"Environment and the IQ"

Abstract

In the years since the publication of the Twenty-Seventh Yearbook (51) of this Society, on "Nature and Nurture: Their Influence upon Intelligence," the literature on intelligence tests has been voluminous. The present review does not attempt to cover the entire field, but rather to select those studies that appear to make a contribution to the problem of environment in relation to the IQ. With a few exceptions, the discussion is confined to material on this subject published subsequently to the last Yearbook. Occasionally a study published prior to 1928 has been included when, in the judgment of the reviewers, it appeared especially pertinent to the discussion, or when it made a special contribution not duplicated in later studies.The studies to be reviewed have been grouped under six general headings: (1) home influences, (2) schooling: preschool attendance, (3) schooling: type of school attended, (4) special training programs, (5» general home and school conditions, and (61 institutional residence. A few of the studies could have been included appropriately under more than one heading. In such cases, the reviewers made an arbitrary choice. I. HOME INFLUENCESUnder this heading are discussed (1) socio-economic status of parents, (2) education of parents, (3) IQ of parents, and (4) children transferred to foster homes. It is recognized, of course, that the child lives in a complex world, subjected to a number of environmental forces simultaneously. He is seldom solely under the influence of the home 405

Enriched Environments as a Potential Treatment for Developmental Disorders: A Critical Assessment

“…Enrichment of the environment has long been proposed as a treatment or strategy for increasing cognitive ability and well-being, namely in rodents ( Cooper and Zubek, 1958 ; Manosevitz, 1970 ) and in children in educational contexts ( Stoddard and Wellman, 1940 ; Gruber, 1975 ). In animal studies, the nature of enrichment varies ( Nithianantharajah and Hannan, 2006 ), but typically involve access to larger, more stimulating environments, with increased opportunities for socialization and voluntary physical activity ( van Praag et al, 2000 ).…”

The Reduction of Socioeconomic Bias in Intelligence Testing

“…Factor analysts such as Thurstone (1938) and Guilford (1956) have disparaged the idea of a general factor ; environmentalists such as Halsey (1 959) and the Iowa investigators Stoddard and Wellman, 1940) have questioned the notion that intelligence is predetermined or fixed ; developmental research pioneered by Piaget (1947) suggests that intelligence is intimately bound up with the continuous interaction between organism and environment, while the possibility of critical periods and irreversible influences in mental development is now seriously held (Hebb, 1958).…”

Chapter IV: Individual Differences and Diversity in Twentieth-century Classrooms

“…One may regard intelligence as emergent from [a multitude of factors-hereditary, constitutional ones specific to an individual but not genetic, and environmental] recognizing that one of these factors may vary from almost negligible to almost crucial strengths. 42 Other authors in the Thirty-ninth Yearbook spurned Stoddard's view. Summarizing a variety of investigations correlating physiological correlates of intelligence, Leonard Carmichael offered guidance about what society should do to maximize "intelligence in the behavior of its population:" Society .…”