Genetics and general cognitive ability (g)
Abstract
Two recent articles in this journal made the case for the existence and importance of g and reviewed research on cognitive and psychophysical correlates of psychometric g. This review considers g from a genetic perspective. Multivariate genetic research indicates that g accounts for nearly all of the genetic variance of diverse psychometric cognitive tests (genetic g). Recent research suggests not only that elementary cognitive tasks are genetically linked to psychometric g but also that genetic g pervades these tasks. Contrary to the assumption of modularity that dominates cognitive science, genetic g exists in the mind as well as in psychometric tests.
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Twin research on cognitive ability has estimated that around 50% of individual differences in performance on tests measuring cognitive ability is heritable.
“Twin research on cognitive ability has also estimated that a substantial portion of the individual differences in performance of tests measuring cognitive ability is heritable (around 50%; Plomin and Spinath, 2002).”
From Deliberate Practice and Proposed Limits on the Effects of Practice on the Acquisition of Expert Performance: Why the Original Definition Matters and Recommendations for Future Research (2019) · cites this paper as Plomin and Spinath, 2002
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BackgroundProblem-solving performance is correlated with reproductive success in a wild bird population
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“Heritability of many cognitive traits has been shown in nonhuman species, but evidence comes mainly from domesticated animals, mostly rodents, tested in captivity (Plomin & Spinath 2002), as well as from selection experiments in insects (Mery & Kawecki 2004).”
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“…within-species individual variation (Thornton & Lukas 2012), but in those species that have, this positive covariation has been summarized by a single factor and has been described as analogous to human g (Chandra et al. 2000; Plomin & Spinath 2002; Matzel et al. 2003; Banerjee et al. 2009).”
Children’s cognitive development and learning
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Panizzon, M., Vuoksimaa, E., Spoon, K. M., Jacobson, K., Lyons, M., Franz, C., Xian, H., Vasilopoulos, T., & Kremen, W. (2014) · Intelligence · doi:10.1016/j.intell.2014.01.008 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
“These results are consistent with the view that g is largely a genetic phenomenon (Plomin & Spinath, 2002).”
ResultMatzel, L., Townsend, D. A., Grossman, H., Han, Y., Hale, G., Zappulla, M., Light, K. R., & Kolata, S. (2006) · Neurobiology of Learning and Memory · doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2006.03.004 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
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“…add to this evidence from brain imaging (Colom et al., 2006; Barbey et al., 2012), genetics and intelligence test research in contemporary humans (Plomin and Spinath, 2002) and non-humans (Galsworthy et al., 2002), it is plausible that changes in g might lie behind many cognitive innovations…”
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“As social and cognitive abilities are at least partially affected by genetic factors (Kendler et al, 1991; Plomin, 1999), these results might be interpreted to represent a gene–environment interaction affecting risk of schizophrenia, and might provide an insight into the mechanism of the…”
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“Plomin and Spinath (2002) provide a similar discussion with respect to the interpretation of the g factor of individual differences in levels of cognitive abilities.”
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“…commonly referred to as “general intelligence,” has been estimated to account for 30–50% of the performance variance across the seemingly disparate subtests that comprise common intelligence batteries (Jensen, 1998; Mackintosh, 1998; Plomin, 1999; Plomin & Spinath, 2002; Sternberg & Kaufman, 1998).”
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“Furthermore, the proportion of variance between individuals that is accounted for by general abilities increases across the life span, accounting for as much as 80% of the variance between elderly individuals and only 40% ( 10%) among the rest of the population (Plomin and Spinath 2002).”
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“General cognitive ability, assessed with standardised intelligence tests, is a highly heritable trait [12,13], yet very few genes have been identified that impact upon these trait [14].”
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“Alternatively, working memory may simply be another name for g given the overlap between working memory and psychometric tests of g.(68) This is supported by the evidence that various measures of working memory correlate with g at a level corresponding to the reliability of the measure used.”
ResultFunctional Genomics and Schizophrenia: Endophenotypes and Mutant Models
Waddington, J. L., Corvin, A. P., Donohoe, G. J., O’Tuathaigh, C. M. P., Mitchell, K. J., & Gill, M. (2007) · Psychiatric Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.psc.2007.04.011 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
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“These components can be suggested from neuroscience and may get closer to the actual biological systems involved in intelligence (De Geus & Boomsma, 2001; De Geus et al., 2001; Deary, 2001; Plomin & Spinath, 2002).”
