Genes influence young children's human figure drawings and their association with intelligence a decade later

• Autores: Rosalind Arden, Maciej Trzaskowski, Victoria Garfield, Robert Plomin
• Localización: Psychological Science, ISSN-e 1467-9280, Vol. 25, Nº. 10, 2014, págs. 1843-1850
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Drawing is ancient; it is the only childhood cognitive behavior for which there is any direct evidence from the Upper Paleolithic. Do genes influence individual differences in this species-typical behavior, and is drawing related to intelligence (g) in modern children? We report on the first genetically informative study of children�s figure drawing. In a study of 7,752 pairs of twins, we found that genetic differences exert a greater influence on children�s figure drawing at age 4 than do between-family environmental differences. Figure drawing was as heritable as g at age 4 (heritability of .29 for both). Drawing scores at age 4 correlated significantly with g at age 4 (r = .33, p < .001, n = 14,050) and with g at age 14 (r = .20, p < .001, n = 4,622). The genetic correlation between drawing at age 4 and g at age 14 was .52, 95% confidence interval = [.31, .75]. Individual differences in this widespread behavior have an important genetic component and a significant genetic link with g.