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Here is a twenty page paper that I wrote in graduate school. I haven't found a use for it. It didn't get me a job and was never published. Maybe someone else will find a use for it on Quora. I wanted to become a teacher to help gifted children, since I was ignored as a child and had to learn on my own. I was a bad teacher, and my students didn't listen. Right now, since I failed as a teacher, I'm primarily trying to help students by developing a new keyboard that will allow them to type more quickly and access information on the internet more quickly.Vocabulary AcquisitionMy research revolved around methods to accelerate vocabulary development for persons of all ages. Specifically, I examined strategic word intervention and cross-discipline word integration. The results of my findings should be utilized to enhance vocabulary development, both as expeditiously and efficiently as possible. Greater vocabulary knowledge is the first stage necessary for proficiency with advanced speed reading techniques.In the United States, the SAT might be the single most important examination that anyone must take. There is no other test as critical as to determining futures, opportunities, and careers as the SAT. Failure to perform well on the SAT severely limits access to higher education; and consequently, the options and opportunities necessary to be successful. I hypothesize that proper SAT preparation does not begin in high school, or even middle school; but, rather, at the early stages of human development. My hypothesis is supported by Tom Parker, director of admissions at Williams College. He is also quoted in the book “Words, Words, Words, Teaching Vocabulary in Grades Four Through Twelve,” (The title comes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet) by Janet Allen. Tom Parker states the following: “I have never met a kid with high scores on the verbal section of the SAT who wasn’t a passionate reader” (p. 670). Vocabulary mastery leads to greater reading comprehension, which can then facilitate higher scores on the verbal section of the SAT. People who continue to pursue vocabulary development after the SAT, after college, and after graduate school, also continue to enjoy benefits. Individuals who did not fair well on the verbal section of the SAT, and who have not chosen a career path that requires a high degree of verbal fluency, will still benefit greatly from implementing these vocabulary development techniques. My research indicates that it is never too late.Effective vocabulary development helps foster reading fluency. It is one of the most effective ways of increasing reading proficiency. Although not everyone has the opportunity for higher education, I firmly believe that anyone is capable of becoming an independent word learner. They may achieve a firm command of the English language, on their own, by utilizing the techniques that I have researched. With some effort, everyone can develop effective oral and written communication skills. This will give them confidence, make them better public speakers, and assist them in achieving their own personal goals in life.Literature ReviewBrief History and Background of Vocabulary DevelopmentTraditional vocabulary acquisition techniques have recently received a high degree of scrutiny from researchers. For a long time, vocabulary was not taught separately from other subject areas, relying on a discovery method of independent learning, or relying on techniques that current research would label as not maximally effective.Some examples of ineffective ways to learn vocabulary include the following: interrupting reading to look up words in the dictionary, making lists of unknown vocabulary words in an attempt to integrate those words into writing, or assigning a list of unknown words and quizzing oneself on a weekly basis (Allen, 1999; Faulkner, 2010). These tired old methods then gave way to the idea of vocabulary books with specific vocabulary exercises and assessments. Janet Allen, an associate professor at the University of Central Florida and author of “Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12,” claims that exercises found in the aforementioned books did not “improve speaking, reading, or writing any more than looking words up in a dictionary” (Allen, 1999). A person’s first exposure to a new word should not be a dictionary definition (Marzano, 2004).The traditional strategies used for vocabulary development fall short of success for several reasons. One reason is that traditional strategies do not take into account the diverse array of learning styles that exist (Faulkner, 2010). The process of looking up words in a dictionary does not actively engage people in learning, and by assigning oneself weekly quizzes, one is merely practicing the act of memorization, temporary storage of word meanings in short-term memory, and a very superficial understanding of vocabulary words within a limited context. It is also a very common practice for individuals who are trying to expand their vocabulary to create a list of esoteric words that have very little pragmatic value; they are either archaic, or have very little utility within the confines of real conversations that take place between persons in real life or written compositions at the work place. In a sense, many people tend to study words that have little to no practical value; therefore, these words become difficult to truly master (Faulkner, 2010). A limited vocabulary limits thinking and communication skills since a robust vocabulary forms the foundation for these skills (Savino, 2011). The most severe consequence of ineffective vocabulary development is the fact that people who have a limited vocabulary run the risk of not becoming truly proficient at reading (Sobolak, 2009). For these reasons, traditional methods of word mastery limit potential and are ineffectual (Faulkner, 2010).Why One Should Increase Their Knowledge of VocabularyVocabulary knowledge is positively correlated to the following: reading comprehension, complexity of thought, both oral and written expression, and achievement (Savino, 2011; Allen, 1999). Research indicates that direct vocabulary instruction, or self-instruction, is far more effective than learning from context, or incidental learning (Marzano, 2004; Smith, 1997). It, therefore, follows that it is imperative that all educators set aside time for direct vocabulary instruction. One of the most compelling arguments for direct vocabulary instruction comes from Vygotsky, a psychologist and educational theorist. He believed that the main factor that determines thought development is language (Vygotsky, 1986).When asked about how to describe word knowledge, the layperson may report that an individual either has knowledge of a word or does not. Research indicates that there are varying degrees, or gradations, of word knowledge. Far more important than whether a word is “known” or “unknown” is something referred to as “depth of word knowledge” (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995).The lowest level of word knowledge can be identified as “verbal association knowledge” or “the perceptual level” (Allen, 1999; Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995; Savino, 2011). At this level, a person may be able to use a word in a single isolated context and link that word to a single definition only. It is also reliant upon short-term memory (Savino, 2011). Given the complexity of the English Language, which has quite diverse origins, and the numerous amount of words with a multiplicity of meaning, this type of knowledge is insufficient, but may serve as a good starting point to build upon by activating prior knowledge. An example of a word that may fall into this category might be “erudite”; most people may have encountered this word in speech or text once or twice, but may not fully understand its meaning.Research indicates that the mid-tier level of word knowledge in vocabulary development can be referred to as “partial concept knowledge” or “the contextual level” (Allen, 1999; Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995; Savino, 2011). In this stage, a person may be able to use a word only in a limited number of ways or contexts. The individual may know and be able to use some of a word’s multiple meanings, but not all. The person can associate attributes and functions of the vocabulary word, but lacks consistency (Savino, 2011). Difficulty may arise when one attempts to discriminate the meaning of the target word from words of similar meanings or phonological construction (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995).The ultimate level of word knowledge and goal of all vocabulary acquisition is called “full concept knowledge” or “the schematic level” (Allen, 1999; Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 19995; Savino, 2011). When a person possesses this type of mastery of a word, he or she can fully comprehend this word, differentiate it from other words of similar construction, and can use the word in new ways (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). This type of word knowledge is associated with the use of long-term memory (Savino, 2011). For this reason and at this level of mastery, individuals are able to access and use a word at will, accurately and fully, throughout the course of their entire lives. The learning is permanent, rather than transient.InterventionsThe primary goal of a successful intervention should be to foster independent word learners (Allen, 1999; Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). Students should be voracious readers, critical thinkers, and self-sufficient word learners. People who are capable of meta-cognitive thinking strategies are better able to infer the meaning of a word from context, or are resourceful enough to enhance their vocabulary on their own using various methods. This would include making use of technology to discover word meanings, or using knowledge of word roots and origins to get a better understanding of the meaning of a specific word.In the early stages of human development, people learn approximately 3,000 words per year (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). This statistic is nothing short of miraculous, even for someone who does not believe in miracles. It is almost impossible to provide direct instruction to every human being with respect to vocabulary development. Therefore, it is imperative that vocabulary interventions provide people with new thinking strategies that encourage independence, in the advanced stages and developmental stages, so that people may become competent at teaching themselves vocabulary.The most important mechanism for vocabulary growth and development is, almost indisputably, reading (Allen, 1999; Savino, 2011; Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). It is absolutely essential to practice good reading habits. This habit will invariably lead to becoming an independent word learner.To fully understand how adults acquire knowledge of new words, one must first understand the mind of a child. When most students enter the school system at the kindergarten and first grade levels, they know approximately 2,500 to 5,000 words (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). Shakespeare used approximately 31,000 words. If an educator were to set the ambitious goal of producing the next Shakespeare, there would be a difficult road ahead, especially if the student came from a low socioeconomic background. Students who live in poverty know, on average, about 6,000 fewer words than their middle-class equivalents at the start of schooling (Sobolak, 2009). Of these words, most are acquired through speech, are high-frequency, and serve utilitarian purposes (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). The vast majority of words taught in the early stages of learning are complex, academic, and usually content area specific (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). It then follows that for most of the words learned at this level, young people have no previous exposure and are very unlikely to encounter any of these words in their daily interactions with others via speech.As an example, a word such as “mean” assumes a completely different “meaning” in the context of mathematics, or even in vocabulary instruction itself, than it does when students use that same word to denote that a peer is being unfriendly; which would be the most common utilization of the word and the most likely level of verbal association knowledge for a person at that stage of education.Effective Methods for Learning VocabularyOne technique that helps develop a deeper understanding of words is semantic mapping. This involves presenting the concept word, visually, to a person and then having them connect that word to other words that are similar, using a category system (Savino, 2011; Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995; Smith, 1997). Often, a category can be defined by a shared property of all the vocabulary words, such as “emotions” or “actions.” The strength of this strategy is that it helps people move beyond the verbal association stage of word mastery by building on prior knowledge. Research indicates that building on prior experiences and connecting new words to background knowledge increases the chances of retention of the target words (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995; Faulkner, 2010; Savino, 2011; Marzano, 2004). Priming background knowledge refers to having people draw on their personal experiences to understand new vocabulary words (Marzano, 2004; Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). It is an effective technique that is universally used in all forms of vocabulary acquisition. People develop new neural networks which connect the new words to words that they already have a deeper level of understanding. This allows for more rapid retrieval of the new target words and makes them more accessible by creating a web-like structure of association in the brain.Another highly successful technique for vocabulary development is called “strategic intervention.” This technique is exceptionally useful for young people, but no human being ever stops learning (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). To use this method, one must introduce a small number of new words each day (usually two to three) and then attempt to use these words throughout the day in typical workplace routines, conversations, and interactions (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995; Faulkner, 2010; Savino, 2011). The advantage of this technique is that it exposes people to new words in an informal, oral context. One of the most effective instructional tools that can be used to teach vocabulary is the use of new words in casual