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Science 19 March 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5409, pp. 1832 - 1834
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5409.1832
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News Focus

NEUROPSYCHOLOGY:
Nurture Helps Mold Able Minds

Ingrid Wickelgren

Researchers have found that intelligence quotients (IQs) can be modified, especially early in life, depending on such factors as how parents talk to their infants, the availability and quality of infant and toddler day-care programs, and the amount of schooling a person receives. Although not everyone agrees that IQ is so easily tweaked, even some who contend that IQ is determined by genes are enthusiastic about the attempts to tease out environmental influences on IQ. Much still remains to be learned about the nature and extent of these influences. But what researchers have found so far already has important implications: The work supports the idea that racial differences in IQ are not genetically determined, and it implies that well-designed day-care programs might lower the risk of cognitive impairment and school failure in the 23% of American children who spend at least part of their childhood in poverty.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Balinese Mothers' Developmental Timetables for Young Children.
P. D. Williams, S. jiningsih, and A. R. Williams (2000)
West J Nurs Res 22, 717-735
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The use of genetic information and public accountability.
B. K. Zimmerman (1999)
Public Understanding of Science 8, 223-240
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)