Abstract
Thirty-four pairs of Swedish fraternal twins separated in the first 10 years of life were administered 12 tests of cognitive abilities. The average age of the twins was 59 years. Nineteen pairs were separeted before the first year of life and 26 pairs (76%) were separated by the age of 5 years. Moderate positive twin correlations were found for all tests, reaching significance for Raven's Progressive Matrices and Word Beginnings and Endings. A twin correlation of 0.52 emerged for the first principal component (a measure of general ability). Moderate correlations were found for Spatial Ability and for Verbal Ability/Perceptual Speed factors; for the Memory factor the correlation was lower. The effect of early environment on cognitive ability was assessed by analyzing the association between a degree of separation index and twin resemblance. The importance of the separation measures taken individually was also examined. Some significant effects were found, but these were consistently in a counterintuitive direction: Twins separated earlier weremore similar than those separated later.
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This research was supported in part by National Institute on Aging Grant AG-01592.
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Pedersen, N.L., McClearn, G.E., Plomin, R. et al. Separated fraternal twins: Resemblance for cognitive abilities. Behav Genet 15, 407–419 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01070898
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01070898