conversation (Marzano, 2004). Conversation can be used to covertly and creatively give an individual the required multiple exposures to new words. The learning, then, occurs naturally, as opposed to being forced in a formal academic setting. After an individual has had a decent amount of exposure to the new words using this technique, the teacher may decide to spontaneously assess the students (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). This can be done in a transitional stage of the day, perhaps casually, in an environment devoid of stress, such as lunch. Incentives could be provided for the students to quiz each other. Classical conditioning is a proven technique in the field of psychology that tends to yield excellent results; however, it may be optimal to reward positive behavior and ignore negative actions, not punishing behavior that is less than desirable.As opposed to the traditional method of introducing a long list of words for vocabulary acquisition each week, learners may be better served concentrating on fewer words per week (Faulkner, 2010). By increasing the intensity of the study and focusing on fewer words, and not memorizing a long list, word learners will be more likely to gain full concept knowledge, which should be the ultimate goal of all forms of vocabulary acquisition (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995).Partial concept knowledge, or verbal association knowledge, of many words should be deemed inferior to full concept knowledge of fewer words. This is due to the fact that with partial concept knowledge, an individual can only use a word in a limited amount of contexts, while full concept knowledge entails a true understanding of a word’s meaning (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). The maxim, “less is more,” holds true if words can be successfully cemented into a person’s long-term memory, and a person, then, gains full utility out of every new vocabulary word that they learn. It also accommodates the full spectrum of learning styles, because each individual is able to synthesize the unknown with the known at his or her own pace.More evidence that suggests that this method is superior is the fact that it takes around 10 to 40 exposures to a new word for a person to attain the highest level of understanding of the target word (Savino, 2011; Marzano, 2004). With a long list of many words each week, the above amount of exposures just might not be possible given the time constraints of daily life. The aforementioned exposures include both oral and written.People need to be actively using new vocabulary words in many different contexts in order to acquire full concept mastery of the new words; the experience must be rich, interactive, and multi-faceted (Savino, 2011; Faulkner, 2010; Sobolak, 2009; Smith, 1997). When one is an active participant in vocabulary development, studies show that more vocabulary words are retained (Sobolak, 2009; Smith, 1997). Research also indicates that some of the most effective ways to do this are the following: reading or composing a story with the target words, keeping a vocabulary notebook, illustrating the words, practicing word play, completing cloze style fill-in-the-blank quizzes, studying palindromes (Madam I’m Adam), experimenting with word roots, inventing new words, acting out the words (as Shakespeare did), or creating songs, raps, or poems using the target words (Faulkner, 2010; Savino, 2011; Smith, 1997).Playing with words, or using wordplay, has been proven to develop metacognitive thinking abilities, in addition to increasing vocabulary (Savino, 2011). Metacognition, or the ability to think about thinking, is a tool that is universally useful for everyone. By using a variety of techniques, as opposed to just one method, one can stimulate an interest in vocabulary development by keeping methodology fresh and varied.Building Independent Vocabulary GrowthTaking into consideration that an average person in the early stages of development learns approximately 3,000 new words each year, and that by the eighth grade he or she is expected to know around 25,000 words, direct vocabulary instruction for all of those words is obviously an impossibility (Savino, 2011). Instructors are, therefore, forced to stimulate an active interest in words and prompt students to become successful independent word learners. With different numbers involved, the same holds true for adults, but they are their own teachers.One of the most effective forms of building independent vocabulary growth is creating many learning opportunities by using cross-disciplinary strategic integration of words (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). Every academic discipline has its own jargon. Having people hear the same word used in a new way, increases the depth of word understanding.Almost all research on the subject indicates that independent reading is the best way to increase vocabulary and create independent word learners (Allen, 1999; Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995; Savino, 2011). The total amount of time spent reading is the best predictor of vocabulary growth (Allen, 1999). The best method to avoid myopia while reading is to take breaks. One should take a break every ten minutes or so and look around the room. Failure to do so could result in permanent damage to eyesight. While reading, one may invariably encounter new words and become forced to understand the meaning of these new words by deciphering the meaning from the context. It then follows that independent reading fosters the growth of contextual analysis skills (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995). People who hone these skills will acquire vocabulary knowledge at a more rapid rate than those who do not practice independent reading habits.On the other hand, people who read regularly on their own still may encounter problems with contextual analysis. Research shows that the chances of a person successfully deriving meaning from context could be as low as 15% (Savino, 2011). Understanding the meaning of a word based on its context can be either an easy or difficult task (Allen, 1999). Sentences that provide a “rich” amount of information about a new vocabulary word are said to contain many clues as to the meaning of the word, while sentences that contain a “lean” amount of information about a new word require greater contextual analysis skills, because there may not be sufficient information provided in the sentence to accurately decipher the meaning of a word (Baker, Simmons, and Kameenui, 1995).The author of “Word Smart: Building an Educated Vocabulary” writes, “Despite all the talk about ‘scholastic aptitude’ and ‘reasoning ability,’ the verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is primarily a vocabulary test. If you don’t know the words on the test, you won’t earn a good score. It’s as simple as that” (p. 234). The consequences of not getting a good score on the SAT are severely limited college placement. In particular, dyslexic individuals are at a severe disadvantage with respect to college admission.By the time a middle school student reaches the high school level, it is already too late; all of the sudden they are told that they must take a life altering test that will determine their entire future. Unless blessed with exceptional intelligence, high school is a time in life too late for proper preparation. Lack of effective vocabulary instruction, combined with ineffective memorization techniques, in an environment that involves juggling high school course work, a social life, athletics, and extra-curricular activities, is a formula for failure.Without proper guidance and a contrary opinion, most people will continue to use methods for vocabulary acquisition that seem obvious, but are ineffective. This only perpetuates a vicious cycle of weak verbal association knowledge, understanding words in a single isolated context, a shallow understanding that is reliant on short-term memory, at best.When the SAT test more accurately mirrored an IQ test, the assessment used to test knowledge of high frequency words, these same words also appeared in college text books. The idea behind this was that people who already possessed knowledge of words that would be used as tools to acquire further knowledge, and more advanced understanding of highly complex topics, had a statistically higher likelihood of being successful in academic pursuits. This has since changed—the test has changed—because it is unjust to citizens who were raised in poverty and did not have access adequate education. A correlation between low socio-economic class (and many other factors) and low performance on college admissions test was recognized.Most people who choose to pursue vocabulary see it as a means to an end, a necessary and painful pulling of teeth. Many people struggle to understand words in a single isolated context, which contributes to a shallow understanding of high frequency words that appear in top-tier academic publications. The study technique known colloquially as “cramming,” or mass memorization at the last minute, yields unfavorable results; poor verbal association knowledge that is reliant on short-term memory.A great place to start for a prospective student of vocabulary, for the reasons stated above, would be an older book that focuses on older SAT words. Students and non-students need to know these words not just to do well in higher education but also to do well in life. The preparation process for both of the aforementioned things should begin as early as possible, but it is never too late and could be pursued later in life.The conclusions of my research strongly support learning “college level words” first. No one word is more difficult to learn than another. All words are the same, in that they are just symbols that represent a concept or many different concepts: they are signs with a signifier and signified.Some words, however, are used more often than others and their usage is in constant flux. Vocabulary is acquired through repeated exposure to target words and the active use of those words. The words in the book, “Word Smart: Building an Educated Vocabulary,” would serve as a great starting point, because these are high frequency words that appear in standardized tests, news articles, and literary fiction. Word learners should actively try to integrate these words into their everyday speech, in both formal and informal settings, and in as many different contexts as possible. This would obviously entail mistakes in usage in both the context of domestic and professional life. Contrary to the intuition of most people, making mistakes is a positive thing. While many people are “afraid” of misusing a word because it causes embarrassment, it is precisely this “fear” that prevents and limits depth of word understanding. I theorize that, due to evolutionary reasons, a person who incorrectly uses a word, and is subsequently corrected, will be less likely to repeat the same error in the future, will be more likely to integrate the new vocabulary word into long term memory, and will be better off in terms of their vocabulary development than someone who is afraid to take risks. The optimal learning strategy is therefore collaborative, and requires a letting go of the ego. The fear of mispronouncing a new word or making an error with respect to its usage could be ameliorated by using a simple method—telling the truth. One could inform others, “I am trying to increase my vocabulary and depth of word understanding by occasionally using words that I am not 100% comfortable using. I will be doing this by trying to integrate new words into my daily conversations, emails, text messages, and other activities that require word knowledge. If I make a mistake in usage or pronunciation, I would greatly appreciate a correction. This will facilitate my vocabulary acquisition. Thank you for your understanding.”As learning is expedited by linking new information to background knowledge, one should try to associate new words with pictures, scenes, or narrations of past experiences. Making a connection between a new word and a vivid memory from one’s past strengthens the connections between neurons in the brain which, in turn, trains the brain to accept this new word as meaningful, useful, and biologically beneficial. Through repeatedly making the mental connection between the vivid memory when opportunities present themselves to use the new word, the brain begins to permanently store the multiple definitions in long-term memory.It may be the case that when a word is used in a sentence in a dictionary to illustrate meaning in context, that sentence reflects an association, or connection, between an experience in the brain of the author of the dictionary and the target word. This connection may not exist in the mind of a person who looks up a new word in the dictionary, and is, therefore, not very useful. People of different ethnicities, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds have very different memories and experiences than authors of dictionaries. Even worse, many dictionaries sometimes use the word being defined in the definition.The word “happy” is not much different from the word “elated”; they are similar feelings, but one word describes a greater degree of intensity. Full concept knowledge of “happy” usually occurs for most by the third grade, while the “more advanced” of the two words might not be encountered until high school, and it only has one extra letter. Knowledge of “elated” could translate to a higher score on a standardized test. Full concept knowledge of the word “happy” is a prerequisite to understanding “elated,” but once this knowledge is acquired, it is no more or less difficult to master.When going through the process of prioritizing new words to learn, one must first start with those that have high use value. To reiterate what I have already stated, these are high frequency words that appear in major news publications, academic articles, and literary fiction. The argument is fairly simple: without adequate knowledge of vocabulary as defined above, a citizen will struggle to comprehend news articles, advancements in the academic world, and great literature. A citizen who has an educated vocabulary is better equipped to benefit themselves and also society. Solving the problem of illiteracy is the first step, but it is only the beginning. My methodology is a pragmatic approach to vocabulary acquisition.Recommended Course of Action for the ReaderMy recommendation is a high impact vocabulary intervention. One should select three words per week to master. The goal should be full concept knowledge of all three words at the conclusion of each week by means of 40 exposures to each word in multiple different contexts including speech and writing. These