Distinguishing specific from general effects in cognition research

This is our commentary on the "What is IQ? Life Beyond "General Intelligence"" paper by Kovacs and Conway (2019- https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419827275). We advocate for a latent variable approach in experimental research, and illustrate both conceptual and statistical benefits of using this approach in context of research on cognition. Benefits include the availability of more information about the constructs being measured, the ability to check for specific or general effects of covariates, and larger statistical power to detect mean differences between groups.