BackgroundSpinath, F., Angleitner, A., Borkenau, P., Riemann, R., & Wolf, H. (2002) · Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies · doi:10.1375/136905202320906110 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
“Bivariate analyses revealed that most of the phenotypic variance between g and mental speed was due to genetic factors, suggesting not only that elementary cognitive tasks are genetically linked to psychometric (g) but also that genetic g pervades these tasks (Plomin & Spinath, 2002).”
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“Relatedly, the proportion of variance between individuals that is accounted for by general abilities increases across the life span, accounting for as much as 80% of the variance between elderly individuals as compared to only ≈40% among the rest of the population (Plomin and Spinath 2002).”
BackgroundMeta-Analysis of Genetic Variation in DTNBP1 and General Cognitive Ability
Zhang, J., Burdick, K. E., Lencz, T., & Malhotra, A. K. (2010) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.09.016 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
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A strong role for nature in face recognition
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“D o the genes that make us intelligent make us intelligent in all respects? Or can one inherit from one’s parents high general intelligence but also a problem in one specific area, such as in reading or mathematics or the ability to recognize other people? Recent major reviews have emphasized the role of general intel…”
BackgroundGenetic overlap among intelligence and other candidate endophenotypes for schizophrenia.
Aukes, M. F., Alizadeh, B., Sitskoorn, M., Kemner, C., Ophoff, R., & Kahn, R. (2009) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.09.020 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
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Poirier, M., Kozlovsky, D. Y., Morand‐Ferron, J., & Careau, V. (2020) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.1853 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
“Once more powerful statistical approaches became viable, the human literature on g moved towards alternative statistical tools such as structural equation modelling and multivariate genetic analyses [4,5].”
BackgroundMethodHeritability and correlations among learning and inhibitory control traits
Langley, E., Adams, G., Beardsworth, C. E., Dawson, D. A., Laker, P. R., van Horik, J. O., Whiteside, M., Wilson, A. J., & Madden, J. R. (2020) · Behavioral Ecology · doi:10.1093/beheco/araa029 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Genetics and Developmental Psychology
Plomin, R. J. (2004) · Merrill-palmer Quarterly · doi:10.1353/mpq.2004.0024 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
“Finding such substantial genetic overlap among cognitive abilities and disabilities has far-reaching implications for understanding the brain mechanisms that mediate these genetic effects (Plomin & Spinath, 2002).”
BackgroundSelf-citationIndividual differences: Case studies of rodent and primate intelligence.
Matzel, L. D., & Sauce, B. (2017) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Animal Learning and Cognition · doi:10.1037/xan0000152 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
“…breeding (which probably saved millions of lives from starvation during the Green Revolution; for a brief overview, see Moose & Mumm, 2008), to studying the malleability of intelligence (which could potentially change our welfare policies as well as the educational system; Plomin & Spinath, 2002).”
BackgroundRizzi, T. S., Arias-Vásquez, A., Rommelse, N., Kuntsi, J., Anney, R., Asherson, P., Buitelaar, J., Banaschewski, T., Ebstein, R., Ruano, D., et al. (2010) · American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics · doi:10.1002/ajmg.b.31149 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Is g an entity? A Japanese twin study using syllogisms and intelligence tests
Shikishima, C., Hiraishi, K., Yamagata, S., Sugimoto, Y., Takemura, R., Ozaki, K., Okada, M., Toda, T., & Ando, J. (2008) · Intelligence · doi:10.1016/j.intell.2008.10.010 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
“The present study and others (e.g., Plomin & Spinath, 2002) revealed that g is genetic and pervasive, and affects a variety of operations ranging from elemental cognitive tasks to intellectually complex psychometric tasks in the brain and in the mind; however, the essential nature of g or the…”
BackgroundResultAnimal expertise: mechanisms, ecology and evolution
Dukas, R. (2018) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.05.010 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Explaining Social Disparities in Mathematical Achievement: The Role of Motivation
Kriegbaum, K., & Spinath, B. (2016) · European Journal of Personality · doi:10.1002/per.2042 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“There is ample evidence that individual differences in intelligence have a strong genetic basis (Plomin & Spinath, 2002).”