numbers serve as a good starting point, but they could be increased or decreased based on the rate that an individual is capable of processing and acquiring new information. This philosophy builds on the concept of “less is more” from Jen Faulkner’s journal article, “Reducing Vocabulary to Increase Vocabulary.”The first words to be learned using this system should be taken from the “SAT Hit Parade” section of the book “Word Smart: Building and Educated Vocabulary.” All public copies of past SAT tests were scanned through a computer and the most common words that appeared on the exams were then compiled into the “SAT Hit Parade” list found in the book (Robinson, 1993). One should select a cluster of three words that are somehow related, in order to facilitate semantic mapping. This makes relating new words to background knowledge more intuitive. People are capable of storing more information in short-term memory using a technique called chunking. Words should be grouped together and similar words should be learned at the same time. As an example, one week’s theme could be “words that express emotion.” Words that express feelings should be woven into natural conversation. A citizenry that possesses high verbal intelligence will be a less violent society, because there will be less miscommunications and misunderstandings.Sample Passages and Implications for Vocabulary AcquisitionFrom Shakespeare’s Hamlet—Ghost:I am thy father’s spirit,Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,Till the foul crimes done in my days of natureAre burnt and purg’d away. But that I am forbidTo tell the secrets of my prison-house,I could a tale unfold whose lightest wordWould harrow up they soul, freeze thy young blood,Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,Thy knotted and combined locks to part,And each particular hair to stand an end,Like quills upon the fearful porpentine,But this eternal blazon must not beTo ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!If thou didst ever thy dear father love—Ghost:I find thee apt,And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weedThat roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,Wouldst thou not sitr in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:‘Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,A serpent stung me, so the whole ear of DenmarkIs by a forged process of my deathRankly abus’d; but know, thou noble youth,The serpent that did sting thy father’s lifeNow wears his crown.Hamlet:O my prophetic soul! My uncle?Ghost:Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts—O wicked wit and gifts that have the powerSo to seduce!—won to his shameful lustThe will of my most seeming virtuous queen.O Hamlet, what [a] falling-off was thereFrom me, whose love was of that dignityThat it went hand in hand even with the vowI made to her in marriage, and to declineUpon a wretch whose natural gifts were poorTo those of mine!But virtue, as it never wilol be moved,Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,So [lust], though to a radiant angel link’d,Will [sate] itself in a celestial bedAnd prey on garbage.But soft, methinks I scent the morning air,Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,My custom always of the afternoon,Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,With juice of cursed hebona in a vial,And in the porches of my ears did pourThe leprous distilment, whose effectHold such an enmity with blood of manThat swift as a quicksilver it courses throughThe natural gates and alleys of the body,And with a sudden vigor it doth [posset]And curd, like eager droppings into milk,The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine,And a most instant tetter bark’d about,Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crustAll my smooth body.Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s handOf life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch’d,Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,Unhous’led, disappointed, unanel’d,No reck’ning made, but sent to my accountWith all my imperfections on my head.O, horrible, O, horrible, most horrible!If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not,Let not the royal bed of Denmark beA couch for luxury and damned incest.But howsomever thou pursues this act,Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contriveAgainst thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven,And to those thorns that in her bosom lodgeTo prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,And gins to pale his uneffectual fire.Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.Hamlet:O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?And shall I couple hell? O fie, hold, hold, my heart,And you, my sinows, grow not instant old,But bear me [stiffly] up. Remember thee!Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory hold a seatIn this distracted globe. Remember thee!Yea, from the table of my memoryI’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,All saws of books, all forms, all pressures pastThat youth and observation copied there,And thy commandement all alone shall liveWithin the book and volume of my brain,Unmix’d with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!O most pernicious woman!O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!My tables—meet it is I set it downThat one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.ReferencesAllen, Janet. (1999). Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12. York, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.Baker, S. K., D. C. Simmons, and E. J. Kameenui. 1995a. Vocabulary Acquisition: Curricular and Instructional Implications for Diverse Learners. Technical Report No. 13. University of Oregon: National Center to Improve the Tools for Educators.Faulkner, Julie. (2010). Reducing Vocabulary to Increase Vocabulary: Student-Centered Vocabulary Instruction for Writing that Makes a Difference. English Journal, 113-116.Marzano, R.J. (2004). Building background knowledge for academic achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.Nietzsche, Friedrich. Hollingdale Translation. (1973). Beyond Good and Evil. New York, NY: Penguin Group.Robinson, Adam. (1993). Word Smart: Building an Educated Vocabulary. New York, New York: The Princeton Review.Robinson, Adam. (2012). Word Smart: How to Build a More Educated Vocabulary, 5th Edition. New York, New York: Random House, Inc.Savino, J.A. (2011), The Shakespeare in All of Us: A Monumental, Multitudinous, Premeditated Approach to Vocabulary Instruction. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 54: 445-453. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.54.6.6Smith, C. B. (1997). Vocabulary Instruction and Reading Comprehension. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading English and Communication.Sobolak, Michelle J. (2009) Effects of Amount of Vocabulary Instruction for Low-Socioeconomic Students. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.OMG! You actually read my paper? Thanks! My professor just slapped an “A+” on it and put it in my student mailbox.

Q. Do you think some people are just born lucky or is it that lucky people just work or study harder?…. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One: "Master Gotama, what is the reason, what is the cause, why baseness & excellence are seen among human beings, among the human race? For short-lived & long-lived people are to be seen, sickly & healthy, ugly & beautiful, uninfluential & influential, poor & rich, low-born & high-born, stupid & discerning people are to be seen. So what is the reason, what is the cause, why baseness & excellence are seen among human beings, among the human race?" ……….From http://tipitaka.wikia.com/wiki/C...-Child Prodigy in Piano PlayingAll our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits. William James-In psychology research literature, the term child prodigy is defined as person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain to the level of an adult expert performer. Child prodigies are rare, and in some domains there are no child prodigies at all. Prodigiousness in childhood does not always predict adult eminence. (From wikipedia)-Some researchers believe that prodigious talent tends to arise as a result of the innate talent of the child, and the energetic and emotional investment that the child ventures. Others believe that the environment plays the dominant role, many times in obvious ways.-In child prodigy, there were many children talented in piano playing. They were recognized for piano playing ability since very young. Among them, many of them lost interest in piano playing in adulthood. Some of them continued to play in concert and are still famous as gifted piano players in later life. A small portion of them became famous composers in addition to gifted piano playing. What is certain is that those who continue to become musicians are devoting significant amount of time in practicing piano playing besides their in born talent of piano playing. It means they need a lot of practice to maintain the piano playing ability.-If someone is not a piano prodigy and if he is interested in playing piano, he has to do a lot of practice and needs a lot of years to become a professional piano player.-So what is the nature of child prodigy in piano playing? It is not due to inheritance from genetic traits because many of them have no talented piano players in their previous generations. Some said it is due to in-born trait (like just lucky brain development which makes one easy in learning piano playing).-In a book called The power of habit written by Charles Duhigg, there is a chapter about a man called Eugene Pauly who got viral encephalitis and it destroyed part of brain and made him permanent loss of the recent memory. He could remember his past, his previous experiences very well. But he could not remember what happened each and every moment after viral encephalitis. When he met a stranger and he was introduced to that man and made conversation with him for a time, he couldn't remember that particular man when he met again him later that day. He didn't even remember what he did an hour ago. After watching a particular TV program, when someone made him watch that again, he would watch that program as if entirely new to him. So he could not form recent memory and remote memory starting from the time of viral encephalitis.-When he was discharged from hospital, he and his wife moved into a new house with new environment. His doctors warned his wife not to get lose him. His wife took him on a walk outside their home, always together and always along the same route everyday for a period of time. But one day, Eugene went out without his wife and he returned safely later. When he was asked, he didn’t know whether he went out along and how he walked back home without losing his way.(….. It was clear to Squire (The scientist who made research on Eugene) that Eugene was absorbing new information. But where inside his brain was that information residing? How could someone find his way home when he had no idea which house was his? How were new patterns forming inside Eugene’s damaged brain?To test if Eugene was forming new habits, Squire devised an experiment. He took sixteen different objects—bits of plastic and brightly colored pieces of toys—and glued them to cardboard rectangles. He then divided them into eight pairs: choice A and choice B. In each pairing, one piece of cardboard, chosen at random, had a sticker placed on the bottom that read “correct.”Eugene was seated at a table, given a pair of objects, and asked to choose one. Next, he was told to turn over his choice to see if there was a “correct” sticker underneath. This is a common way to measure memory. Since there are only sixteen objects, and they are always presented in the same eight pairings, most people can memorize which item is “correct” after a few rounds.Eugene couldn’t remember any of the “correct” items, no matter how many times he did the test. He repeated the experiment twice a week for months, looking at forty pairings each day.But as the weeks passed, Eugene’s performance improved. After twenty-eight days of training, Eugene was choosing the “correct” object 85 percent of the time. At thirty-six days, he was right 95 percent of the time. After one test, Eugene looked at the researcher, bewildered by his success.“How am I doing this?” he asked her.The experiments demonstrated that Eugene had the ability to form new habits, even when they involved tasks or objects he couldn’t remember for more than a few seconds. This explained how Eugene managed to go for a walk every morning.Excerpt from The power of habit by Charles Duhigg)--Suppose that Eugene is able to remember what he does for one day and forgets on the second day. Suppose he has never used bow and arrow in his whole life. Suppose we train him to shoot a target with bow and arrow everyday. He will wake up everyday and he will feel that he has never practiced shooting a target with bow and arrow previously, his arrow shooting skill will get better and better day by day. And finally one day, he will very surprised to find himself that although he feels that he has never shot and practiced arrow shooting in the past, he can shoot straight into target nearly every time he makes attempts. He will be surprised and satisfied about his in-born skill (so he thought) of arrow shooting.-Just like above example, suppose that we train Eugene to play piano likewise, ..................……………………………………………………….-And finally one day, he will very surprised to find that although he has never learned to play the piano in the past (so he thought), he finds out that he can play the piano very well. He will be surprised and satisfied about his in-born skill (so he thought) of piano playing.-Just like above example, suppose a human being is interested in music and learns to play the piano his/her whole life and he/she can play the piano very well finally. He/She grows old and dies one day. Suppose that philosophy of Theravada Buddhism is true and each and every so-called soul or spirit or mind or consciousness will come into cycles of life unless he/she becomes liberated (reach Nirvana). Suppose that particular he/she comes back to human life. Suppose that although he/she cannot remember previous life, he/she will find out he/she can play piano very well since very young. People will be surprised about his/her in-born skill in piano playing.--Short answer-According to evolution, all the life in earth were arise from simple DNA. First it started as a single cell as an unicellular organism and later evolved into complex multicellular organism. All those organisms are related and evolved by the simple DNA instruction. Charles Darwin was the first to formulate a scientific argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection.