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Individual differences in the learning potential of human

To the best of our knowledge, the genetic foundations that guide human brain development have not changed fundamentally
during the past 50,000 years. However, because of their cognitive potential, humans have changed the world tremendously in the
past centuries. They have invented technical devices, institutions that regulate cooperation and competition, and symbol systems,
such as script and mathematics, that serve as reasoning tools. The exceptional learning ability of humans allows newborns to adapt
to the world they are born into; however, there are tremendous individual differences in learning ability among humans that
become obvious in school at the latest. Cognitive psychology has developed models of memory and information processing that
attempt to explain how humans learn (general perspective), while the variation among individuals (differential perspective) has
been the focus of psychometric intelligence research. Although both lines of research have been proceeding independently, they
increasingly converge, as both investigate the concepts of working memory and knowledge construction. This review begins with
presenting state-of-the-art research on human information processing and its potential in academic learning. Then, a brief overview
of the history of psychometric intelligence research is combined with presenting recent work on the role of intelligence in modern
societies and on the nature-nurture debate. Finally, promising approaches to integrating the general and differential perspective
will be discussed in the conclusion of this review.
npj Science of Learning (2017)2:2 ; doi:10.1038/s41539-016-0003-0

HUMAN LEARNING AND INFORMATION PROCESSING However, there is more to human learning than conditioning,
In psychology textbooks, learning is commonly understood as the which to the best of our knowledge, makes us different from other
long-term change in mental representations and behavior as a species. All living beings must learn how to obtain access to food
result of experience.1 As shown by the four criteria, learning is in their environment, but only human beings cook and have
more than just a temporary use of information or a singular invented numerous ways to store and conserve their food. While
adaption to a particular situation. Rather, learning is associated many animals run faster than humans and are better climbers, the
construction and use of vehicles or ladders is unique to humans.
with changes in mental representations that can manifest
There is occasional evidence of tool use among non-human
themselves in behavioral changes. Mental and behavioral changes
species passed on to the next generation,3,4 but this does not
that result from learning must be differentiated from changes that compare to the tools humans have developed that have helped
originate from internal processes, such as maturation or illness. them to change the world. The transition from using stonewedges
Learning rather occurs as an interaction with the environment and for hunting to inventing wheels, cars, and iPhones within a time
is initiated to adapt personal needs to the external world. period of a few thousand years is a testament to the unique
From an evolutionary perspective,2 living beings are born into a mental flexibility of human beings given that, to the best of our
world in which they are continuously expected to accomplish knowledge, the genes that guide human brain development have
tasks (e.g., getting food, avoiding threats, mating) to survive as not undergone remarkable changes during the last 50,000 years.5
individuals and as species. The brains of all types of living beings This means that as a species, humans are genetically adapted to
are equipped with instincts that facilitate coping with the accomplish requirements of the world as it existed at approxi-
demands of the environment to which their species has been mately 48,000 BC. What is so special about human information
adapted. However, because environments are variable, brains processing? Answers to this question are usually related to the
have to be flexible enough to optimize their adaptation by unique resource of consciousness and symbolic reasoning abilities
building new associations between various stimuli or between that are, first and foremost, practiced in language. Working from
stimuli and responses. In the case of classical conditioning, one here, a remarkable number of insights on human cognition have
stimulus signals the occurrence of another stimulus and thereby been compiled in the past decades, which now allow for a more
allows for the anticipation of a positive or negative consequence. comprehensive view of human learning.
In the case of operant conditioning, behavior is modified by its
consequence. Human beings constantly react and adapt to their Human learning from a general cognitive perspective
environment by learning through conditioning, frequently Learning manifests itself in knowledge representations processed
unconsciously.1 in memory. The encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

1
ETH Zürich, Clausiusstrasse 59, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Correspondence: Elsbeth Stern ([email protected])

Received: 2 May 2016 Revised: 8 November 2016 Accepted: 16 November 2016

Published in partnership with The University of Queensland

Working
Information
from the Sensory memory
environment memory

storing
Core
knowledge
as precondition
for privileged
learning

Longterm memory
- Modality specific representations
- Stimulus-response-associations

- Abstract knowledge
• Procedural knowledge
Cognitive Processes • Deklarativ knowledge (facts, concepts)
remember
understand
Observable apply
behavior analyze
evaluate
create

