Specific cognitive abilities in 5- to 12-year-old twins
- 1 November 1980
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Behavior Genetics
- Vol. 10 (6), 507-520
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01066220
Abstract
Eleven tests of specific cognitive abilities were administered to 108 pairs of young twins (average age of 7.6 years). Internal consistencies are high for all measures except Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices and Delayed Picture Memory. Two-month, test-retest reliabilities are also reported. The twin sample is representative in terms of both means and variances when compared to normative data from standardization samples, and twin correlations for height and weight are similar to those obtained in six other twin studies. Because all measures were highly correlated with age (average correlation with age was 0.64), scores were age adjusted. Previous twin studies of specific cognitive abilities in adolescents and adults found genetic variance for nearly all tests. In contrast, our study of young twins yielded significant genetic influence for only 1 of the 11 measures, PIAT Reading Recognition, and suggested the possibility of genetic influence on 2 others (vocabulary and WISC-R mazes). Environmental influences seem to dominate, particularly for nonverbal measures, as children begin their education. In accord with other studies, we found that between-family environmental factors have an important influence on the development of nearly all of the measures of specific cognitive abilities. However, we found that our tests of perceptual speed and memory were substantially influenced by within-family environmental factors independent of error.Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- An analysis of Koch's (1966) Primary Mental Abilities Test data for 5- to 7-year-old twinsBehavior Genetics, 1980
- Developmental stability of the relative influence of genes and environment on specific cognitive abilities during childhood.Developmental Psychology, 1980
- Genetics and intelligence: Recent dataIntelligence, 1980
- Synchronies in mental development: an epigenetic perspectiveScience, 1978
- Familial Nature of Reading DisabilityThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1978
- Intellectual Development in Family Constellations with Adopted and Natural Children: A Test of the Zajonc and Markus ModelChild Development, 1977
- Concordance in physical growth for monozygotic and dizygotic twinsAnnals of Human Biology, 1976
- Cognitive Abilities: Use of Family Data as a Control to Assess Sex and Age Differences in Two Ethnic GroupsInternational Journal of Aging & Human Development, 1975
- Twins: Patterns of cognitive development as measured on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence.Developmental Psychology, 1975
- The Diagnosis of Twin ZygosityHuman Heredity, 1966