-So DNA is the life of organism. No DNA, no life.-In human being, DNA of the child of is given by mother and father. The child's external features (physical characteristics) are built up according to those shared DNA. So scientists figure that the internal characteristics (Personalities, intelligence quotient, Emotional Intelligence, etc) of the child must be also derived from the parents.-When DNA makes a human being, mind spontaneously occur in that human and it permanently disappear when that living being dies.-At first (before DNA was discovered), it was thought individuals are born without built-in mental content (Children are blank slate) and that all of their knowledge comes from experience and perception.-Generations later, people questioned about the blank state theory of mind. When observating the children, they found out that the children had distinct personalities, characters, talent since young. Within same culture, within same environment and even within same big families, some children were introvert, some were extrovert, some were easily angry, some had sence of humor, some learnt easily in studying, some had talents in arts, music, dancing, playing piano, etc, some had talent in different sports since young, majority of children had sense of morality since young (they knew what is good, what is bad without learning from adults).-Some researchers even found out that they could predict which children will be succesful in later life, who would complete university education by doing so simple experiment to the children.-(After DNA was discovered) in human being, DNA of the child of is given by mother and father. The child's external features (physical characteristics) are built up according to those shared DNA. So scientists figure that the internal characteristics (Personalities, intelligence quotient, Emotional Intelligence, etc) of the child must be also derived from the parents.-So it seeemed like that children's success in later life are set by their parents' genes. The parents with good genes determine the fate of their children.-Then it was found that intelligent parents (scientists and engineers) had more autistic children than general population.--Regarding the morality, even children under 2 years old can tell, to an extent, what is good and bad, and often act in an altruistic fashion.-So it was thought that the children are good in nature since birth.-Later, it was found out that the psychopaths have developmental problems in their brain structure since young or once they are born.-So it is not their fault that they become criminals because they can't control their brain.-Later, it was found out that there are a lot of successful people with psychopathic personality traits.-So human beings may or may not be successful in spite of their psychopath brain.-???--According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, each and every human being has own unique soul and when that human being dies, most of the souls has continual repetitive cycle of birth and death called samsara (not just in human world, also in other living worlds) according to his karma. In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions of body, speech or mind that spring from mental intent ("cetana"), and bring about a consequence or fruit, (phala) or result (vipāka).-If that particular soul comes back to human world as rebirth, that particular human being will have distinct habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., according to his daily routine doings, habits previously. Those characters are not derived from his own parents, according to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism.-So one human being will have habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., distinct from his father and mother.-According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, personality is learned as it was acquired from previous life (his/her repeated actions at that life). In one person's life, his/her actions, which he/she repeatedly does, become his/her habits, behaviors, and then become personality.---Very long answerTabula rasa (Children are blank slate)-Tabula rasa, means "blank slate" in Latin and originates from the Roman tabula.-The term also is used as the name of an epistemological theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that all of their knowledge comes from experience and perception.-Human intellect at birth resembled a tabula rasa, a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know. Persian philosopher Ibn SinaAt birth the (human) mind is a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences. John Locke--Generally, the tabula rasa thesis favour the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate, when it comes to aspects of one's personality, social and emotional behaviour, and intelligence.-Scholarly and popular discussion about nature and nurture relates to the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities (nature) as compared to an individual's personal experiences (nurture) in causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.FromTabula rasa - WikipediaNature versus nurture - Wikipedia--ON INTELLIGENCE-Fall of the Tabula rasa (Blank slate) concept-Generations later, people questioned about the blank state theory of mind. When observating the children, they found out that the children had distinct personalities, characters, talent since young. Within same culture, within same environment and even within same big families, some children were introvert, some were extrovert, some were easily angry, some had sence of humor, some learnt easily in studying, some had talents in arts, music, dancing, playing piano, etc, some had talent in different sports since young, majority of children had sense of morality since young (they knew what is good, what is bad without learning from adults).-Some researchers even found out that they could predict which children will be succesful in later life, who would complete university education by doing so simple experiment to the children.(The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford University. In these studies, a child (4-7 years of age) was offered a choice between one small reward (sometimes a marshmallow, but often a cookie or a pretzel, etc.) provided immediately or two small rewards if he or she waited until the tester returned (after an absence of approximately 15 minutes). In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI) and other life measures.From Stanford marshmallow experiment)-Fall of the Blank slate and rise of the role of genes-Some researchers even said that whether the children will be successful in later life was already determined by the time they were born.-(In late 1990s, US department of Education undertook a project called the early childhood longitudinal study (ECLS). It sought to measure the academic progress of more than 20000 children from kindergarden through the fifth grade. The subjects were chosen from across the country to represent an accurate cross section of American schoolchildren. The result is an incredibly rich set of data which tells some surprising stories.--Following factors are strongly correlated with test scores.The child has highly educated parents.The child’s parents have high socioeconomic status.The child’s mother was thirty or older at the time of her first child’s birth.The child had low birthweight. (Negative correlation)The child is adopted. (Negative correlation)The child’s parents are involved in the PTAThe child has many books in his home.--Following factors are not correlated with test scores.The child’s family is intact.The child’s parents recently moved into a better neighbourhood.The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and kindergarten.The child attended Head Start. (Federal preschool program for poor children)The child’s parents regularly take him to museums.The child is regularly spanked.The child frequently watches television.In addition, ECLS data show no correlation between computer use and school test scores.The child’s parents read to him nearly everyday.--To overgeneralize a bit, the strongly correlated factors describe things that parents are. The non correlated factors describe things that parents do.-By the time most people pick up a parenting book, it is far too late. Most of the things that matter were decided long ago – who you are, whom you married, what kind of life you lead. If you are smart, hardworking, well educated, well paid, and married to someone equally fortunate, then you children are likely to succeed. But it isn’t so much a matter of what you do as a parent; it’s who you are.-So how much do parents really matter?-The previous data have made it clear that parents matter a great deal in some regards (most have been determined by the time a child is born.) and not at all in others (the one we obsess about).-But there is also a huge random effects. You may have known some intelligent and devoted parents who child went badly off the rails. You may have also known of the opposite instance, where a child succeeds despite his parents’ worst intention and habits.From What makes a perfect parent?Excerpt from Freakonomics)---1. Genetics and intelligenceResearchers Identify Intelligence Gene NetworksDec 22, 2015 by EditorsA group of scientists led by Imperial College London researcher Michael Johnson has identified two ‘gene networks’ associated with human cognitive abilities.The newly identified gene-regulatory networks, named M1 and M3, appear to influence cognitive function.The M3 network consists of 150 genes, and M1 has more than 1,100 genes. The networks are likely to be under the control of master regulator switches.“We know that genetics plays a major role in intelligence but until now haven’t known which genes are relevant. This research highlights some of genes involved in human intelligence, and how they interact with each other,”“What’s exciting about this is that the genes we have found are likely to share a common regulation, which means that potentially we can manipulate a whole set of genes whose activity is linked to human intelligence.”From http://www.sci-news.com/…/intelligence-gene-networks-03530.From http://www.nature.com/…/jou…/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.4205.html-2. Genetics and intelligence- Luck and random accidents make genes to develop intelligence..... new studies looking for small effects of thousands of genes in large samples have pinpointed a few genetic loci that each accounts for a fraction of an IQ point. More studies are in the pipeline and will link those genes to brain development, showing that they are not statistical curiosities. The emerging picture is that most behavioral traits are affected by many, many genes, each accounting for a tiny percentage of the variance.What is the additional factor shaping us that cannot be identified with our genes or families? The answer may be luck. We’ve long known that the genome can’t wire the brain down to the last synapse, so there is tremendous room for unpredictable zigzags in development.Random accidents also shape the genome itself. Each of us inherits about 60 new mutations, and as we live our lives, our neurons fill up with still more mutations, which can affect how our brains work. We are all mutants, so our genes may have an even bigger role in shaping us and our children than we thought.FromSteven Pinker on New Advances in Behavioral GeneticsFrom http://graphics.wsj.com/…/steven-pinker-on-new-advances-in-…-3. Genetics and intelligence-In Western philosophy of science, all is based on materialism. All about living materials are based on genetics. Evolution of living organisms from simple unicellular organisms into complex multicellular animals (including human beings) is under the influence of genes. What makes those genes evolve like that? Genes themselves make it. If one gives enough time, continuous combination of genes (causing different arrangements of sequences of genes) will make evolution complete. So genes are everything. All the living things including human beings are under the influence of genes.-What makes human beings distinct from other animals? Intelligence. What makes human beings have that unique intelligence? Give genes enough time to have random different combination of genetic sequence, some sequences of genetic arrangement will make some kind of change in neuronal network in brain causing intelligence!-So all the differences of human beings from other animals including intelligence are due to random effect of genes.-So all the innate behaviors of human beings are due to luck, due to random sequence of genetic combination.-So scientists are looking for the genetic information for intelligence because it is the shortcut for further advancement of human beings. If one finds the sequence of genes for intelligence, and if one can manipulate and insert that sequence into future generation, those people will become super-intelligent ones without any other effort.-4. Genetics and intelligenceZhao’s goal is to use those machines to examine the genetic underpinnings of genius like his own. He wants nothing less than to crack the code for intelligence by studying the genomes of thousands of prodigies, not just from China but around the world. He and his collaborators, a transnational group of intelligence researchers, fully expect they will succeed in identifying a genetic basis for IQ. They also expect that within a decade their research will be used to screen embryos during in vitro fertilization, boosting the IQ of unborn children by up to 20 points. In theory, that’s the difference between a kid who struggles through high school and one who sails into college.From https://www.wired.com/2013/07/ge...-Now, researchers at BGI (formerly the Beijing Genomics Institute) in Shenzhen, China, the largest gene-sequencing facility in the world, are searching for the quirks of DNA that may contribute to such gifts. Plunging into an area that is littered with failures and riven with controversy, the researchers are scouring the genomes of 1,600 of these high-fliers in an ambitious project to find the first common genetic variants associated with human intelligence.From https://www.nature.com/news/chin...--Problem with geneticsTransmission of intelligence-Intelligence Is in the Genes, but Where? Most Genes Thought to Be Linked to Intelligence Probably Have No Bearing On IQOct. 