Fig. 1 A model of human information processing, developed together with Dr. Lennart Schalk

have been modeled in the multi-store model of human memory the degree of inhibitory control. In case of intentional learning,
depicted in Fig. 1.6 Sensory memory is the earliest stage of working memory guards more against irrelevant information than
processing the large amount of continuously incoming informa- in the case of mind wandering. Less inhibitory control makes
tion from sight, hearing, and other senses. To allow unplanned and unintended learning possible (i.e., incidental
goal-directed behavior and selective attention, only a fractional learning).
amount of this information passes into the working memory, These working memory activities are permanently changing the
which is responsible for temporarily maintaining and manipulat- knowledge represented in long-term memory by adding new
ing information during cognitive activity.7,8 Working memory nodes and by altering the associative strength between them.
allows for the control of attention and thereby enables goal- The different formats knowledge can be represented in are listed
directed and conscious information processing. It is the gate- in Fig. 1; some of them are more closely related to sensory input
keeper to long-term memory, which is assumed to have an and others to abstract symbolic representations. In cognitive
unlimited capacity. Here, information acquired through experi- psychology, learning is associated with modifications of knowl-
ence and learning can be stored in different modalities as well as edge representations that allow for better use of available working
in symbol systems (e.g., language, script, mathematical notation memory resources. Procedural knowledge (knowing how) enables
systems, pictorials, music prints). actions and is based on a production-rule system. As a
The multi-store model of human information processing is not a consequence of repeated practice, the associations between
one-way street, and long-term memory is not to be considered a these production rules are strengthened and will eventually result
storage room or a hard-disk where information remains unaltered in a coordinated series of actions that can activate each other
once it has been deposited. A more appropriate model of long- automatically with a minimum or no amount of working memory
term memory is a self-organizing network, in which verbal terms, resources. This learning process not only allows for carrying out
images, or procedures are represented as interlinked nodes the tasks that the procedural knowledge is tailored to perform
with varying associative strength.9 Working memory regulates more efficiently, but also frees working memory resources that can
the interaction between incoming information from sensory be used for processing additional information in parallel.10–12
memory and knowledge activated from long-term memory. Very Meaningful learning requires the construction of declarative
strong incoming stimuli (e.g., a loud noise or a harsh light), which knowledge (knowing that), which is represented in symbol
may signal danger, can interrupt working memory activities. For systems (language, script, mathematical, or visual-spatial repre-
the most part, however, working memory filters out irrelevant and sentations). Learning leads to the regrouping of declarative
distracting information to ensure that the necessary goals will be knowledge, for instance by chunking multiple unrelated pieces
achieved undisturbed. This means that working memory is of knowledge into a few meaningful units. Reproducing the orally
continuously selecting incoming information, aligning it with presented number series “91119893101990” is beyond working
knowledge retrieved from long-term memory, and preparing memory capacity, unless one detects two important dates of
responses to accomplishing requirements demanded by the German history: the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall: 9 November
environment or self-set goals. Inappropriate and unsuitable 1989 and the day of reunification: 3 October 1990. Individuals who
information intruding from sensory as well as from long-term have stored both dates and can retrieve them from long-term
memory has to be inhibited, while appropriate and suitable memory are able to chunk 14 single units into two units, thereby
information from both sources has to be updated.8 The strength freeing working memory resources. Memory artists, who can
with which a person pursues a particular goal has an impact on reproduce dozens of orally presented numbers have built a very

