This study found that the emotional facial expressions of 10 congenitally blind and 10 sighted children, ages 8-11, were similar. However, the frequency of certain facial movements was higher in the blind children than in the sighted children, and social influences were evident only in the expressions of the sighted children, who often masked…

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…

Claims little factual evidence exists for proposition that child rearing styles and family environments are formative of personality traits. Contends nonintellectual traits seem to be determined instead by genetic influences and relatively specific environmental influences, most of which are particularly tied to the family or parental treatments.…

Reviews "The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language" (S. Pinker). Defines generative grammar, examines the evidence for Pinker's Generative Grammar as Instinct hypothesis, and discusses Pinker's use of language acquisition as support for the hypothesis. Suggests alternative theories of language that begin from different…

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…

The mother, father, and adolescent siblings from 675 families were observed interacting in problem-solving sessions. Siblings were monozygotic twins, dyzygotic twins, or full siblings in nondivorced families and full, half, and unrelated siblings in stepfamilies. Results suggested a greater genetic component to adolescent behavior than to parent…

Describes gender-based imagery preferences in research studies and instructional design, and the relationship of stages of aesthetic development to gender-based imagery preferences. Also provides four guidelines for selecting images for various purposes and discusses implications for further research to understand the impact of gender-based visual…

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…

Introduces the confluence model as a theory specifying the process by which the intellectual environment modifies intellectual development. Using this model, explores the contradiction between prediction of secular trends in test scores by trends in aggregate birth order and the lack of prediction of individual test scores by birth order using…

Explored genetic and environmental underpinnings of temperamental differences in 3- to 16-month-old twins and their parents. Found that additive genetic and shared environmental effects best represented smiling, laughter, and duration of orienting. Shared environmental effects fully accounted for co-twin similarity for soothability. Additive…

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)

Comments on the work of Arthur Jensen, specifically "The g Factor" (1998), which consolidates the psychometric, neurophysiological, behavior genetic, and comparative evidence for the existence and importance of a factor of general intelligence ("g"). Discusses Jensen's work on black/white differences in intelligence. (SLD)

Discusses the contributions of Arthur Jensen to the study of intelligence and considers his writings on the topic of racial differences in scores on tests of intelligence. Concludes with a discussion of his work on the correlates of the "g" vector (general intelligence factor). (Author/SLD)

Parents of Swedish twin pairs ages 7 to 9 years and of British twin pairs ages 8 to 16 years completed the Child Behavior Checklist. Found that genetic factors influenced aggressive antisocial behavior to a greater extent than nonaggressive antisocial behavior, which was also significantly influenced by the shared environment. There was a…