2, 2012 — You can thank your parents for your smarts -- or at least some of them. Psychologists have long known that intelligence, like most other traits, is partly genetic. But a new study led by psychological scientist Christopher Chabris of Union College reveals the surprising fact that most of the specific genes long thought to be linked to intelligence probably have no bearing on one's IQ. And it may be some time before researchers can identify intelligence's specific genetic roots.Chabris and David Laibson, a Harvard economist, led an international team of researchers that analyzed a dozen genes using large data sets that included both intelligence testing and genetic data.In nearly every case, the researchers found that intelligence could not be linked to the specific genes that were tested. The results are published online in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science."In all of our tests we only found one gene that appeared to be associated with intelligence, and it was a very small effect. This does not mean intelligence does not have a genetic component. It means it's a lot harder to find the particular genes, or the particular genetic variants, that influence the differences in intelligence," said Chabris.It had long been believed, on the basis of studies of identical and fraternal twins, that intelligence was a heritable trait. The new research affirms that conclusion. But older studies that picked out specific genes had flaws, Chabris said, primarily because of technological limits that prevented researchers from probing more than a few locations in the human genome to find genes that affected intelligence."We want to emphasize that we are not saying the people who did earlier research in this area were foolish or wrong," Chabris said. "They were using the best technology and information they had available. At the time, it was believed that individual genes would have a much larger effect -- they were expecting to find genes that might each account for several IQ points."Chabris said additional research is needed to determine the exact role genes play in intelligence."As is the case with other traits, like height, there are probably thousands of genes and their variants that are associated with intelligence," he said. "And there may be other genetic effects beyond the single gene effects. There could be interactions among genes, or interactions between genes and the environment. Our results show that the way researchers have been looking for genes that may be related to intelligence -- the candidate gene method -- is fairly likely to result in false positives, so other methods should be used."ReferenceC. F. Chabris, B. M. Hebert, D. J. Benjamin, J. Beauchamp, D. Cesarini, M. van der Loos, M. Johannesson, P. K. E. Magnusson, P. Lichtenstein, C. S. Atwood, J. Freese, T. S. Hauser, R. M. Hauser, N. Christakis, D. Laibson. Most Reported Genetic Associations With General Intelligence Are Probably False Positives. Psychological Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1177/0956797611435528--So children's success in later life are set by their parents' genes. The parents with good genes determine the fate of their children. Or is it?--The higher IQs the parents have, the more likely the children have ????--Autism Clusters Found in California's Major CitiesCalifornia scientists have identified autism clusters where children are twice as likely to have autism and mostly have highly educated parentsJan 6, 2010 |By Marla Cone and Environmental Health NewsFrom scientificamerican.co...--Are Geeky Couples More Likely to Have Kids with Autism?Children of scientists and engineers may inherit genes that not only confer intellectual talents but also predispose them to autismBy Simon Baron-CohenIn 1997 my colleague Sally Wheelwright and I conducted a study involving nearly 2,000 families in the U.K. We included about half these families because they had at least one child with autism, a developmental condition in which individuals have difficulty communicating and interacting with others and display obsessive behaviors. The other families had children with a diagnosis of Tourette's syndrome, Down syndrome or language delays but not autism. We asked parents in each family a simple question: What was their job? Many mothers had not worked outside the home, so we could not use their data, but the results from fathers were intriguing: 12.5 percent of fathers of children with autism were engineers, compared with only 5 percent of fathers of children without autism.From Are Geeky Couples More Likely to Have Kids with Autism?--Rise in autism 'may be linked to clever parents'Scientists are testing the theory that intelligent parents are fuelling the rise in the number of autistic children.Nov 2011A team of researchers at Cambridge University is exploring the link between high-achieving parents, such as engineers, scientists and computer programmers, and the development of their children.Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at the university, said there were signs that adults who work in science and maths-based jobs were more likely to have autistic children."A clear test of the hypothesis will enable us to test if couples who are both strong systemisers, for example, those who studied and works in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineerings and maths) and other fields related to systemising, are more likely to have a child with an autism spectrum diagnosis than couples where only one is a strong systemiser, or where neither is," he said.The study will involve recruiting graduates to survey the development of their children along with the subject studied at university to test the theory, which has already been highlighted in other research.In 2001, a report found mathematicians had higher rates of autism than other professions. A study in 1997 found the children and grandchildren of engineers were more likely to be autistic.From Rise in autism 'may be linked to clever parents' - Telegraph--What Genius and Autism Have in CommonA study of eight child prodigies finds that share some striking characteristics, most notably high levels of autistic traits and an overrepresentation of autism in their close family membersBy Maia Szalavitz @maiaszJuly 10, 2012From 2012 | TIME.com...--So at first it was thought that individuals were born without built-in mental content and that all of their knowledge comes from experience and perception.-Later, people found out that the children had distinct personalities, characters, talent since young.-So people thought that children's success in later life are set by their parents' genes. The parents with good genes determine the fate of their children.-Later it was found that the higher IQs the parents have, the more likely the children have autism.-??????????????--ON MORALITY-The children are morally good at birth-Regarding the morality, even children under 2 yars old can tell, to an extent, what is good and bad, and often act in an altruistic fashion.(The last few years produced a spate of related studies hinting that, far from being born a “perfect idiot,” as Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued, or a selfish brute, as Thomas Hobbes feared, a child arrives in the world provisioned with rich, broadly pro-social tendencies and seems predisposed to care about other people. Children can tell, to an extent, what is good and bad, and often act in an altruistic fashion. “Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children,” a study of under-2-year-olds concluded. “Babies Know What’s Fair” was the upshot of another study, of 19- and 21-month-olds. Toddlers, the new literature suggests, are particularly equitable. They are natural helpers, aiding distressed others at a cost to themselves, growing concerned if someone shreds another person’s artwork and divvying up earnings after a shared task, whether the spoils take the form of detested rye bread or precious Gummy Bears.From https://www.smithsonianmag.com/s... )--(The Genesis of Justice-Before all learning, an infant’s mind has a sense of right and wrongEvidence that these moral emotions are deeply entrenched in human nature may be found in a series of experiments with babies, brilliantly synthesized in the book Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil (Crown, 2013) by Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom.In Bloom’s laboratory, a one-year-old baby watched puppets enact a morality play. One puppet rolled a ball to a second puppet, who passed the ball back. The first puppet then rolled the ball to a different puppet, who ran off with the ball. The baby was next given a choice between taking a treat away from the “nice” puppet or the “naughty” one. As Bloom predicted, the infant removed the treat from the naughty puppet—which is what most babies do in this experiment. But for this little moralist, removing a positive reinforcement (the treat) was not enough. “The boy then leaned over and smacked this puppet on the head,” Bloom recounts. In his inchoate moral mind, punishment was called for.From https://michaelshermer.com/2014/... )--So we can conclude that the children are good in nature since birth.-Or is it?--(The psychopath since youngThe psychopaths have developmentally problems in their brain structure since young and it is not their fault to become a psychopath.This weekend, The New York Times Magazine's powerful cover story, "Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?," explored the experience of a Florida family whose son, Michael, was found to be "two standard deviations outside the normal range for callous-unemotional behavior" -- possibly “prepsychopathic."From https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2... )-(……. Michael’s problems started, according to his mother, around age 3, shortly after his brother Allan was born. At the time, she said, Michael was mostly just acting “like a brat,” but his behavior soon escalated to throwing tantrums during which he would scream and shriek inconsolably. These weren’t ordinary toddler’s fits. “It wasn’t, ‘I’m tired’ or ‘I’m frustrated’ — the normal things kids do,” Anne remembered. “His behavior was really out there. And it would happen for hours and hours each day, no matter what we did.” For several years, Michael screamed every time his parents told him to put on his shoes or perform other ordinary tasks, like retrieving one of his toys from the living room. “Going somewhere, staying somewhere — anything would set him off,” Miguel said. These furies lasted well beyond toddlerhood. At 8, Michael would still fly into a rage when Anne or Miguel tried to get him ready for school, punching the wall and kicking holes in the door. Left unwatched, he would cut up his trousers with scissors or methodically pull his hair out. He would also vent his anger by slamming the toilet seat down again and again until it broke.From Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath? By JENNIFER KAHN, May 11, 2012 The New York Times Magazine)--So we can conclude that the psychopath have developmental problems in their brain structure since young or once they are born.-( Psychopaths are unable to show empathy toward others because their brains aren't wired to do so, according to a new study in JAMA Psychiatry.Researchers found that those who scored higher on the psychopathy test experienced less activation in the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and periaqueductal gray brain regions, compared with those who scored lower on the test. Those who scored higher on the psychopathy test had more activation of the striatum and insula brain regions -- the insula brain region is known to play a role in emotion, researchers noted.From Psychopaths' Brains Aren't Wired To Show Empathy, Study Finds )--So it is not their fault that they become criminals because they can't control their brain.-Or is it?--Psychopath brain or Psychopath personality with ?? successful people(In 2005, James Fallon's life started to resemble the plot of a well-honed joke or big-screen thriller: A neuroscientist is working in his laboratory one day when he thinks he has stumbled upon a big mistake. He is researching Alzheimer's and using his healthy family members' brain scans as a control, while simultaneously reviewing the fMRIs of murderous psychopaths for a side project. It appears, though, that one of the killers' scans has been shuffled into the wrong batch.The scans are anonymously labeled, so the researcher has a technician break the code to identify the individual in his family, and place his or her scan in its proper place. When he sees the results, however, Fallon immediately orders the technician to double check the code. But no mistake has been made: The brain scan that mirrors those of the psychopaths is his own.From https://www.theatlantic.com/heal... )--Suddenly there are a lot of articles about psychopathic personality traits with successful people.-( Can Psychopathic Personality Traits Predict Successful Presidents?Could psychopathic personality traits be a sign of a good leader?by Romeo Vitelli, Ph.D. in Media Spotlight-Can Psychopathic Personality Traits Predict Successful Presidents?Psychopathic Traits: What Successful Presidents Have in CommonPresidential success is linked with fearless dominance, a psychopathic trait of boldness that can sometimes turn recklessBy Maia Szalavitz @maiaszPsychopathic Traits: What Successful Presidents Have in Common | TIME Homepage-Cool under pressure? Easy social charm? You might just be a psychopath. A new book says that most of the world’s most successful people—presidents, doctors, CEOs—are just that. Robert Herritt on how you too can unlock your inner psychopath.Unlock Your Inner Psychopath: Kevin Dutton’s ‘The Wisdom of Psychopaths’From http://kevindutton.co.uk/wisdom-... )--And what about genetic inheritance from ancestors with bad characters?-Once, Australia, especially Tasmania, was a place to send convicts from British Colony. An estimated one in five Australians has convict ancestry. In Tasmania, the figure is even higher. In 2009, 74% of Tasmania’s population was estimated to be descended from convicts. A 2001 Victorian parliamentary report on crime in Australia found that Tasmania had the second-lowest crime rate in the nation.