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The heritability of memory in the Western Reserve Twin Project

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Abstract

The heritability of memory ability was examined using 137 monozygotic and 127 samesex dizygotic twin pairs from the Western Reserve Twin Project. Memory was assessed by eight measures drawn from the following batteries: the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, the Colorado Test of Specific Cognitive Abilities, and the Cognitive Abilities Test. The results indicate that phenotypic correlations are generally low across these memory measures and heritability varies as a function of memory measure. These findings suggest that the heritability of memory varies as a function of the memory measure employed. Therefore, future studies investigating heritability estimates of memory should use a multimeasure battery to study this construct.

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Thapar, A., Petrill, S.A. & Thompson, L.A. The heritability of memory in the Western Reserve Twin Project. Behav Genet 24, 155–160 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067819

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