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 Differences in the learning potential of human beings
E Stern
3
complex knowledge base that allows for the chunking of development and in teacher training programs to support the
incoming information.13 alignment of content-specific learning goals, means of classroom
Learning also manifests itself in the extension of declarative practice, and assessment. The taxonomy acknowledges the
knowledge using concept formation and inferential reasoning. distinction between procedural and conceptual knowledge and
Connecting the three concepts of “animal, produce, milk” forms a includes six cognitive processes (listed in Fig. 1) that describe how
basic concept of cow. Often, concepts are hierarchically related knowledge can be transformed into observable achievement.
with superordinate (e.g., animal) and subordinate (e.g., cow,
wombat) ordering. This provides the basis for creating meaningful How core knowledge innate to humans can meet with academic
knowledge by deductive reasoning. If the only thing a person learning
knows about a wombat is that it is an animal, she can nonetheless
What makes humans efficient learners, however, goes beyond
infer that it needs food and oxygen. Depending on individual
learning histories, conceptual representations can contain great general memory functions discussed so far. Similar to other living
variations. A farmer’s or a veterinarian’s concept of a cow is beings, humans do not enter the world as empty slates2 but are
connected to many more concepts than “animal, produce, milk” equipped with so-called core knowledge (Fig. 1). Evidence for core
and is integrated into a broader network of animals. In most knowledge comes from preferential looking experiments with
farmers’ long-term memory, “cow” might be strongly connected infants who are first habituated to a particular stimulus or
to “pig”, while veterinarians should have particularly strong links scenario. Then, the infant is shown a second scenario that differs
to other ruminants. A person’s conceptual network decisively from the first in a specific manner. If the time he or she looks at
determines the selection and representation of incoming informa- this stimulus exceeds the looking-time at the end of the
tion, and it determines the profile of expertise. For many academic habituation phase of the first stimulus, this suggests that the
fields, first and foremost in the STEM area (Science, Technology, infant can discriminate between the stimuli. This paradigm helps
Engineering, Mathematics), it has been demonstrated that experts to determine whether infants detect violations of principles that
and novices who use the same words may have entirely different underlie the physical world, such as the solidity of objects, where
representations of their meaning. This has been convincingly an object cannot occupy the same space as another object.25,26
demonstrated for physics and particularly in the area of Core knowledge, which allows privileged learning and behavioral
mechanics.14 Children can be considered universal novices;15 functioning with little effort, also guides the unique human ability
therefore, their everyday concepts are predominantly based on of symbolic communication and reasoning, first and foremost,
characteristic features while educated adults usually consider langue learning.27,28 It is uncontested that humans are born with
defining features,16–18 as the example of “island” demonstrates. capacities for language learning, which includes the awareness of
For younger children, it primarily refers to a warm place where one phonological, grammatical, and social aspects of language.4,29,30
can spend ones’ holidays. In contrast, adults’ concept of island Core knowledge can serve as a starting point for the acquisition
does refer to a tract of land that is completely surrounded by of content knowledge that has emerged as a result of cultural
water but not large enough to be considered a continent. development. This has been examined in detail for numerical and
The shift from characteristic to defining features is termed mathematical reasoning. Two core systems have been detected in