-(From Companion to Tasmanian historyBetween 1803 and 1853 approximately 75,000 convicts served time in Van Diemen's Land. Of these 67,000 were shipped from British and Irish ports and the remainder were either locally convicted, or transported from other British colonies. This represents about 45 percent of all convicts landed in Australia and 15–20 percent of all those transported within the British Empire in the period 1615–1920.From http://www.utas.edu.au/library/c... )-(From The story of Australia’s last convictsJanuary 9, 2018The Hougoumont, the last ship to take convicts from the UK to Australia, docked in Fremantle, Western Australia, on January 9, 1868 – 150 years ago. It brought an end to a process which deposited about 168,000 convicted prisoners in Australia after it began in 1788.Convicts had ceased to be sent to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) decades earlier, but Western Australia still wanted convict labour to help with building projects. By the time the Hougoumont landed its shipment of 281 convicts, the Swan River penal colony in Western Australia had been reliant on convict labour for 18 years, and received almost 10,000 male prisoners from Britain.http://theconversation.com/the-s... )-(From Stain or badge of honour? Convict heritage inspires mixed feelingsJune 8, 2015A recent report in Molecular Psychiatry identified a “warrior gene” connected to criminal behaviour. This inspired renewed speculation that a convict ancestry might make Australians more predisposed to violent crime.This fear of genetic contamination from convict ancestors has existed in Australia since early settlement. Between 1788 and the end of transportation in 1868, around 162,000 convicts were sent to the colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land and Western Australia.An estimated one in five Australians has convict ancestry. In Tasmania, the figure is even higher. In 2009, 74% of Tasmania’s population was estimated to be descended from convicts.In 1856, Van Diemen’s Land was renamed Tasmania in an attempt to purge its convict past.And the fear that we might be cursed with a genetic predisposition towards criminal behaviour? A 2001 Victorian parliamentary report on crime in Australia found that, adjusted for population, Tasmania – with the highest proportion of convict descendants – had the second-lowest crime rate in the nation.https://theconversation.com/stai... )--So according to science, human life becomes more and more complex and confused. There are a lot of contradictions.-Human beings are born blank in brain and learn from environment they are raised to become what they are in adult, it is thought at first.-Later human beings are set in characters, personalities, intelligence since birth and they have no free will, it is thought like that later.-Human beings may or may not be successful in spite of their psychopath brain.-?????????????---According to evolution, all the life in earth were arise from simple DNA. First it started as a single cell as an unicellular organism and later evolved into complex multicellular organism. All those organisms are related and evolved by the simple DNA instruction. Charles Darwin was the first to formulate a scientific argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection.-So DNA is the life of organism. No DNA, no life.-In human being, DNA of the child of is given by mother and father. The child's external features (physical characteristics) are built up according to those shared DNA. So scientists figure that the internal characteristics (Personalities, intelligence quotient, Emotional Intelligence, etc) of the child must be also derived from the parents.-When DNA makes a human being, mind spontaneously occur in that human and it permanently disappear when that living being dies.--According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, each and every human being has own unique soul and when that human being dies, most of the souls has continual repetitive cycle of birth and death called samsara (not just in human world, also in other living worlds) according to his karma. In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions of body, speech or mind that spring from mental intent ("cetana"), and bring about a consequence or fruit, (phala) or result (vipāka).-If that particular soul comes back to human world as rebirth, that particular human being will have distinct habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., according to his daily routine doings, habits previously. Those characters are not derived from his own parents, according to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism.-So one human being will have habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., distinct from his father and mother. In other words, if one pair of parents produces a lot, a lot of children, the parents will find that their children will have so many distinct personalities and intelligences different not only from the parents but also among the siblings.-But science will not accept that kind of answer because science has no concept of soul.--And what about morality?-Human beings are not blank slate at birth. According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, some people are born good regardless of their good or bad environment or good or bad behaviors of their parents. Some people are born bad regardless of their good or bad environment or good or bad behaviors of their parents, too.-According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, personality is learned as it was acquired from previous life (his/her repeated actions at that life). In one person's life, his/her actions, which he/she repeatedly does, become his/her habits, behaviors, and then become personality.-That does not means their good or bad behaviors, attitudes are fixed since birth. they can change from good to bad or bad to good during their lifetime. During the growing period from childhood to adulthood, they can become good or bad (especially bad if environment encourages) according to influence of environment (parents, teachers, surrounding people, etc). But it is easier to change from good to bad. It takes more effort to change from bad to good.--And also, one can know the impact of genetics on one's intelligence by studying the identical twins.-According to present day science, identical twins must have very similar or same intelligence due to same DNAs in their bodies.-In present day science of genetics and evolution concept, it cannot explain how the identical twins have different habits, different behaviors, different personalities, different I.Qs, different characters, different interests, different thinking process, etc. Someone will see a lot of explanations with different mechanisms. But those different mechanisms can't explain the initial differences during the first 3- 5 years of ages. Genetics can only give identical external physical appearances. Genetics cannot determine so called internal characters. Those internal characters are determined (inherited) by different unique soul or spirit.-Although science cannot explain the cause of differences in internal characters between identical twins, extreme differences between children and their parents (i.e very, very far from the tree), those differences can be explained by rebirth concept.-According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, although the identical twins have identical physical appearances due to identical genes, each has different intelligence (I.Q), personality, character according to actions and habits, etc from previous individual's lifetime. So one will see different personality, character, intelligence and talent between identical twins. It must be miracle to see those identical twins have same or identical so-called internal characters between them because they have different souls. And those extreme differences will be more and more common in society like USA because USA is the land of immigrants and rebirths may occur in family of different cultures, different concepts, different values, etc. One cannot select to rebirth in family with same culture, race with previous one.-But science will not accept that kind of answer because science has no concept of soul and science denies concept of rebirth.-Which concept is right? One needs to look into identical twins studies. Thousands of twins pairs were studied by scientists in the past. Or one can ask directly to those twins or their parents if you have friends with them.-On Same psychopath trait with different futuresIt is better to make enemy with a wise man than to make a friend with a fool. A wise man will not harm other people for the fear of bad consequence to himself.-Some people have psychopath brain change and personality and they develop into criminals in later life. But some people have psychopath brain change and personality and they develop into successful people in late life. Why?-Because they have different intelligence, wisdom.-If a person with psychopath personality has high I.Q, he will control his impulse because he the bad consequence and he will develop his personality as a advantage to be successful in his career.-If a person with psychopath personality has low I.Q, he cannot control his impulse and he will become a bad guy in later life.-So where does that high I.Q come from? If a person made a lot of learning, studying in previous life, he will find that it is easy to learn, easy to study in later life and he can have high I.Q. (If you find a person with much higher I.Q than you, he may work harder, learn harder, study harder than you in at least one lifetime ahead of you.-……. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One: "Master Gotama, what is the reason, what is the cause, why baseness & excellence are seen among human beings, among the human race? For short-lived & long-lived people are to be seen, sickly & healthy, ugly & beautiful, uninfluential & influential, poor & rich, low-born & high-born, stupid & discerning people are to be seen. So what is the reason, what is the cause, why baseness & excellence are seen among human beings, among the human race?" …………………….. "So, student, the way leading to short life makes people short-lived, the way leading to long life makes people long-lived; the way leading to sickliness makes people sickly, the way leading to health makes people healthy; the way leading to ugliness makes people ugly, the way leading to beauty makes people beautiful; the way leading to lack of influence makes people uninfluential, the way leading to influence makes people influential; the way leading to poverty makes people poor, the way leading to wealth makes people wealthy; the way leading to low birth makes people low-born, the way leading to high birth makes people highborn; the way leading to stupidity makes people stupid, the way leading to discernment makes people discerning."Students, beings are owners of kamma, heir to kamma, born of kamma, related through kamma, and have kamma as their arbitrator. Kamma is what creates distinctions among beings in terms of coarseness & refinement."From http://tipitaka.wikia.com/wiki/C...--A bedtime story-In future, the scientists successfully discover the sequence of genetic arrangement causing intelligence. Actually, they find that half of people with that specific genetic arrangement have high IQ and another half of those people have average IQ. Further studies confirm that there are specific epigenetic changes (i.e, attachment of methyl groups into specific gene locations) making those people to have high IQ.-The good news is that science can make those specific epigenetic changes to these genes by inserting nanobots (very small robots) into human body and attach the methyl groups to those specific genes. So the first step is to find who has that sequence of genes. The good news is most of human beings have those gene sequence. The next step is to attach methyl groups to genes. It needs money. It is estimated that five millions dollars will be needed to attach methyl groups and maintain those changes for the whole life of a human being. It also needs to start from young age. So it has to commercialize the whole service. If one has the money, he will get that service. So a lot of rich people plan to give that service to their children because they can afford it.-After 50 years later, scientists look back the service and analyze the results. Among those people who get the service, only a small percentage of people can maintain those epigenetic changes and those people also choose the academic and science research as their career in their adult life. Large percentage of people who get service cannot maintain those epigenetic changes and they need a lot of repairing to attach back methyl groups all the time. Those people are enjoying their whole life with so-called upper class entertainments all the time because their families are rich and never intend to use their intelligence for further use. Their IQ are fluctuated all the times. Later the servicing company which is making attachment of methyl group to specific genes all the time goes bankrupt.-At the same time in the Asia, there is a country which is actually a capitalist society but pretends to be a communist one. The scientists in that country announce the result of 50 years research. As soon as the scientists found out the genetic sequences of intelligence, the scientists in that Asia country checked the newborns in their countries whether they had the desired genetic sequences. After selecting the children with desired genetic sequences, the scientists gave them special education classes in their student days. Actually, it is the ruthless, heartless teaching method supervised by cruel, abusive teachers and parents in the eyes of developed advanced society. Their rate of teaching is double that of ordinary students. If ordinary students need 12 years of schooling before university, those selected students only need 6 years. After 50 years, that country already have 5 millions of such people (resulting from experiment). (That country is very big and very populated.)-And majority of those people achieve their goals. Only a small percentage of those people drop out of the experiment or made suicide themselves. When the genetic structure of those people are examined at the end of research, the scientists find out that desired epigenetic changes (attachment of methyl groups in specific genetic sequences) are present in those people without using of nanobots.-When that news reach to the Western developed nations, the leaders and scientists there criticize the method. How can the civilized societies can follow such a cruel method? They rather improve the nanobot method for the sake of children - the future leaders of their world - than to abuse them with that cruel method!!!

