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Emil O. W. Kirkegaard

Bio: Emil O. W. Kirkegaard is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Population & Intelligence quotient. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 94 publications receiving 550 citations.

Papers published on a yearly basis

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bibliometric keyword analysis of articles published in the journal, Intelligence (2000–2016) revealed several keywords that increased (or decreased) in frequency over 17 years and how bibliometric keywords analysis can detect research trends in the field, both now and in the past.
Abstract: An article's keywords are distinct because they represent what authors feel are the most important words in their papers. Combined, they can even shed light on which research topics in a field are popular (or less so). Here we conducted bibliometric keyword analyses of articles published in the journal, Intelligence (2000-2016). The article set comprised 916 keyword-containing papers. First, we analyzed frequencies to determine which keywords were most/least popular. Second, we analyzed Web of Science (WOS) citation counts for the articles listing each keyword and we ran regression analyses to examine the effect of keyword categories on citation counts. Third, we looked at how citation counts varied across time. For the frequency analysis, "g factor", "psychometrics/statistics", and "education" emerged as the keywords with the highest counts. Conversely, the WOS citation analysis showed that papers with the keywords "spatial ability", "factor analysis", and "executive function" had the highest mean citation values. We offer tentative explanations for the discrepant results across frequencies and citations. The analysis across time revealed several keywords that increased (or decreased) in frequency over 17 years. We end by discussing how bibliometric keyword analysis can detect research trends in the field, both now and in the past.

56 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that differences in cognitive ability are passed on along lineages and that they explain some of the global variation in socioeconomic outcomes and are dubbed the racial-cognitive ability-socioeconomic (R~CA-S) hypothesis.
Abstract: We conducted novel analyses regarding the association between continental racial ancestry, cognitive ability and socioeconomic outcomes across 6 datasets: states of Mexico, states of the United States, states of Brazil, departments of Colombia, sovereign nations and all units together. We find that European ancestry is consistently and usually strongly positively correlated with cognitive ability and socioeconomic outcomes (mean r for cognitive ability = .708; for socioeconomic well-being = .643) (Sections 3-8). In most cases, including another ancestry component, in addition to European ancestry, did not increase predictive power (Section 9). At the national level, the association between European ancestry and outcomes was robust to controls for natural-environmental factors (Section 10). This was not always the case at the regional level (Section 18). It was found that genetic distance did not have predictive power independent of European ancestry (Section 10). Automatic modeling using best subset selection and lasso regression agreed in most cases that European ancestry was a non-redundant predictor (Section 11). Results were robust across 4 different ways of weighting the analyses (Section 12). It was found that the effect of European ancestry on socioeconomic outcomes was mostly mediated by cognitive ability (Section 13). We failed to find evidence of international colorism or culturalism (i.e., neither skin reflectance nor self-reported race/ethnicity showed incremental predictive ability once genomic ancestry had been taken into account) (Section 14). The association between European ancestry and cognitive outcomes was robust across a number of alternative measures of cognitive ability (Section 15). It was found that the general socioeconomic factor was not structurally different in the American sample as compared to the worldwide sample, thus justifying the use of that measure. Using Jensen's method of correlated vectors, it was found that the association between European ancestry and socioeconomic outcomes was stronger on more S factor loaded outcomes, r = .75 (Section 16). There was some evidence that tourist expenditure helped explain the relatively high socioeconomic performance of Caribbean states (Section 17).

35 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a meta-analysis of the correlation between Headstart gains on the subtests of IQ batteries and the g loadings of these same subtests was conducted, and a metaanalytic sample-weighed correlation of −.51 was found, which became −.80 after corrections for measurement error.

34 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
08 Sep 2014
TL;DR: In this article, a large sample of country-level indexes was gathered and a strong general socioeconomic factor (S factor) was found to be highly correlated with national cognitive ability using either Lynn and Vanhanen's dataset or Altinok's.
Abstract: Many studies have examined the correlations between national IQs and various country-level indexes of well-being. The analyses have been unsystematic and not gathered in one single analysis or dataset. In this paper I gather a large sample of country-level indexes and show that there is a strong general socioeconomic factor (S factor) which is highly correlated (.86-.87) with national cognitive ability using either Lynn and Vanhanen's dataset or Altinok's. Furthermore, the method of correlated vectors shows that the correlations between variable loadings on the S factor and cognitive measurements are .99 in both datasets using both cognitive measurements, indicating that it is the S factor that drives the relationship with national cognitive measurements, not the remaining variance.

30 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
09 Oct 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present new predictive analyses for crime, income, educational attainment and employment among immigrant groups in Norway and crime in Finland and show that the Norwegian data contains a strong general socioeconomic factor (S) which is highly predictable from country-level variables (National IQ.59, Islam prevalence -.71, international general socioeconomic factors.72, GDP.55).
Abstract: I present new predictive analyses for crime, income, educational attainment and employment among immigrant groups in Norway and crime in Finland. Furthermore I show that the Norwegian data contains a strong general socioeconomic factor (S) which is highly predictable from country-level variables (National IQ .59, Islam prevalence -.71, international general socioeconomic factor .72, GDP .55), and correlates highly (.78) with the analogous factor among immigrant groups in Denmark. Analyses of the prediction vectors show very high correlations (generally > :9) between predictors which means that the same variables are relatively well or weakly predicted no matter which predictor is used. Using the method of correlated vectors shows that it is the underlying S factor that drives the associations between predictors and socioeconomic traits, not the remaining variance (all correlations near unity).

