Comparing Cognitive Performance and Adaptability in Congolese and Western Children Using HECCA

Abstract This article evaluates the Human Evolutionary Cognitive & Contextual Assessment (HECCA), a cultural-equivalence-driven measurement protocol designed to enforce item-level equivalence across symbolic systems prior to cross-population comparison. This revised version corrects previous typographical errors, including the clarification that the main cohort comprised N=100 preschool children (ages 4–7), not N=10. The study compares Congolese and Western preschoolers using HECCA’s eight cognitive domains. Non-verbal reasoning was assessed using functionally equivalent items (Mandombe-based symbolic sequences for Congolese children and matrix-based sequences for Western children), each pre-screened for equivalence using differential item functioning (DIF). All domain scores were age-normalized (M=100, SD=15) to avoid developmental confounds. Across domains, Congolese cohorts outperformed Western cohorts on the Composite Adaptability Index (CAI) and creativity, while non-verbal performance was equivalent when assessed with culturally matched items. Verbal performance was near-equivalent. These differences are interpreted not as differences in intelligence, but as differences in environmentally trained adaptability. In highly standardised societies, predictable routines reduce naturalistic demands for multi-path adaptation; in more variable sociocultural settings, children encounter structurally higher requirements for flexibility, improvisation and contextual switching. The findings align with developmental psychology and cognitive anthropology models describing adaptability as an emergent property of socio-ecological exposure rather than innate fixed capacity. Race is not a factor in interpretation. Differences at cohort level are understood as contextual and plastic, not essential. Individuals vary within both cohorts. HECCA provides the missing measurement mechanism required for fair cross-population comparison: equivalence of symbolic representation before inference. It centres equivalence as a methodological first step and thus avoids the category error of comparing cultural groups with tools that are structurally optimised for only one of them. A separate multisite study with N=240 (ages 6–13) exists but is not analysed in this article. Novelty & Significance Statement NoveltyTo our knowledge, HECCA is the first standardised African-origin psychometric instrument operationalising symbolic geometry, contextual reasoning and adaptability into a replicable test battery. Significance– Empirically demonstrates that cognitive performance depends on epistemic alignment, not ethnicity.– Complements IQ-style metrics with multi-axis measures of adaptability, ethics and symbolic reasoning.– Provides quantitative evidence that culturally equivalent item structures reduce cultural bias in psychometrics.– Establishes HECCA as a candidate cross-cultural benchmark for education, developmental neuroscience and decolonial psychology.   This version corrects typographical errors in earlier circulated drafts and supersedes prior mediated translations. It is a direct translation from the original Kikongo manuscript.