Q. Why are all humans different from each other, Like we all have brains so why don’t we all think the same thoughts?-All the living things cannot take their belongings, wealth, servants with them when they are dead. The only thing that they can take is the good or bad deeds done by themselves physically, mentally or verbally.-……. beings are owners of kamma, heir to kamma, born of kamma, related through kamma, and have kamma as their arbitrator. Kamma is what creates distinctions among beings in terms of coarseness & refinement.From http://tipitaka.wikia.com/wiki/Culakammavibhanga_Sutta-Short answer-Human beings are not blank slate at birth. According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, each and every human being has own unique soul and when that human being dies, most of the souls has continual repetitive cycle of birth and death called samsara (not just in human world, also in other living worlds) according to his karma. In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions of body, speech or mind that spring from mental intent ("cetana"), and bring about a consequence or fruit, (phala) or result (vipāka).-If that particular soul comes back to human world as rebirth, that particular human being will have distinct habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., according to his daily routine doings, habits previously. Those characters are not derived from his own parents, according to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism.-So one human being will have habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., different from his father and mother. If there is a pair of identical twins, we will also observe different habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, and even sexual orientation, etc., between identical twins.---Very long answerTabula rasa (Children are blank slate)-Tabula rasa, means "blank slate" in Latin and originates from the Roman tabula.-The term also is used as the name of an epistemological theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that all of their knowledge comes from experience and perception.Human intellect at birth resembled a tabula rasa, a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know. Persian philosopher Ibn SinaAt birth the (human) mind is a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences. John Locke-Generally, the tabula rasa thesis favour the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate, when it comes to aspects of one's personality, social and emotional behaviour, and intelligence.-Scholarly and popular discussion about nature and nurture relates to the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities (nature) as compared to an individual's personal experiences (nurture) in causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.FromTabula rasa - WikipediaNature versus nurture - Wikipedia--ON INTELLIGENCE-Fall of the Tabula rasa (Blank slate) concept-Generations later, people questioned about the blank state theory of mind. When observating the children, they found out that the children had distinct personalities, characters, talent since young. Within same culture, within same environment and even within same big families, some children were introvert, some were extrovert, some were easily angry, some had sence of humor, some learnt easily in studying, some had talents in arts, music, dancing, playing piano, etc, some had talent in different sports since young, majority of children had sense of morality since young (they knew what is good, what is bad without learning from adults).-Some researchers even found out that they could predict which children will be succesful in later life, who would complete university education by doing so simple experiment to the children.(The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford University. In these studies, a child (4-7 years of age) was offered a choice between one small reward (sometimes a marshmallow, but often a cookie or a pretzel, etc.) provided immediately or two small rewards if he or she waited until the tester returned (after an absence of approximately 15 minutes). In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI) and other life measures.From Stanford marshmallow experiment)-Fall of the Blank slate and rise of the role of genes-Some researchers even said that whether the children will be successful in later life was already determined by the time they were born.-(In late 1990s, US department of Education undertook a project called the early childhood longitudinal study (ECLS). It sought to measure the academic progress of more than 20000 children from kindergarden through the fifth grade. The subjects were chosen from across the country to represent an accurate cross section of American schoolchildren. The result is an incredibly rich set of data which tells some surprising stories.--Following factors are strongly correlated with test scores.The child has highly educated parents.The child’s parents have high socioeconomic status.The child’s mother was thirty or older at the time of her first child’s birth.The child had low birthweight. (Negative correlation)The child is adopted. (Negative correlation)The child’s parents are involved in the PTAThe child has many books in his home.--Following factors are not correlated with test scores.The child’s family is intact.The child’s parents recently moved into a better neighbourhood.The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and kindergarten.The child attended Head Start. (Federal preschool program for poor children)The child’s parents regularly take him to museums.The child is regularly spanked.The child frequently watches television.In addition, ECLS data show no correlation between computer use and school test scores.The child’s parents read to him nearly everyday.--To overgeneralize a bit, the strongly correlated factors describe things that parents are. The non correlated factors describe things that parents do.-By the time most people pick up a parenting book, it is far too late. Most of the things that matter were decided long ago – who you are, whom you married, what kind of life you lead. If you are smart, hardworking, well educated, well paid, and married to someone equally fortunate, then you children are likely to succeed. But it isn’t so much a matter of what you do as a parent; it’s who you are.-So how much do parents really matter?-The previous data have made it clear that parents matter a great deal in some regards (most have been determined by the time a child is born.) and not at all in others (the one we obsess about).-But there is also a huge random effects. You may have known some intelligent and devoted parents who child went badly off the rails. You may have also known of the opposite instance, where a child succeeds despite his parents’ worst intention and habits.From What makes a perfect parent?Excerpt from Freakonomics)--1. Genetics and intelligenceResearchers Identify Intelligence Gene NetworksDec 22, 2015 by EditorsA group of scientists led by Imperial College London researcher Michael Johnson has identified two ‘gene networks’ associated with human cognitive abilities.The newly identified gene-regulatory networks, named M1 and M3, appear to influence cognitive function.The M3 network consists of 150 genes, and M1 has more than 1,100 genes. The networks are likely to be under the control of master regulator switches.“We know that genetics plays a major role in intelligence but until now haven’t known which genes are relevant. This research highlights some of genes involved in human intelligence, and how they interact with each other,”“What’s exciting about this is that the genes we have found are likely to share a common regulation, which means that potentially we can manipulate a whole set of genes whose activity is linked to human intelligence.”From http://www.sci-news.com/…/intelligence-gene-networks-03530.From http://www.nature.com/…/jou…/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.4205.html-2. Genetics and intelligence- Luck and random accidents make genes to develop intelligence..... new studies looking for small effects of thousands of genes in large samples have pinpointed a few genetic loci that each accounts for a fraction of an IQ point. More studies are in the pipeline and will link those genes to brain development, showing that they are not statistical curiosities. The emerging picture is that most behavioral traits are affected by many, many genes, each accounting for a tiny percentage of the variance.What is the additional factor shaping us that cannot be identified with our genes or families? The answer may be luck. We’ve long known that the genome can’t wire the brain down to the last synapse, so there is tremendous room for unpredictable zigzags in development.Random accidents also shape the genome itself. Each of us inherits about 60 new mutations, and as we live our lives, our neurons fill up with still more mutations, which can affect how our brains work. We are all mutants, so our genes may have an even bigger role in shaping us and our children than we thought.FromSteven Pinker on New Advances in Behavioral GeneticsFrom http://graphics.wsj.com/…/steven-pinker-on-new-advances-in-…-3. Genetics and intelligence-In Western philosophy of science, all is based on materialism. All about living materials are based on genetics. Evolution of living organisms from simple unicellular organisms into complex multicellular animals (including human beings) is under the influence of genes. What makes those genes evolve like that? Genes themselves make it. If one gives enough time, continuous combination of genes (causing different arrangements of sequences of genes) will make evolution complete. So genes are everything. All the living things including human beings are under the influence of genes.-What makes human beings distinct from other animals? Intelligence. What makes human beings have that unique intelligence? Give genes enough time to have random different combination of genetic sequence, some sequences of genetic arrangement will make some kind of change in neuronal network in brain causing intelligence!-So all the differences of human beings from other animals including intelligence are due to random effect of genes.-So all the innate behaviors of human beings are due to luck, due to random sequence of genetic combination.-So scientists are looking for the genetic information for intelligence because it is the shortcut for further advancement of human beings. If one finds the sequence of genes for intelligence, and if one can manipulate and insert that sequence into future generation, those people will become super-intelligent ones without any other effort.-4. Genetics and intelligenceZhao’s goal is to use those machines to examine the genetic underpinnings of genius like his own. He wants nothing less than to crack the code for intelligence by studying the genomes of thousands of prodigies, not just from China but around the world. He and his collaborators, a transnational group of intelligence researchers, fully expect they will succeed in identifying a genetic basis for IQ. They also expect that within a decade their research will be used to screen embryos during in vitro fertilization, boosting the IQ of unborn children by up to 20 points. In theory, that’s the difference between a kid who struggles through high school and one who sails into college.From https://www.wired.com/2013/07/ge...Now, researchers at BGI (formerly the Beijing Genomics Institute) in Shenzhen, China, the largest gene-sequencing facility in the world, are searching for the quirks of DNA that may contribute to such gifts. Plunging into an area that is littered with failures and riven with controversy, the researchers are scouring the genomes of 1,600 of these high-fliers in an ambitious project to find the first common genetic variants associated with human intelligence.From https://www.nature.com/news/chin...--Problem with geneticsTransmission of intelligence-Intelligence Is in the Genes, but Where? Most Genes Thought to Be Linked to Intelligence Probably Have No Bearing On IQOct. 2, 2012 — You can thank your parents for your smarts -- or at least some of them. Psychologists have long known that intelligence, like most other traits, is partly genetic. But a new study led by psychological scientist Christopher Chabris of Union College reveals the surprising fact that most of the specific genes long thought to be linked to intelligence probably have no bearing on one's IQ. And it may be some time before researchers can identify intelligence's specific genetic roots.Chabris and David Laibson, a Harvard economist, led an international team of researchers that analyzed a dozen genes using large data sets that included both intelligence testing and genetic data.In nearly every case, the researchers found that intelligence could not be linked to the specific genes that were tested. The results are published online in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science."In all of our tests we only found one gene that appeared to be associated with intelligence, and it was a very small effect. This does not mean intelligence does not have a genetic component. It means it's a lot harder to find the particular genes, or the particular genetic variants, that influence the differences in intelligence," said Chabris.It had long been believed, on the basis of studies of identical and fraternal twins, that intelligence was a heritable trait. The new research affirms that conclusion. But older studies that picked out specific genes had flaws, Chabris said, primarily because of technological limits that prevented researchers from probing more than a few locations in the human genome to find genes that affected intelligence."We want to emphasize that we are not saying the people who did earlier research in this area were foolish or wrong," Chabris said. "They were using the best technology and information they had available. At the time, it was believed that individual genes would have a much larger effect -- they were expecting to find genes that might each account for several IQ points."Chabris said additional research is needed to determine the exact role genes play in intelligence."As is the case with other traits, like height, there are probably thousands of genes and their variants that are associated with intelligence," he said. "And there may be other genetic effects beyond the single gene effects. There could be interactions among genes, or interactions between genes and the environment. Our results show that the way researchers have been looking for genes that may be related to intelligence -- the candidate gene method -- is fairly likely to result in false positives, so other methods should be used."ReferenceC. F. Chabris, B. M. Hebert, D. J. Benjamin, J. Beauchamp, D. Cesarini, M. van der Loos, M. Johannesson, P. K. E. Magnusson, P. Lichtenstein, C. S. Atwood, J. Freese, T. S. Hauser, R. M. Hauser, N. Christakis, D. Laibson. Most Reported Genetic Associations With General Intelligence Are Probably False Positives. Psychological Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1177/0956797611435528--So children's success in later life are set by their parents' genes. The parents with good genes determine the fate of their children. Or is it?--The higher IQs the parents have, the more likely the children have ????--Autism Clusters Found in California's Major CitiesCalifornia scientists have identified autism clusters where children are twice as likely to have autism and mostly have highly educated parentsJan 6, 2010 |By Marla Cone and Environmental Health NewsFrom scientificamerican.co...