Identified subjects' handedness and family handedness (genetic variables) and college major (environmental variable); and tested subjects on the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test. Found that right-handed females with non-right-handed relatives and with science or math majors outperformed other females and equaled the performance of males on the…

Estimates the extent to which heredity influences perceptions of childhood family environment in a sample of 58 monozygotic and 46 dizygotic pairs of adult twins who were reared apart. The data confirm the importance of genetic factors in some, but not all, measures of family environment. Environmental influences were more important than genetic…

Comments on an earlier paper by Lerner and von Eye on sociobiology and human development; general theory in science, especially evolutionary theory; adaptation and behavior plasticity; and modern behavior genetics. Examines assertion that "heritability says nothing about the extent to which a trait is commonly inherited." Discusses…

A study involving 55 children with a language impairment and 76 with normal language investigated the heritability of auditory processing impairment in same-sex twins (ages 7 to 13, selected from a sample of 37 pairs). Although correlations between co-twins were high, lack of significant difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins suggested…

Offers a brief overview of Murray and Herrnstein's "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life." Discusses briefly the controversy surrounding the book and about research in the area of intelligence. Gives a background of solicited commentaries. (Author/JDM)

Argues that there is a wealth of little known but rapidly growing evidence that contradicts the assumptions and claims of genetic determinism. Recent research showing the impacts of child maltreatment and environmental pollutants suggest interventions that might alleviate the problems sometimes attributed to genetic deficiencies. (SLD)

Two studies of twin, sibling, and cousin pairs among children attempted to extend a model, called DF analysis, which separates hereditary and shared environmental influences. First study supported the validity of DF analysis applied to kinship height and weight data. The second study showed that spanking, reading, and quality of home environment…

The portions of Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America (Jencks, et al 1972) concerned with inequality in cognitive skills and estimating the heritability of IQ scores are reviewed. For related articles see TM 501 196-200. (MLP)

Reviews current research on a woman's chances of bearing twins and the genetic relationship, prenatal competition, and personality similarities between twins. In addition, the nature/nurture controversy is discussed in terms of evidence from studies of identical twins reared apart. Future studies are suggested to discover the ways twinning might…

The purpose of this paper is to clarify some of the conceptual issues involved in discussions of psychology and education which rely on the assumption that biological factors serve as a basis or are responsible for human intelligence. (Author/ND)

Discusses the nature-nurture controversy as a manifestation of the underlying assumptions of American education. Suggests these assumptions are neither desirable nor necessary for our society and educational system. (ST)

Although it is possible to statistically estimate the degree to which genetic variation explains observed variation in human behavior, estimates of nongenetic behavior do not set an upper limit on the explanatory power of environmental variation. The two categories are not mutually exclusive: genetic variation often causes environmental variation.…

Findings from a study reported in this paper indicate that the differences in family background that affect IQ are largely the result of genetic differences among parents, which affect the parents' own status attainment and which are passed on genetically to their offspring, whose status attainments are subsequently affected. (Author/EB)

Genetic research on intelligence has moved beyond the nature-nurture controversy to investigate developmental change and continuity, associations among cognitive abilities, and the developmental interface between nature and nurture. Advances in molecular genetics are leading to a new era of research. (Author/SLD)

Summarizes the positions of leading proponents of the belief in the biological basis of differences in intelligence, reviewing the ideas of Arthur Jensen, J. Phillipe Rushton, and the currently controversial "The Bell Curve" by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein. Relations between social perceptions of race and class are discussed.…