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Intelligence Environmental Factors

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Introduction
There has been numerous research into the development of intelligence and the role on which genetic and environmental factors (Nature & Nurture) play on the shaping of intelligence. Intelligence has many definitions and meanings, throughout the context of this paper and commonly defined among neuroscientists, intelligence will be understood as one’s overall cognitive capabilities (Toga and Thomson 2005). Many studies show the weight of impact that genetics play on shaping intelligence however this human intelligence is also highly modified by the environment in which the human being resides.
This paper will discuss the theories and studies on how intelligence is shaped by factors which include Genetic and Environmental. It will …show more content…
Spearman’s g is known as the basic general factor of mental ability and as Toga (2005) mentions there has been many psychometric and twin studies which have used this cognitive testing to quantify intellectual function.
Intelligence has been quantified throughout decades through the completion of an IQ test. The IQ test which was first created by German psychologist Wilhelm Stern has been widely used over the years for admission to jobs, schools, colleges etc. (Toga & Thompson 2005). IQ tests come in different forms, but they typically assess visuospatial, deductive, semantic, and symbolic reasoning ability.
This form of intellectual measuring, even though it may seem like a standard measurement of intelligence has a number of oppositions. In some cases it was seen as an unfair judgement, in 1960 there was an study done in schools in America testing the kids IQ but some schools rejected this due to their thought that there may be cultural biased in the questioning which at the time caused a back lash for psychometric testing (Toga & Thompson …show more content…
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, studies done on inbred rodents showed individual differences for most aspects of learning from the important contribution of genetics (Plomin and Spinath 2004). There was a different view expressed by Jensen (1969) that ethnic differences might involve genetic differences. This article caused an uproar and had much criticism. Jensen’s idea was again resurrected in The Bell Curve (Herrnstein & Murray 1994). This controversial idea had positive effects and much more research and data was collected and compared (Plomin and Spinath 2004). “Some of the new data and all of the old data were summarized in another influential Science article (Bouchard & McGue 1981) that began to turn the tide in psychology toward acceptance of genetic influence on intelligence” (Plomin and Spinath

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