Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Genetic determinism as related to gifted topics

Please feel free to use this thread as an open discussion of the genetic component of ability as related to gifted education. As with the "quirky anecdote", "brag", and "you know you're parenting a gifted child when..." threads, please feel free to include ad hoc comments on the topic here.

Any conversation about genetic determinism has to, IMO, be prefaced with the understanding that, as the science of the human genome is essentially in its infancy, it can't be tinkered with due to ethical concerns, and the current methods of investigation are prone to causation fallacies at this stage, it has to be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. It wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to say that in some ways we're looking at the 21st century version of phrenology.

Dude, I could not agree more.

I think it would be a good idea to create a set of guidelines for the responsible use of new tests for genetics and traits.

So for example, this would include

• Testing the technology to make sure it's generally safe under a given set of conditions
• In the case of things like DNA tests for [insert trait], recognizing that results from early tests will be more likely to be of lower quality. So initial results should be interpreted with extreme caution and should not used for making decisions.
• All results of new tests should be supported with very strong evidence from older and better-understood methods.
• Testers should use a variety of analysis methods on data from new tests. In particular, a p-value is not enough. That last phrase describes my philosophy WRT science experiments.

All good input so far.

Furthermore, to piggyback on Val’s last bullet point, I’d add that such tests should show a high level of test-retest reliability; be sufficiently generalizable outside the calibration sample so as to produce reproducible results; be tested and recalibrated in large, long-lived panel samples that are representative of the general population and; where possible, be examined in twin studies against a vector of descriptive variables to control somewhat for confounding environmental factors.

Case in point: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/...g-but-it-might-not-be-smart-to-take-one/

Nothing genetic is entirely pre-ordained. The egg left to get cold doesn’t hatch...