“conceptual change”,16 and promoting this kind of learning is a infants. As early as at 6 months of age, infants show an ability for
major challenge for school education. Students’ understanding of the approximate representations of numerical magnitude, which
central concepts in an academic subject can undergo funda- allow them to discriminate two magnitudes depending on their
mental changes (e.g., the concept of weight in physics). Younger ratio.31 At the same age, the system of precise representations of
elementary school children often agree that a pile of rice has distinct individuals allows infants to keep track of changes in small
weight, but they may also deny that an individual grain of rice has sets of up to three elements.32 Mathematical competencies
weight at all. This apparently implausible answer is under- emerge as a result of combining both core systems and linking
standable given that younger children consider the concepts of them to number words provided by the respective culture.33 The
“weight” and “being heavy” as equivalent. As such, children tend Arabic place value number system, which is now common in most
to agree that a grain of rice has weight if it is put on an ant’s parts of the world, was only developed a few 100 years ago. Only
back.16 As a consequence of their education, students usually after the number “0” had made its way from India via the Arabic
understand that an object’s weight is determined with the countries to Europe were the preconditions for developing our
assistance of scales and not necessarily by personal sensation. decimal system available.34 The Arabic number system opened up
However, representing weight as the property of an object is still the pathway to academic mathematics. Cultural transformations
not compatible with scientific physics in the Newtonian sense by based on invented symbol systems were the key to advanced
which weight is conceptualized as a relation between objects. mathematics. Today’s children are expected to understand
Understanding weight in this sense requires an interrelated concepts within a few years of schooling that took mankind
network of knowledge, including the concepts of force, gravity, centennials to develop. Central content areas in mathematics
and mass (among others). curricula of high schools, such as calculus, were only developed
As a result of classroom instruction, students are expected to less than three centuries ago.35 Given the differences between the
acquire procedural and conceptual knowledge of the subjects Arabic and the Roman number systems, children born 2000 years
they were taught. While procedures emerge as a function of ago could not make use of their numerical core knowledge in the
repetition and practice, the acquisition of advanced concepts, same way today’s children can.
which are consistent with state of the art science, is less Core knowledge about navigation is meant to guide the
straightforward.14,19 To support this kind of conceptual learning, acquisition of geometry, an area involved in numerous academic
insights from cognitive learning research have been integrated fields.36,37 The cornerstone of cultural development was the
into educational research and are increasingly informing class- invention of writing, in which language is expressed by letters or
room practice. Several instructional methods have been devel- other marks. Script is a rather recent cultural invention, going back
oped and evaluated that support students in restructuring and approximately 5,000 years, whereas the human genome emerged
refining their knowledge and thereby promote appropriate approximately 50,000 years ago.38 Clearly, unlike oral language,
conceptual understanding, including self-explanations,20 contrast- humans are not directly prepared for writing and reading.
ing cases,21,22 and metacognitive questions.23 Cognitive research Nonetheless, today, most 6-year-old children become literate
has also informed the development of the “taxonomy of learning during their 1st years of schooling without experiencing major
objects”.24 This instrument is widely employed for curriculum obstacles. Human beings are endowed with the many skills that

