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Genes Don't Just Predict Intelligence, But Also How Well You Do In School

Posted by Soulskill on from the banking-on-my-extra-credit-genes dept.

sciencehabit writes: If you sailed through school with high grades and perfect test scores, you probably did it with traits beyond sheer smarts. A new study of more than 6000 pairs of twins finds that academic achievement is influenced by genes affecting motivation, personality, confidence, and dozens of other traits, in addition to those that shape intelligence (abstract). The results may lead to new ways to improve childhood education.

3 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The high heritability of educational achievemen by jonnyj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...Did they factor in the socio-economic background of the parents, as in children of rich-folk get better education than children of poor-parents, and therefore do better, and are expected to do better, in exams.

    Yes they did.

    Did you bother to read the article, or did you expect someone to read it for you?

  2. Just what any parent knows by jonnyj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's reassuring to see a study that so closely reflects what any parent knows. Given the same home and school environments, some kids do much better than others, or excel at different tasks. My own kids appear to have broadly similar abilities in IQ-style tests, but they are very different in their responses to failure, willingness to perform repetitive tasks, level of curiosity or preference for strategic vs detailed thinking. Each child has an area of academic strength that matches his character rather than his intelligence.

  3. Yet "intelligence" genes have little effect by enderwig · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Please keep in mind something from a couple of days ago...

    "'Smart genes' prove elusive - Study of more than 100,000 people finds three genetic variants for IQ — but their effects are maddeningly small." http://www.nature.com/news/sma...

    This twins study shows that general intelligence and academic achievement are affected by many different "aptitudes", not just "smart." Taken together with the Nature commentary, suggests that intelligence is just a part, maybe even a small part, of achievement.

    If only this could seep into the general consciousness of the masses, then we might not have so many students think they cannot do something because they are not "smart enough."