Genes, 'G,' and Jensen

Reviews the book, Environment, Heredity, and Intelligence by Arthur R. Jensen (see record 1969-35003-000). This book contains Jensen's original article from Vol. 59 of the Harvard Educational Review, Part I. The original article covered a very wide range of evidence and argument, though there was not a great deal that was new; it was mainly a resynthesis and reinterpretation of already published research. Jensen specifically denies any opposition between heredity and environment, stating that every phenotype implies the influence of both factors. Thus even if one accepts developmental theories such as Hunt's, it is still legitimate to analyze the variance contributions to a phenotype which is the endresult of interactive processes. The chief remaining point in Jensen's thesis is his claim that the 'g' measured by intelligence tests is the major ability needed for conceptual learning (denoted as Level II), but that other abilities (denoted as Level I) are involved in associative or rote learning. And since lower-class or negro children are not handicapped in such learning, their education should be modified so as to suit their ability patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)