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 Differences in the learning potential of human beings
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contribute to the ability to write and read, such as, first and In the UK, the educational psychologist Cyril Burt promoted the
foremost, language as well as auditory and visual perception and use of intelligence tests for assigning students to the higher
drawing. These initially independent working resources were academic school tracks.47 Charles Spearman from the University
coopted when script was invented, and teaching children to write College London was among the first to focus on the correlations
and read at school predominantly means supporting the between test items based on verbal, numerical, or visual-spatial
development of associations among these resources.39 content.48 The substantial correlations he found provided
Part of the core knowledge innate to humans has also been evidence for a general intelligence model (factor-g), which has
found in animals, for instance numerical knowledge and been confirmed in the following decades by numerous studies
geometry, but to the best of our knowledge, no other animals performed throughout the world.49
have invented mathematics.40 Only humans have been able to use The high psychometric quality of the intelligence tests
core knowledge for developing higher order cognition, which constructed in different parts of the world by scientists in the
serves as a precondition for culture, technology, and civilization. early decades of the twentieth century have influenced research
Additionally, the unique function of human working memory is ever since. In 1923, Edward Boring, a leading experimental
the precondition for the integration of initially independent psychologist concluded, “Intelligence is what the tests test. This
representational systems. However, the full potential of working is a narrow definition, but it is the only point of departure for a
memory is not in place at birth, but rather matures during rigorous discussion of the tests. It would be better if the
childhood and undergoes changes until puberty.41 Children under psychologists could have used some other and more technical
the age of two are unable to switch goals42 and memorize symbol term, since the ordinary connotation of intelligence is much
representations appropriately.43 broader. The damage is done, however, and no harm need result if
To summarize what has been discussed so far, there are two we but remember that measurable intelligence is simply what the
sources for the exceptional learning capacity of humans. The first tests of intelligence test, until further scientific observation allows
is the function of working memory as a general-purpose resource us to extend the definition.”(ref. 50, p. 37). More than 70 years
that allows for holding several mental representations simulta- later, psychologists widely agreed on a definition for intelligence
neously for further manipulation. The second is the ancient corpus originally offered by Linda Gottfredsonin 1997: “Intelligence is a
of the modularized core knowledge of space, quantities, and the very general mental capability that, among other things, involves
physical and social world. Working memory allows for the the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly,
connection of this knowledge to language, numerals, and other comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from
symbol systems, which provides the basis for reasoning and the experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic
acquisition of knowledge in academic domains, if appropriate skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper
learning opportunities are provided. Both resources are innate to capability for comprehending our surroundings—‘catching on,’
human beings, but they are also sources of individual differences, ‘making sense’ of things, or ‘figuring out’ what to do” (ref. 51,
as will be discussed in the following sections. p. 13). This definition is in line with the substantial correlations
between intelligence test scores and academic success,52 whereas
correlations with measures of outside-school success, such as
LEARNING POTENTIALS ARE NOT ALIKE AMONG HUMANS: income or professional status, are lower but still significant.53,54
THE DIFFERENTIAL PERSPECTIVE Numerous longitudinal studies have revealed that IQ is a fairly
In the early twentieth century, a pragmatic need for predicting the stable measure across the lifespan, which has been most
learning potential of individuals initiated the development of convincingly demonstrated in the Lothian Birth Cohorts run in
standardized tests. The Frenchman Alfred Binet, who held a Scotland. Two groups of people born in 1921 and 1936 took a test
degree in law, constructed problems designed to determine of mental ability at school when they were 11 years old. The
whether children who did not meet certain school requirements correlation with IQ tests taken more than 60 years later was highly
suffered from mental retardation or from behavioral distur- significant and approached r = .70 (ref. 55). The same data set also
bances.44 He asked questions that still resemble items in today’s demonstrated a substantial long-term impact of intelligence on
intelligence tests; children had to repeat simple sentences and various factors of life success, among them career aspects, health,
series of digits forwards and backwards as well as define words and longevity.56
such as “house” or “money”. They were asked in what respect a fly, Intelligence tests scores have proven to be objective, reliable,
an ant, a butterfly and a flea are alike, and they had to reproduce and valid measures for predicting learning outcome and more
drawings from memory. William Stern, an early professor of general life success. At the same time, the numerous data sets on
psychology at the newly founded University of Hamburg/ intelligence tests that were created all over the world also
Germany, intended to quantify individual differences in intelli- contributed to a better understanding of the underlying structure
gence during childhood and adolescence by developing the first of cognitive abilities. Although a factor g could be extracted in
formula for the intelligence quotient (IQ):45 IQ = Mental age/ almost all data sets, correlations between subtests varied
chronological age*100. Mental age refers to the average test score considerably, suggesting individual differences beyond general
for a particular age group; this means that a 6-year-old child would cognitive capabilities. Modality factors (verbal, numerical, or visual
have an IQ = 133 if their test score was equivalent to the mean spatial) have been observed, showing increased correlations
score achieved in the group of 8-year-olds. From adolescence on, between tests based on the same modality, but requiring different
however, the average mental age scores increasingly converge, mental operations. On the other hand, increased correlations were
and because of the linear increase in chronological age, the IQ also observed between tests based on different modalities, but
would decline—a trend that obviously does not match reality. similar mental operations (e.g., either memorizing or reasoning).
Psychologists from the United States, specifically headed by the The hierarchical structure of intelligence, with factor g on the top
Harvard and later Yale professor Robert Yerkes, decided to look at and specific factors beneath, was quite obvious from the very
a person’s score relative to other people of the same age group. beginning of running statistical analyses with intelligence items.
The average test score was assigned to an IQ = 100 by convention, Nonetheless, it appeared a major challenge for intelligence
and an individual’s actual score is compared to this value in terms researchers to agree on a taxonomy of abilities on the second
of a standard deviation, an approach that has been retained to and subsequent levels. In 1993, John Carroll published his
this day. World War I pushed the development of non-verbal synthesis of hundreds of published data sets on the structure of
intelligence tests, which were used to select young male intelligence after decades of research.57 In his suggested three-
immigrants with poor English language skills for military service.46 stratum model, factor g is the top layer, with the middle layer

