The effects of family background on adolescents' IQ, aptitude, and school achievement test scores challenge some of the usual beliefs about the fairness of achievement rather than IQ tests, and the role of genetic differences among individuals and social class groups in academic achievements. Subjects included 115 adoptive families with adolescent…

Seeing intelligence as neither strongly hereditary nor necessarily stable over time, and accepting the notion that it is a significant determinant of future occupational status, liberal psychologists and educators rely on the intervention of social institutions, primarily the school. The liberal view toward testing and intelligence is discussed.…

Briefly reviews the content and impact of Arthur R. Jensen's 1969 Harvard Educational Review (HER) article How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement, noting that "the reaction stirred by this article" in the subsequent issues of HER "was sharp." Among the critics were J. M. V. Hunt, Jerome Kagan, David Elkind, while Carl Bereiter, James…

The publication of "The Bell Curve" by R. Herrnstein and C. Murray enraged many with its contention that black children are genetically less able to learn because of their race and its suggestions that some groups may be less worthy of the expenditure of attention and resources because of a reduced capacity for education. This collection…

Examined changes in intelligence in Negro children at ages 4 and 7 as a function of sex, home stability and educational level of their parents. Results were interpreted as supporting an interaction hypothesis concerning the relative effects of heredity and environment on intelligence. (DP)

Explanations of differences in IQs of Northern and Southern Blacks focus on selective migration (hereditarians) or environmental causes such as education, discrimination and cultural deprivation. In this paper the environmentalist position is questioned and certain neglected features of Lee's data are construed as providing strong evidence for…

Discusses: "Educational Psychology," Thorndike; "Medical Education," Flexner; "Democracy and Education," Dewey; "The Measurement of Intelligence," Terman; "Public Education," Cubberley; "The Thirty-Ninth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Intelligence: Its Nature and Nurture;" and, "Why Johnny Can't Read," Flesch. (JM)

Psychologist Arthur R. Jensen reports he has detected a steady decline in IQ among rural Georgia black students apparently due to environmental factors. Jensen also reports, however, that overall IQ differences between blacks and whites may be partially due to genetics. (SL)

Examined divorce and gender as factors in racial differences in performance of elementary age children on Hahnemann Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, Wide Range Achievement Test, Vineland Teachers Questionnaire, and an interview. Found more racial group differences within the divorced…

Notes that psychologists' interest in behavioral development concerns individual differences in behavior. Explores complexities of genetic and environmental determination of development, and of canalization. Intelligence is considered as an example of the canalization of human behavior. (BC)

Described is an ongoing study of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, separated in infancy and reared apart. Discussed are the procedures and results of this study with interpretations of the results. The effects of parenting, education, and other interventions are considered. (CW)

Considers the contribution to information-processing accounts of human intelligence differences made by Arthur Jensen, commending his persistence in research and noting his reductionist orientation. Explores the question of correlated vectors studied by Jensen. (SLD)

Summarizes a series of studies from the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition on possible genetic and social environmental determinants of individual differences in and racial/ethnic differences between groups on intelligence and attainment. These studies, which focused on Japanese and Caucasian Americans, illustrate the complex, interactive, and…

This commentary documents errors in the statistical analyses and interpretation of empirical evidence in "The Bell Curve" by R. Herrnstein and C. Murray (1994). "The Bell Curve" neglects the role of education and grossly overstates the case for IQ as a determinant of social success. (SLD)

Although it is difficult to ascertain precisely the time at which the study of individual differences became recognized as a specialty within the psychological sciences, there appears to be much agreement among historians that its development was fostered primarily within the United States during the late 19th century. This paper examines the…