the PISA scores could vary up to 7.79 times due to variation in SPM scores; 3) after controlling social variables, the SPM scores could vary up to 1.4 due to variation in PISA scores; 4) the socioeconomic status of schools exerted a greater influence on PISA scores than on SPM scores; and 5) there was a variability among schools regarding school performance (35.2%) and intelligence (6.3%) which was not explained by the covariates and random effects. The impact of these results for education policies is discussed. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Intelligence School performance SES Latin America 1. Introduction 1.1. National differences in school performance For more than a century, philosophers and economists have highlighted the role of education on individual and national development (Marshall, 1890; Mill, 1848/1909). Currently, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Intelligence 49 (2015) 66–83 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Av. Antonio Carlos, 6627, FAFICH — Departamento de Psicologia, Gabinete 4042, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte CEP: 31270-901, Brazil. E-mail addresses: carmencita@fafich.ufmg.br, carmenflor@uol.com.br (C. Flores-Mendoza), marcelamansuralves@yahoo.com.br (M. Mansur-Alves), ruben.ardila@etb.net.co (R. Ardila), rrosas@uc.cl (R.D. Rosas), kguerreroleiva@yahoo.com (M.K. Guerrero-Leiva), melgm@servidor.unam.mx (M.E.L.-G. Maqueo), maypsi@yahoo.com.ar (M. Gallegos), admision@usil.edu.pe (N.R. Colareta), andresburgaleon@gmail.com (A.B. León). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2014.12.005 0160-2896/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Intelligence