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encompassing broader abilities such as comprehension knowl- The environment regulates gene expression, which means that
edge, reasoning, quantitative knowledge, reading and writing, and instead of “nature vs. nurture”, a more accurate phrase is “nature
visual and auditory processing. Eighty narrower abilities, such as via nurture”.63 The complex interaction between genes and
spatial scanning, oral production fluency, and sound discrimina- environment can also explain the fact that heritability of
tion, are located in the bottom layer. To date, Carroll’s work is intelligence increases during the lifespan.61 This well-established
considered the most comprehensive view of the structure of finding is a result of societies in which a broad variety of cognitive
individual variations in cognitive abilities.58 However, the inter- activities available in professional and private life enable adults
pretation of factor g is still under discussion among scientists. more than children to actively select special environments that fit
Factor g could be a comprehensive characteristic of the brain that their genes. People who have found their niche can perfect their
makes information processing generally more or less efficient competencies by deliberate learning.
(top-down-approach). Existing data sets, however, are also In the first decades of developing intelligence tests, researchers
compatible with a model of intelligence according to which the were naive to the validity of non-verbal intelligence; so-called
human brain is comprised of a large number of single abilities that culture-free or culture-fair tests, based on visual-spatial material
have to be sampled for mental work (bottom-up approach). In this such as mirror images, mazes or series and matrices of geometric
case, factor g can be considered a statistical correlate that is an figures, were supposed to be suitable for studying people of
emerging synergy of narrow abilities.59 different social and cultural levels.64 This is now considered
incorrect because in the meantime, there has been overwhelming
evidence for the impact of schooling on the development of
Genetic sources of individual differences in intelligence intelligence and the establishment and stabilization of individual
From studies with identical and fraternal twins, we know that differences. Approximately 10 years of institutionalized education
genetic differences can explain a considerable amount of variance is necessary for the intelligence of individuals to approach its
in IQ. The correlation between test scores of identical twins raised maximum potential.65–67
together approaches r = .80 and thereby is almost equal to the Altogether, twin and adoption studies suggest that 50–80% of
reliability coefficient of the respective test. On the other hand, IQ- IQ variation is due to genetic differences.61 This relatively large
correlations between raised-together same-sex fraternal twins are range in the percentage across different studies is due to the
rarely higher than .50, a value also found for regular siblings. Given heritability of intelligence in the population studied, specifically,
that the shared environment for regular siblings is lower than for the large reaction norm of the genes giving rise to the
fraternal twins, this result qualifies the impact of environmental development of intelligence. Generally, the amount of variance
factors on intelligence. The amount of genetic variance is judged in intelligence test scores explained by genes is higher the more
in statistical analyses based on the difference between the intra- society members have access to school education, health care,
pair correlations for identical and fraternal twins.60 High rates of and sufficient nutrition. There is strong evidence for a decrease in
heritability, however, do not mean that we can gauge a person’s the heritability of intelligence for children from families with lower
cognitive capabilities from his or her DNA. The search for the socioeconomic status (SES). For example, lower SES fraternal twins
genes responsible for the expression of cognitive capabilities has resembled each other more than higher SES ones, indicating a
not yet had much success, despite the money and effort invested stronger impact of shared environment under the former
in human genome projects. It is entirely plausible that intelligence condition.68 In other words, because of the less stimulating
is formed by a very large number of genes, each with a small environment in lower SES families, the expression of genes
effect, spread out across the entire genome. Moreover, these involved in the development of intelligence is likely to be
genes seem to interact in very complicated ways with each other hampered. Although it may be counterintuitive at first, this
as well as with environmental cues.61 suggests that a high heritability rate of intelligence in a society is
An entirely false but nonetheless still widespread misunder- an indicator of economic and educational equity. Additionally, this
standing is to equate “genetic sources” with “inevitability” because means that countries that ensure access to nutrition, health care,
people fail to recognize the existence of reaction norms, a concept and high quality education independent of social background
invented in 1909 by the German biologist, Richard Woltereck. enable their members to develop their intelligence according to
Reaction norms depict the range of phenotypes a genotype can their genetic potential. This was confirmed by a meta-analysis on
produce depending on the environment.62 For some few interactions between SES and heritability rate. While studies run in
physiological individual characteristics (e.g., the color of eyes) the United States showed a positive correlation between SES and
the reaction norm is quite narrow, which means gene expression heritability rate, studies from Western Europe countries and
will rarely be affected by varying environments. Other physiolo- Australia with a higher degree of economic and social equality did
gical characteristics, such as height, have a high degree of not.69,70
heritability and a large reaction norm. Whether an individual
reaches the height made possible by the genome depends on the
nutrition during childhood and adolescence. In a wealthy country COGNITIVE PROCESSES BEHIND INTELLIGENCE TEST SCORES:
with uniform access to food, average height will be larger than in HOW INDIVIDUALS DIFFER IN INFORMATION PROCESSING
a poor country with many malnourished inhabitants. However, In the first part of this paper, cognitive processes were discussed
within both countries, people vary in height. The heritability in the that, in principle, enable human beings to develop the academic
wealthy country can be expected to approach 100% because competencies that are particularly advantageous in our world
everybody enjoyed sufficient nutrition. In contrast, in the poor today. In the second part, intelligence test scores were shown to
country, some were sufficiently nourished and, therefore, reached be valid indicators of academic and professional success, and
the height expressed by their genome, while others were differences in IQ were shown to have sound genetic sources. Over
malnourished and, therefore, remained smaller than their genes many decades, research on cognitive processes and psychometric
would have allowed under more favorable conditions. For height, intelligence has been developing largely independently of one
the reaction norm is quite large because gene expression depends another, but in the meantime, they have converged. Tests that
on nutrition during childhood and adolescence. This explains the were developed to provide evidence for the different components
well-documented tendency for people who have grown up in of human cognition revealed large individual differences and were
developed countries to become progressively taller in the past substantially correlated with intelligence tests. Tests of memory
decades. function were correlated with tests of factor g. Sensory memory

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