Studies by the late English psychologist Cyril Burt of IQ scores of separated twins strongly suggested that intelligence was inherited. A summary of recent research costs doubt upon the validity of Burt's work. (SL)

The issue of race differences in intelligence, especially with respect to American black and white populations, is adjudged to be "nonsensical" in terms of the framing of the question, the populations sampled, the testing instruments utilized, and the concept of "intelligence" postulated. (Author/EH)

Research has shown that differences among ordinary people in intelligence and personality depend equally on individual genetic variability and on differences in the environments that siblings experience within the same family, not differences in the neighborhood, school, and community environments. As of yet, there are no adequate theories to…

Reviews the furor and reaction to Arthur Jensen's controversial genetic theory of intellectual differences. The cases of Shockley, Eysenck, and Herrnstein are also discussed as instances in which intellectual debate was supplanted by academic persecution and impassioned rhetoric. (EH)

Intelligence tests were administered to a stratified sample of 4058 school children from Palermo, Sicily. I.Q. scores were found to be positively correlated with socioeconomic status and negatively related to family size. As birth order increased, mental development decreased. Implications for future research were discussed. (EH)

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)

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)

"The Bell Curve" declares that studies of separated identical twins--the "purest" of "direct" methods for estimating IQ heritability--indicate a value of +.75-+.80. But, the main study cited suggests a heritability of "two-thirds" for the middle class, and Herrnstein and Murray neglect to mention numerous…

Finds that the available data for the heretability of intelligence is inadequate to settle the question conclusively. Argues that the benefits of diversity can only be realized if equality of opportunity is complimented by equality of status. (EH)

This paper presents the results of a study which examined heritability ratios for the major ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Scores on three measures (the Cooperative Primary Reading Test, the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, and a composite set of intelligence tests) were compared for twins from…

Milkman (TM 504 643) accuses Arthur Jensen of misapplying heritability data in speculating on the causes of racial differences in intelligence test scores, and offers a method for illuminating Jensen's alleged error. It is contended in this article that Milkman has misconstrued Jensen's argument and that his method is without point. (Author/CTM)

This article reviews sex studies of children of cousin marriages and three studies of children of incestuous matings. It is argued that these studies, taken as a whole, provide no substantial evidence for an inbreeding depression effect within the polygenic system commonly asserted to determine IQ. (Author/DB)

Criticizes claims in "The Bell Curve" that a high value for heritability of intelligence constrains the extent to which environmental changes can increase intelligence. Cites adoption studies and the increasing intelligence of successive cohorts of U.S. children as evidence that intelligence can increase substantially without heroic…

Reviews Richard Herrnstein's article and book concerning I.Q. and argues that the questions of the nature of intelligence and the respective influences of environment and heredity are important not just in the interpretation of statistical evidence but because these questions have implications in the lives of human beings. (Author/JM)

The author reexamines the controversy surrounding his genetic hypothesis in an attempt to clarify his contention that differences in IQ scores between blacks and whites may be attributable as much to heredity as environment. (EH)