Recent behavioral genetic studies reveal some unintended twists as to how researchers now view the input of heredity and environment on the development of intelligence and personality. The prenatal environment is considered to be more important than what was originally believed while genetics may play an especially prominent role in adult life. The specifies of how environmental variables determine behavior still remain a greater mystery to behavior geneticists than the influence of genetics. Although a degree of consensus exists over the basics, scholars remain divided over a few unresolved crucial areas. The concept of general mental ability, identified as simply 'g' by the eminent British psychologist Charles Spearman, has returned to the forefront of contemporary research.
Reaction time is a speed measurement for an elementary task.
Seligman devotes a chapter to the bizarre twist in the Cyril Burt controversy. Burt, an eminent British psychologist who died in 1971, was accused of faking twin data that bolstered the hereditarian view of intelligence. Several damaging allegations that were publicized in a biography of Burt convinced many of Burt' s misconduct. However, most of what was thought to be an open and shut case went up in smoke with the findings of two painstakingly thorough studies. Both authors strip away the charges of fraud by showing that the allegations against Butt were highly tenuous.