About half of kids' learning ability is in their DNA, study says
Students who excel at math also excel at reading thanks to "generalist genes,"
scientists say.
Julia Rosen
LA Times
July 11, 2014
You
may think you’re better at reading than you are at math (or vice
versa), but new research suggests you’re probably equally good (or bad)
at both. The reason: The genes that determine a person’s ability to
tackle one subject influence their aptitude at the other, accounting for
about half of a person’s overall ability.
The study,
published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, used nearly
1,500 pairs of 12-year-old twins to tease apart the effects of genetic
inheritance and environmental variables on math and reading ability.
Twin studies provide a clever way of assessing the balance of nature
versus nurture.