Intelligence is an important indicator of physical, mental and social well-being. In old age, intelligence is also associated with a higher quality of life and better health. Heritability studies have shown that there are strong genetic influences, yet unknown, on intelligence, including in old age. Other approaches may be useful to investigate…

Genetic effects on specific cognitive abilities as distinct from those on general cognitive ability were studied in 302 pairs of twins (some reared together, some apart) from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. Overall, results showed significant genetic influence on specific abilities independent of influence on general ability. (SLD)

Few books have generated as much controversy as the recently published "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life." The tremendous polarization on the issue of the relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) to race and social class, reinforced by the book, and the potential this book has for undermining…

The history of the study of human mental ability is an example of the dialectic in social science between those who interpret data within the framework of existing social inequities and those who look for perspectives that might eventually dissolve inequities. The dedication of Henry Herbert Goddard to a belief in the scientific proof of…

Contents of this symposium comprises: Introduction (W. B. Dockrell); The Genetics of Intelligence (Sir C. Burt); Structuring Mental Acts (P. R. Merrifield); A "Piagetian" Test of Cognitive Development (R. D. Tuddenham); The British Intelligence Scale (R. W. Warburton); Intelligence (P. E. Vernon); Hierarchical Theories of Mental Ability…

Genetic influence was estimated on Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children subtests from inbreeding depression scores calculated on cousin marriages in Japan (n=1,854 children) and correlated with American Black-White racial differences. The genetic contribution of racial differences in cognitive performance may be more robust than was previously…

Reviews the current theories concerning individual differences in cognitive functioning. While some argue that heredity places a genetic cap on intellectual development, others emphasize the dynamic interrelationship between cultural and environmental factors. Concludes that intelligence is more complex than the heredity advocates allow. (MJP)

This final report reviews the second phase of a life-span study of boys with fragile X syndrome (FSX), the most common known inherited cause of mental retardation. Males with the syndrome are more severely affected than females and in males, delays are usually evident in all the developmental domains, although cognitive and communication skills…