In 1997, I argued that with the loss of Piaget's theory as an overarching guide, cognitive development had become disjointed and a new metatheory was needed to unify the field. I suggested developmental biology, particularly evolutionary theory, as a candidate. Here, I examine the increasing emphasis of biology in cognitive development research…

Mobile phones and other wireless devices that produce electromagnetic fields (EMF) and pulsed radiofrequency radiation (RFR) are widely documented to cause potentially harmful health impacts that can be detrimental to young people. New epigenetic studies are profiled in this review to account for some neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral changes…

Early life events can exert a powerful influence on both the pattern of brain architecture and behavioral development. In this study a conceptual framework is provided for considering how the structure of early experience gets "under the skin." The study begins with a description of the genetic framework that lays the foundation for brain…

Describes a mixed longitudinal analysis of 1,356 twins, (three to 15-years-old) their siblings, and cousins, who underwent a battery of physical and behavioral tests. The covariance structure analysis method in biometrical genetics was employed to specify determinants of the structure of cognitive abilities, to indicate how these change during…

Results obtained from 44 children (ages 7 through 16) with sex chromosome abnormalities and from 17 chromosomally normal siblings demonstrated that children in the former group have an increased risk of encountering learning problems. (MP)

Analyzed genetic and environmental contributions to intellectual change in 258 adopted and 93 biological children of 3-14 years. The effect of genes and family environment was significant at the time of the first measurement, but only genes made an additional contribution between the first and the second. (RJC)

Assessments of temperament, emotion, cognition, and language acquisition were obtained for 200 pairs of 14-month-old twins. Comparisons between the assessment correlations for identical and fraternal twins indicated an influence of genetics on inhibition, activity, temperament, empathy, negative emotion, spatial memory, categorization skills, and…

Investigated genetic change and continuity within the domains of temperament, emotion, and cognition and language for 200 pairs of twins assessed at 14 and 20 months of age. Correlations of measures at the two ages indicated that individual differences in the second year of life showed greater change than continuity on most measures. (MDM)

Describes evolutionary developmental psychology as the study of the genetic and ecological mechanisms that govern the development of social and cognitive competencies common to all human beings and the epigenetic (gene-environment interactions) processes that adapt these competencies to local conditions. Outlines basic assumptions and domains of…

A path model of genetic and shared family environmental transmission was fitted to general cognitive ability data from 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old adopted and nonadopted children and their parents to assess the etiology of longitudinal stability from infancy to early childhood. (HOD)

Four studies examined the claim that preschoolers understood biological inheritance. Found that it was not until age seven that children demonstrated that they understood birth as part of a process selectively mediating the acquisition of physical traits and learning or nurturance as mediating the acquisition of beliefs. (MDM)

Key components of human behavioral genetics and Sandra Scarr's work of the past two decades are critically reviewed based on scholarship in animal neuropsychology and clinical and educational psychology. Scarr's opinion that interventions to enhance intellectual development are ineffectual for children from abuse- and neglect-free backgrounds is…