29 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A survey of factor analytic studies of human cognitive abilities can be found in this paper, with a focus on the role of factor analysis in human cognitive ability evaluation and cognition. But this survey is limited.
Abstract: (1998). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor analytic studies. Gifted and Talented International: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 97-98.

2,388 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: Definition: To what extent does the study allow us to draw conclusions about a causal effect between two or more constructs?
Abstract: Definition: To what extent does the study allow us to draw conclusions about a causal effect between two or more constructs? Issues: Selection, maturation, history, mortality, testing, regression towrd the mean, selection by maturation, treatment by mortality, treatment by testing, measured treatment variables Increase: Eliminate the threats, above all do experimental manipulations, random assignment, and counterbalancing.

2,006 citations

01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that hundreds of genetic variants, in at least 180 loci, influence adult height, a highly heritable and classic polygenic trait, revealing patterns with important implications for genetic studies of common human diseases and traits.
Abstract: Most common human traits and diseases have a polygenic pattern of inheritance: DNA sequence variants at many genetic loci influence the phenotype. Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have identified more than 600 variants associated with human traits, but these typically explain small fractions of phenotypic variation, raising questions about the use of further studies. Here, using 183,727 individuals, we show that hundreds of genetic variants, in at least 180 loci, influence adult height, a highly heritable and classic polygenic trait. The large number of loci reveals patterns with important implications for genetic studies of common human diseases and traits. First, the 180 loci are not random, but instead are enriched for genes that are connected in biological pathways (P = 0.016) and that underlie skeletal growth defects (P < 0.001). Second, the likely causal gene is often located near the most strongly associated variant: in 13 of 21 loci containing a known skeletal growth gene, that gene was closest to the associated variant. Third, at least 19 loci have multiple independently associated variants, suggesting that allelic heterogeneity is a frequent feature of polygenic traits, that comprehensive explorations of already-discovered loci should discover additional variants and that an appreciable fraction of associated loci may have been identified. Fourth, associated variants are enriched for likely functional effects on genes, being over-represented among variants that alter amino-acid structure of proteins and expression levels of nearby genes. Our data explain approximately 10% of the phenotypic variation in height, and we estimate that unidentified common variants of similar effect sizes would increase this figure to approximately 16% of phenotypic variation (approximately 20% of heritable variation). Although additional approaches are needed to dissect the genetic architecture of polygenic human traits fully, our findings indicate that GWA studies can identify large numbers of loci that implicate biologically relevant genes and pathways.

1,751 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: Pinker as mentioned in this paper argues that there are six historical trends which could have led to a decline in violence in the world: the Pacification process, the Humanitarian Revolution, the Civilizing Process, the Long Peace, etiquette and social norms began to be important in social interactions, economics and technology began to advance, and governments began to become more centralized.
Abstract: THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE: WHY VIOLENCE HAS DECLINED. Steven Pinker, Penguin, New York, NY 2011. ISBN 978-0-670-02295-3.There's been a shooting in a Sikh Temple this morning. A lone gunman entered a Colorado theater and opened fire. Syrians are now engaged in civil war. Faced with daily news stories of death and destruction, it is easy to believe that things are getting worse. Not so, explains Harvard psychologist, Steven Pinker in his new work, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined.Pinker combines in-depth historical research with rigorous psychological research to argue the case for a decline in global violence. As Pinker aptly points out, many people look at our age as one of unprecedented violence and terror to be viewed with pessimism. Drawing on historical analysis, psychological research and findings from related sciences such as anthropology, sociology, and economics Pinker argues that the data paint a very different picture. In the first chapter, Pinker takes the reader on a quick journey through the history of the world pointing out that the ancient and medieval worlds were very different than the world we live in today. Numerous prehistoric skeletons bear evidence of very violent deaths. Ancient people destroyed entire tribes. Romans carried out violent executions. Medieval Knights led lies of violence and other Europeans meted out horrendous punishments for acts which might not even be judged worthy of condemnation in today's democracies. Finally, the early 20th century saw two World Wars before the long peace ensued. In light of that history, Pinker argues that perhaps we should reconsider our assumptions about our own world.In the first section of the book, Pinker identifies six historical trends which could have led to declines in violence. The first trend he calls the Pacification Process by which people gave up nomadic hunting and gathering lives for lives of agriculture in cities. Competition and anarchy in the prehistoric world made violence necessary for survival. The development of agriculture called for greater cooperation between individuals and the formation of governments to impose order created a world where violence was not always in one's best interest. Statistical analysis supports the idea that the emergence of states lead to a decline in violence. The second trend, the Civilizing Process, is an idea he developed from the work of Norbert Elias. In the late medieval and early modern periods, etiquette and social norms began to be important in social interactions, economics and technology began to advance, and governments began to become more centralized. This trend was also accompanied by a decline in violence. The third trend is the Humanitarian Revolution during which people began to increasingly find practices, such as torture, capital punishment, war and slavery, morally questionable. Empathy, compassion, and peace became important characteristics. The fourth trend is the Long Peace, which stems from the realization that since World War II no two major world powers have gone to war and, in spite of predictions to the contrary, nuclear weapons have never been used. …

814 citations