The role of genes in human intelligence has been the subject of several research papers. Genes, not environment, are important in determining intelligence quotient of chimpanzees, Georgia State University researchers find. Or " Genes More Important than Environment in Determining Intelligence in Chimpanzees", Nature World News (with this cute picture): Nature, not nurture, may play the bigger role in the innate intelligence of individual chimpanzees, a new study finds. Or Rober Preidt, " Like Humans, Chimps' Smarts May Rely on Genes", US News and World Report : Scientists have long pondered the basis of human intelligence, based on IQ tests and studies of identical twins brought up apart, but a new study has found that the "cognitive ability" of primates is dependent on inheritance rather than their environment. The level of intelligence in chimpanzees, just like in humans, varies from one individual to another, and the differences in their intellect are attributed to the genes they inherit from their parents, according to a new study.Īnd a second article from the same publication - Lydia Smith, " Nature Over Nurture: Chimpanzees' Intelligence Comes from Genes not Upbringing", International Business Times :Ĭhimpanzees' intelligence is down to genes rather than upbringing, which suggests that nature rather than nurture governs smart behaviour in our closest living cousins. Thus Kukil Bora, " Chimpanzees’ Intelligence Hugely Dependent On Genes They Inherit From Parents", International Business Times : Other media coverage pushes the Nature-Over-Nurture meme even harder. The genetic relationships of components 2 (11.7 of test-score variance) and 4 (8.2% of test-score variance) were not statistically significant. Thus about a third of the variance in a PCA component accounting for about a tenth of the variance in test results was accounted for by genetic variation. In other words, about half of the variance in a PCA component accounting for about a quarter of the variance in test results was accounted for by genetic variation.Ĭomponent 3 (10.8% of test variance) was also significantly heritable, with h 2 = 0.335. The symbol h 2 is used to denote "narrow-sense heritability", which is the ratio between the variance due to average effects of alleles, and the phenotypic variance as a whole: Thus Component 1 (23.6% of test variance) was significantly heritable - h 2 = 0.538. They then used " Sequential Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines" (background here) to estimate the heritability of the PCA components: The authors gave 99 chimps 13 tasks from the Primate Cognition Test Battery, and used principal components analysis to select four components which collectively accounted for 54.2% of the variance in test battery scores: If we read the research report under discussion– William Hopkins et al., " Chimpanzee Intelligence Is Heritable", Current Biology I - we find the estimated genetic role diminishing somewhat further. “We found that some but not all cognitive traits were significantly heritable in chimpanzees,” the researchers said in their scientific paper. The performance of each ape was measured on a series of standardised cognitive tests for primates and the researchers concluded that about half of the variation in this ability is down to genetic factors – about the same or a little less than humans – and half down to non-genetic influences. The study involved behavioural tests on 99 captive chimps aged between 9 and 54 years. Researchers have argued for many decades over the genetic basis of human intelligence – based on IQ tests and studies of identical twins reared apart – but now a study has found that a chimpanzee’s “cognitive ability” is mostly governed by its genes rather than its environmental background.Īnd later in the same article, it becomes "about half of the variation in this ability is down to genetic factors": The next sentence backs off from "down to genes rather than upbringing" to "mostly governed by its genes rather than its environmental background": Scientists have found that being a smart primate is down to genes rather than upbringing, suggesting that nature rather than nurture governs intelligent behaviour in our closest living relatives. The vexed question of whether intelligence is inherited from birth or acquired through education seems to have been answered – for chimpanzees at least. Steve Connor, " Nature rather than nurture governs intelligent behaviour in primates, scientists discover", The Independent :
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