It sometimes seems that it is difficult to pick up a current newspaper or a magazine without it containing a story about some behavioral characteristic for which it has been found that a gene is responsible. Even aspects of behavior that one would feel certain are environmentally controlled are now being attributed in part to the effects of the genes. But genes never act alone: Their effects are always filtered through the environment. The goal of this volume is to discuss how the environment influences the development and the maintenance of cognitive abilities. It is a successor to the...

What is the impact of the family environment on us, particularly with regard to our intellectual functioning? Does the role of early family environment wear off, as some researchers have suggested, or does it maintain or possibly even become more important as we grow older? This book examines the interrelationship between family environment and intellectual functioning in a lifespan perspective. Covering a wide range of topics, it provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date examination of life-span family influences on various aspects of intellectual function.

For cognitive,...

This edited volume presents a balanced approach to the ongoing debate of just how general the "general factor" of intelligence is. To accomplish this goal, the editors chose a number of distinct approaches to the study of intelligence--psychometric, genetic-epistemological, cognitive, biological, behavior-genetic, sociocultural, systems--and asked distinguished scholars to write from the standpoint of these approaches. Each approach comprises two chapters, one by a scholar leaning toward a view arguing for the greater generality of g, and the other by a scholar leaning toward a view arguing...