Sources of Openness/Intellect: Cognitive and Neuropsychological Correlates of the Fifth Factor of Personality

2005/05/04 by Colin G. DeYoung, Jordan B. Peterson, Daniel M. Higgins · 4 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies #Functional Brain Connectivity Studies #Creativity in Education and Neuroscience

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00330.x

openalex publication_date 2005/05/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

We characterize Openness/Intellect as motivated cognitive flexibility, or cognitive exploration, and develop a neuropsychological model relating it to dopaminergic function and to the functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Evidence is reviewed for sources of Openness/Intellect shared with Extraversion and sources unique to Openness/Intellect. The hypothesis that the cognitive functions of the dorsolateral PFC are among the latter was tested using standard measures of cognitive ability and a battery of tasks associated with dorsolateral PFC function (N=175). Dorsolateral PFC function, as well as both fluid and crystallized cognitive ability, was positively related to Openness/Intellect but no other personality trait. Additionally, facet level analysis supported the characterization of Openness/Intellect as a primarily cognitive trait.

Citations

• Higher-order factors of the Big Five predict conformity: Are there neuroses of health?
• Genetic and Environmental Influences on Personality: A Study of Twins Reared Together Using the Self‐ and Peer Report NEO‐FFI Scales
• Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO Personality Inventory.
• A theory of cognitive control, aging cognition, and neuromodulation
• Predictive Reward Signal of Dopamine Neurons
• The neural basis of human error processing: Reinforcement learning, dopamine, and the error-related negativity.
• Openness and extraversion are associated with reduced latent inhibition: replication and commentary
• A Six-Factor Structure of Personality-Descriptive Adjectives: Solutions From Psycholexical Studies in Seven Languages.
• Reliability, Validity, and Factor Structure of the Creative Achievement Questionnaire
• An alternative "description of personality": The Big-Five factor structure.

Cited by

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• From executive functions to flexible cognition: Early links between cognitive flexibility and dispositional openness
• Jordan Peterson [wikipedia]