General and fluid intelligence correlate strongly with mathematics achievement (r = .41 to .62), and the fluid-intelligence correlation is larger in older samples¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q3 · i3 large · n=30 meta-analyses, 66 correlations from 13,853 effect sizes (~4.66 million participants)
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

General intelligence correlates r = .49 with mathematics achievement (Roth et al. 2015, k = 100), fluid intelligence .41 (Peng et al. 2019, k = 1,129) and a PASS composite .62 (Georgiou et al. 2020). These are correlations compiled across meta-analyses: they describe how strongly the characteristic goes with mathematics achievement, not what causes it.

Subclaims¶

q3 i3 General intelligence correlates r = .49 with mathematics achievement (Roth et al. 2015, k = 100), fluid intelligence .41 (Peng et al. 2019, k = 1,129) and a PASS composite .62 (Georgiou et al. 2020). → Breit et al. 2025

Evidence¶

Breit et al. 2025¶

Breit, M., Schneider, M., & Preckel, F. (2025). Mathematics achievement and learner characteristics: A systematic review of meta-analyses. Learning and Individual Differences, 118, 102621. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2024.102621

q3 · systematic review of meta-analyses · i3 · large effect, r = .41 to .62 · n=30 meta-analyses, 66 correlations from 13,853 effect sizes (~4.66 million participants) · review · r3

The review compiles zero-order correlations from published meta-analyses (each with at least ten effect sizes, the largest one kept where several covered a variable), found by a systematic PsycINFO search in July 2024. It pools nothing further and controls for nothing: many of these characteristics correlate with one another, so a correlation here says how strongly the characteristic goes with mathematics achievement, not that it causes it. General intelligence r = .49 (Roth et al. 2015, k = 100, n = 60,533 children and adolescents, corrected for unreliability); the PASS full-scale composite (planning, attention, simultaneous and successive processing) .62 (k = 22) and PASS .46 (k = 48) (Georgiou et al. 2020); fluid intelligence .41 (Peng et al. 2019, k = 1,129). In the age moderation analyses, the fluid-intelligence correlation was stronger in older samples.

Discussion¶

These are associations between measured ability and achievement; intelligence overlaps with many other variables in the review (creativity, language, executive functions), so its correlation is not a unique share.

Related Claims¶

• Mathematics achievement correlates more strongly with learners' knowledge, skills and cognitive abilities than with their personality traits, goals or emotions
• Domain-identical pretests are the most powerful single-level covariate type for student achievement, outperforming cross-domain pretests, fluid intelligence, and sociodemographic characteristics — related
• Executive functions and working memory correlate moderately to strongly with mathematics achievement (r = .28 to .40), from preschool through elementary school — related
• Gardner holds intelligences are not interchangeable, so one intelligence cannot substitute for another in learning a domain — related
• Prior mathematical knowledge correlates very strongly with later mathematics achievement (r = .63), largely reflecting stable differences between learners — related
• Creativity correlates strongly with mathematics achievement in school (r = .47), more so in elementary than in high school — related