title: Genetics and general cognitive ability (g).
abstract: Two recent articles in this journal made the case for the existence and importance of g and reviewed research on cognitive and psychophysical correlates of psychometric g. This review considers g from a genetic perspective. Multivariate genetic research indicates that g accounts for nearly all of the genetic variance of diverse psychometric cognitive tests (genetic g). Recent research suggests not only that elementary cognitive tasks are genetically linked to psychometric g but also that genetic g pervades these tasks. Contrary to the assumption of modularity that dominates cognitive science, genetic g exists in the mind as well as in psychometric tests.
authors.affiliation: Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, Denmark Hill, SE5 8AF, London, UK
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Plomin
authors.forename: Frank M.
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Spinath