BackgroundGrossman, H. C., Hale, G., Light, K., Kolata, S., Townsend, D. A., Goldfarb, Y., Kusnecov, A., & Matzel, L. D. (2007) · Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.1037/0735-7044.121.5.949 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
“Evidence derived from a growing body of research in humans suggests that 25%–50% of the variance between individuals across cognitive tasks can be accounted for by a single factor (Plomin, 1999; Plomin & Spinath, 2002).”
Backgroundvan Horik, J. O., Langley, E., Whiteside, M., Laker, P. R., & Madden, J. R. (2018) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.171919 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Problem‐solving skills are linked to parental care and offspring survival in wild house sparrows
Wetzel, D. P. (2017) · doi:10.1111/eth.12618 · Cited by 28
IQ Population Genetics: It's Not as Simple as You Think
Meisenberg, G. (2003) · Mankind Quarterly · doi:10.46469/mq.2003.44.2.4 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Environmental Influences on Spatial Memory and the Hippocampus in Food-Caching Chickadees
Pravosudov, V., Roth, T., LaDage, L., & Freas, C. (2015) · doi:10.3819/ccbr.2014.100002 · Cited by 26
Finke, V., Scheiner, R., Giurfa, M., & Avarguès‐Weber, A. (2023) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s10071-022-01741-2 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
“…studied in humans and other vertebrates, considers that the performances in multiple cognitive tests are highly correlated given that the g-factor accounts for a large proportion of inter-individual variability in these tests (Jensen 1998; Mackintosh 1998; Plomin and Spinath 2002; Matzel et al.”
BackgroundThe biological basis of intelligence: Benchmark findings
Hilger, K., Spinath, F., Troche, S., & Schubert, A.-L. (2022) · Intelligence · doi:10.1016/j.intell.2022.101665 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Self-citationThe contribution of executive functions to sex differences in animal cognition
Lucon‐Xiccato, T. (2022) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104705 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Christopher, M. E., Keenan, J. M., Hulslander, J., DeFries, J. C., Miyake, A., Wadsworth, S. J., Willcutt, E. G., Pennington, B. F., & Olson, R. K. (2016) · Journal of Experimental Psychology General · doi:10.1037/xge0000146 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“…and naming speed, have consistently found these abilities to be highly heritable, with genetic influences capturing roughly half of the variance when measured with single tasks (Ando, Ono, & Wright, 2001; Haworth et al., 2010; Lukowski et al., 2014; Plomin & Spinath, 2002; Polderman et al., 2006).”
Genetic architecture of context processing in late middle age: More than one underlying mechanism.
Kremen, W. S., Panizzon, M. S., Xian, H., Barch, D. M., Franz, C. E., Grant, M. D., Toomey, R., & Lyons, M. J. (2011) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/a0025098 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“There is abundant evidence for substantial genetic influences on general cognitive ability (Bouchard & McGue, 2003; Lyons et al., 2009; Plomin & Spinath, 2002).”
Kessler, S., Bonnell, T., Setchell, J., & Chapman, C. (2018) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-018-31568-2 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Wass, C., Sauce, B., Pizzo, A., & Matzel, L. D. (2018) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22668-0 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
“1C), and passive avoidance, F(1,55) = 12.”
BackgroundInfluentialThe Association Between Spousal Education and Cognitive Ability Among Older Mexican Adults
Saenz, J. L., Beam, C. R., & Zelinski, E. M. (2020) · The Journals of Gerontology Series B · doi:10.1093/geronb/gbaa002 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Generalist Genes and High Cognitive Abilities
Haworth, C. M. A., Dale, P. S., & Plomin, R. J. (2009) · Behavior Genetics · doi:10.1007/s10519-009-9271-2 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“0 across different cognitive abilities (Deary et al. 2006; Petrill 2002; Plomin and Spinath 2002).”
InfluentialSelf-citation
- Authors
- Plomin, R., & Spinath, F. M.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Plomin, Robert
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2002-04
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 169-176
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2150925047
- Cited by
- 191
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 2.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Keywords
- general intelligence, heritability of intelligence, genetic variance, cognitive modularity, psychometric tests
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