This study aimed to replicate and extend the pilot findings of Cassidy et al. (2011) which found that teaching children to derive various relations among stimuli leads to increases in the full scale IQ scores of both typically developing children and those with educational and learning difficulties. In Experiment 1, fifteen 11-12 year old children were exposed over several months to an intensive training intervention to improve their understanding of the relations Same, Opposite and More and Less. Significant increases in full scale IQ of around one standard deviation were recorded for each child. In Experiment 2, the same intervention was delivered to thirty 15-17 year old children. Significant increases in verbal and numerical reasoning were recorded for almost every child. These findings corroborate the idea that relational skills may underlie many forms of general cognitive ability.

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Relational Frame Theory proposes that levels of sophistication with relational concepts may underlie intellectual performance. In order to further elucidate this relationship, the current study examined correlations between scores on a novel Relational Abilities Index (RAI) and a range of widely-used cognitive ability measures, including Full Scale IQ. In Study 1, 35 adult participants completed a battery of cognitive assessments, comprising of the National Adult Reading Test, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, the Trail Making Test, the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire and a RAI assessment at two time periods. In Study 2, a full WAIS-III assessment and RAI was administered to 25 college students. Results indicate that performance on the RAI displayed impressive degrees of correlation with the three main IQ indices, three of the four IQ subindices, and three of the four cognitive ability measures, suggesting that the RAI assessment may represent a promising potential proxy measure of Full Scale IQ.

The Relational Abilities Index (RAI) has shown considerable utility as a functional proxy measurement of intellectual performance by providing a metric of an important skill set known as relational skills, which are proposed to underlie much of what we conceive of as intellectual behavior. The Relational Abilities Index+ (RAI+) assesses performance across an extended range of relational skills (Same/Opposite, More/Less, Same/Different, Before/After, and Analogy), and has been designed to provide a more comprehensive and nuanced assessment of relational skills. The current study aims to investigate the validity and utility of the RAI+ by assessing its degree of correlation with well-established assessments of intelligence (WASI), numeracy (WAIS: Arithmetic), and educational attainment (WIAT-T-II). Results indicate that the RAI+ displays considerable efficacy in predicting intellectual performance and numeracy, but not educational attainment.