Mathematical Ability of 10-Year-Old Boys and Girls

Kovas, Yulia; Haworth, Claire M. A.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Plomin, Robert

doi:10.1177/00222194070400060601

Cited by 60 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Similarly, heritabilities of low ART performance and low reading/spelling ability did not differ significantly from that of the normally distributed measure, as has been found for low mathematics ability in children (Kovas et al 2007a). These findings are consistent with the single distribution hypothesis, or the theory of 'generalist genes' (Plomin and Kovas 2005).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Genetic Covariation Between the Author Recognition Test and Reading and Verbal Abilities: What Can We Learn from the Analysis of High Performance?

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Author Recognition Test (ART) measures print exposure and is a unique predictor of phonological and orthographic processes in reading. In a sample of adolescent and young adult twins and siblings (216 MZ/430 DZ pairs, 307 singletons; aged 11-29 years) ART scores were moderately heritable (67%) and correlated with reading and verbal abilities, with genes largely accounting for the covariance. We also examine whether high (and low) (i.e. 1SD above the mean) represents a quantitative extreme of the normal distribution. Heritability for high ART was of similar magnitude to the full sample, but, a specific genetic factor, independent from both low ART performance and high reading ability, accounted for 53-58% of the variance. This suggests a distinct genetic etiology for high ART ability and we speculate that the specific genetic influence is on orthographical processing, a critical factor in developing word recognition skills.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Genetic Covariation Between the Author Recognition Test and Reading and Verbal Abilities: What Can We Learn from the Analysis of High Performance?

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similarly, Taylor et al (2010) conclude that reading achievement of Years 1 and 2 students is influenced by genetics more than by family, school or students' individual experiences. Likewise, Kovas et al (2007) find no differences with regard to the impact of shared environment on reading, mathematics, and science achievement between 7, 9 and 10-year-olds who learn in the same or different classrooms. Overall, these studies suggest a need for reframing the common thinking which often conceptualizes classroom environments, i.e.…”

Section: Genetically Sensitive Studies Of Student Achievementmentioning

confidence: 69%

Heritability, family, school and academic achievement in adolescence

Pokropek

Sikora

2015

Social Science Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We demonstrate how genetically informed designs can be applied to administrative exam data to study academic achievement. ACE mixture latent class models have been used with Year 6 and 9 exam data for seven cohorts of Polish students which include 24,285 pairs of twins. Depending on a learning domain and classroom environment history, from 58% to 88% of variance in exam results is attributable to heritability, up to 34% to shared environment and from 8% to 15% depends on unique events in students' lives. Moreover, between 54% and 66% of variance in students' learning gains made between Years 6 and 9 is explained by heritability. The unique environment accounts for between 34% and 46% of that variance. However, we find no classroom effects on student progress made between Years 6 and 9. We situate this finding against the view that classroom peer groups and teachers matter for adolescent learning.

show abstract

“…Our multivariate genetic research indicates that these two types of measure are correlated phenotypically and genetically [0.53 and 0.62, respectively (Kovas et al 2007b)] and combining them produces a more reliable measure for our GWAS. Each measure was standardized to a mean of zero and standard deviation of one.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A genome‐wide association study identifies multiple loci associated with mathematics ability and disability

Docherty¹,

Davis²,

Kovas³

et al. 2010

Genes Brain and Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Numeracy is as important as literacy and exhibits a similar frequency of disability. Although its etiology is relatively poorly understood, quantitative genetic research has demonstrated mathematical ability to be moderately heritable. In this first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of mathematical ability and disability, 10 out of 43 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations nominated from two high- vs. low-ability (n = 600 10-year-olds each) scans of pooled DNA were validated (P < 0.05) in an individually genotyped sample of *2356 individuals spanning the entire distribution of mathematical ability, as assessed by teacher reports and online tests. Although the effects are of the modest sizes now expected for complex traits and require further replication, interesting candidate genes are implicated such as NRCAM which encodes a neuronal cell adhesion molecule. When combined into a set, the 10 SNPs account for 2.9% (F = 56.85; df = 1 and 1881; P = 7.277e–14) of the phenotypic variance. The association is linear across the distribution consistent with a quantitative trait locus (QTL) hypothesis; the third of children in our sample who harbour 10 or more of the 20 risk alleles identified are nearly twice as likely (OR = 1.96; df = 1; P = 3.696e–07) to be in the lowest performing 15% of the distribution. Our results correspond with those of quantitative genetic research in indicating that mathematical ability and disability are influenced by many genes generating small effects across the entire spectrum of ability, implying that more highly powered studies will be needed to detect and replicate these QTL associations.

show abstract

Mathematical Ability of 10-Year-Old Boys and Girls

Cited by 60 publications

References 22 publications

Genetic Covariation Between the Author Recognition Test and Reading and Verbal Abilities: What Can We Learn from the Analysis of High Performance?

Genetic Covariation Between the Author Recognition Test and Reading and Verbal Abilities: What Can We Learn from the Analysis of High Performance?

Heritability, family, school and academic achievement in adolescence

A genome‐wide association study identifies multiple loci associated with mathematics ability and disability

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About