--Are Geeky Couples More Likely to Have Kids with Autism?Children of scientists and engineers may inherit genes that not only confer intellectual talents but also predispose them to autismBy Simon Baron-CohenIn 1997 my colleague Sally Wheelwright and I conducted a study involving nearly 2,000 families in the U.K. We included about half these families because they had at least one child with autism, a developmental condition in which individuals have difficulty communicating and interacting with others and display obsessive behaviors. The other families had children with a diagnosis of Tourette's syndrome, Down syndrome or language delays but not autism. We asked parents in each family a simple question: What was their job? Many mothers had not worked outside the home, so we could not use their data, but the results from fathers were intriguing: 12.5 percent of fathers of children with autism were engineers, compared with only 5 percent of fathers of children without autism.From Are Geeky Couples More Likely to Have Kids with Autism?--Rise in autism 'may be linked to clever parents'Scientists are testing the theory that intelligent parents are fuelling the rise in the number of autistic children.Nov 2011A team of researchers at Cambridge University is exploring the link between high-achieving parents, such as engineers, scientists and computer programmers, and the development of their children.Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at the university, said there were signs that adults who work in science and maths-based jobs were more likely to have autistic children."A clear test of the hypothesis will enable us to test if couples who are both strong systemisers, for example, those who studied and works in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineerings and maths) and other fields related to systemising, are more likely to have a child with an autism spectrum diagnosis than couples where only one is a strong systemiser, or where neither is," he said.The study will involve recruiting graduates to survey the development of their children along with the subject studied at university to test the theory, which has already been highlighted in other research.In 2001, a report found mathematicians had higher rates of autism than other professions. A study in 1997 found the children and grandchildren of engineers were more likely to be autistic.From Rise in autism 'may be linked to clever parents' - Telegraph--What Genius and Autism Have in CommonA study of eight child prodigies finds that share some striking characteristics, most notably high levels of autistic traits and an overrepresentation of autism in their close family membersBy Maia Szalavitz @maiaszJuly 10, 2012From 2012 | TIME.com...--So at first it was thought that individuals were born without built-in mental content and that all of their knowledge comes from experience and perception.-Later, people found out that the children had distinct personalities, characters, talent since young.-So people thought that children's success in later life are set by their parents' genes. The parents with good genes determine the fate of their children.-Later it was found that the higher IQs the parents have, the more likely the children have autism.-??????????????--ON MORALITY-The children are morally good at birth-Regarding the morality, even children under 2 yars old can tell, to an extent, what is good and bad, and often act in an altruistic fashion.(The last few years produced a spate of related studies hinting that, far from being born a “perfect idiot,” as Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued, or a selfish brute, as Thomas Hobbes feared, a child arrives in the world provisioned with rich, broadly pro-social tendencies and seems predisposed to care about other people. Children can tell, to an extent, what is good and bad, and often act in an altruistic fashion. “Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children,” a study of under-2-year-olds concluded. “Babies Know What’s Fair” was the upshot of another study, of 19- and 21-month-olds. Toddlers, the new literature suggests, are particularly equitable. They are natural helpers, aiding distressed others at a cost to themselves, growing concerned if someone shreds another person’s artwork and divvying up earnings after a shared task, whether the spoils take the form of detested rye bread or precious Gummy Bears.From https://www.smithsonianmag.com/s... )--(The Genesis of Justice-Before all learning, an infant’s mind has a sense of right and wrongEvidence that these moral emotions are deeply entrenched in human nature may be found in a series of experiments with babies, brilliantly synthesized in the book Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil (Crown, 2013) by Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom.In Bloom’s laboratory, a one-year-old baby watched puppets enact a morality play. One puppet rolled a ball to a second puppet, who passed the ball back. The first puppet then rolled the ball to a different puppet, who ran off with the ball. The baby was next given a choice between taking a treat away from the “nice” puppet or the “naughty” one. As Bloom predicted, the infant removed the treat from the naughty puppet—which is what most babies do in this experiment. But for this little moralist, removing a positive reinforcement (the treat) was not enough. “The boy then leaned over and smacked this puppet on the head,” Bloom recounts. In his inchoate moral mind, punishment was called for.From https://michaelshermer.com/2014/... )--So we can conclude that the children are good in nature since birth.-Or is it?--(The psychopath since youngThe psychopaths have developmentally problems in their brain structure since young and it is not their fault to become a psychopath.This weekend, The New York Times Magazine's powerful cover story, "Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?," explored the experience of a Florida family whose son, Michael, was found to be "two standard deviations outside the normal range for callous-unemotional behavior" -- possibly “prepsychopathic."From https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2... )-(……. Michael’s problems started, according to his mother, around age 3, shortly after his brother Allan was born. At the time, she said, Michael was mostly just acting “like a brat,” but his behavior soon escalated to throwing tantrums during which he would scream and shriek inconsolably. These weren’t ordinary toddler’s fits. “It wasn’t, ‘I’m tired’ or ‘I’m frustrated’ — the normal things kids do,” Anne remembered. “His behavior was really out there. And it would happen for hours and hours each day, no matter what we did.” For several years, Michael screamed every time his parents told him to put on his shoes or perform other ordinary tasks, like retrieving one of his toys from the living room. “Going somewhere, staying somewhere — anything would set him off,” Miguel said. These furies lasted well beyond toddlerhood. At 8, Michael would still fly into a rage when Anne or Miguel tried to get him ready for school, punching the wall and kicking holes in the door. Left unwatched, he would cut up his trousers with scissors or methodically pull his hair out. He would also vent his anger by slamming the toilet seat down again and again until it broke.From Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath? By JENNIFER KAHN, May 11, 2012 The New York Times Magazine)--So we can conclude that the psychopath have developmental problems in their brain structure since young or once they are born.-( Psychopaths are unable to show empathy toward others because their brains aren't wired to do so, according to a new study in JAMA Psychiatry.Researchers found that those who scored higher on the psychopathy test experienced less activation in the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and periaqueductal gray brain regions, compared with those who scored lower on the test. Those who scored higher on the psychopathy test had more activation of the striatum and insula brain regions -- the insula brain region is known to play a role in emotion, researchers noted.From Psychopaths' Brains Aren't Wired To Show Empathy, Study Finds )--So it is not their fault that they become criminals because they can't control their brain.-Or is it?--Psychopath brain or Psychopath personality with ?? successful people(In 2005, James Fallon's life started to resemble the plot of a well-honed joke or big-screen thriller: A neuroscientist is working in his laboratory one day when he thinks he has stumbled upon a big mistake. He is researching Alzheimer's and using his healthy family members' brain scans as a control, while simultaneously reviewing the fMRIs of murderous psychopaths for a side project. It appears, though, that one of the killers' scans has been shuffled into the wrong batch.The scans are anonymously labeled, so the researcher has a technician break the code to identify the individual in his family, and place his or her scan in its proper place. When he sees the results, however, Fallon immediately orders the technician to double check the code. But no mistake has been made: The brain scan that mirrors those of the psychopaths is his own.From https://www.theatlantic.com/heal... )--Suddenly there are a lot of articles about psychopathic personality traits with successful people.-( Can Psychopathic Personality Traits Predict Successful Presidents?Could psychopathic personality traits be a sign of a good leader?by Romeo Vitelli, Ph.D. in Media SpotlightFrom Can Psychopathic Personality Traits Predict Successful Presidents?-Psychopathic Traits: What Successful Presidents Have in CommonPresidential success is linked with fearless dominance, a psychopathic trait of boldness that can sometimes turn recklessBy Maia Szalavitz @maiaszFrom Psychopathic Traits: What Successful Presidents Have in Common | TIME Homepage-Cool under pressure? Easy social charm? You might just be a psychopath. A new book says that most of the world’s most successful people—presidents, doctors, CEOs—are just that. Robert Herritt on how you too can unlock your inner psychopath.Unlock Your Inner Psychopath: Kevin Dutton’s ‘The Wisdom of Psychopaths’From http://kevindutton.co.uk/wisdom-... )--And what about genetic inheritance from ancestors with bad characters?-Once, Australia, especially Tasmania, was a place to send convicts from British Colony. An estimated one in five Australians has convict ancestry. In Tasmania, the figure is even higher. In 2009, 74% of Tasmania’s population was estimated to be descended from convicts. A 2001 Victorian parliamentary report on crime in Australia found that Tasmania had the second-lowest crime rate in the nation.-(From Companion to Tasmanian historyBetween 1803 and 1853 approximately 75,000 convicts served time in Van Diemen's Land. Of these 67,000 were shipped from British and Irish ports and the remainder were either locally convicted, or transported from other British colonies. This represents about 45 percent of all convicts landed in Australia and 15–20 percent of all those transported within the British Empire in the period 1615–1920.From http://www.utas.edu.au/library/c... )-(From The story of Australia’s last convictsJanuary 9, 2018The Hougoumont, the last ship to take convicts from the UK to Australia, docked in Fremantle, Western Australia, on January 9, 1868 – 150 years ago. It brought an end to a process which deposited about 168,000 convicted prisoners in Australia after it began in 1788.Convicts had ceased to be sent to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) decades earlier, but Western Australia still wanted convict labour to help with building projects. By the time the Hougoumont landed its shipment of 281 convicts, the Swan River penal colony in Western Australia had been reliant on convict labour for 18 years, and received almost 10,000 male prisoners from Britain.http://theconversation.com/the-s... )-(From Stain or badge of honour? Convict heritage inspires mixed feelingsJune 8, 2015A recent report in Molecular Psychiatry identified a “warrior gene” connected to criminal behaviour. This inspired renewed speculation that a convict ancestry might make Australians more predisposed to violent crime.This fear of genetic contamination from convict ancestors has existed in Australia since early settlement. Between 1788 and the end of transportation in 1868, around 162,000 convicts were sent to the colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land and Western Australia.An estimated one in five Australians has convict ancestry. In Tasmania, the figure is even higher. In 2009, 74% of Tasmania’s population was estimated to be descended from convicts.In 1856, Van Diemen’s Land was renamed Tasmania in an attempt to purge its convict past.And the fear that we might be cursed with a genetic predisposition towards criminal behaviour? A 2001 Victorian parliamentary report on crime in Australia found that, adjusted for population, Tasmania – with the highest proportion of convict descendants – had the second-lowest crime rate in the nation.https://theconversation.com/stai... )--So according to science, human life becomes more and more complex and confused. There are a lot of contradictions.-Human beings are born blank in brain and learn from environment they are raised to become what they are in adult, it is thought at first.-Later human beings are set in characters, personalities, intelligence since birth and they have no free will, it is thought like that later.-Human beings may or may not be successful in spite of their psychopath brain.-?????????????---According to evolution, all the life in earth were arise from simple DNA. First it started as a single cell as an unicellular organism and later evolved into complex multicellular organism. All those organisms are related and evolved by the simple DNA instruction. Charles Darwin was the first to formulate a scientific argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection.-So DNA is the life of organism. No DNA, no life.-In human being, DNA of the child of is given by mother and father. The child's external features (physical characteristics) are built up according to those shared DNA. So scientists figure that the internal characteristics (Personalities, intelligence quotient, Emotional Intelligence, etc) of the child must be also derived from the parents.-When DNA makes a human being, mind spontaneously occur in that human and it permanently disappear when that living being dies.--According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, each and every human being has own unique soul and when that human being dies, most of the souls has continual repetitive cycle of birth and death called samsara (not just in human world, also in other living worlds) according to his karma. In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions of body, speech or mind that spring from mental intent ("cetana"), and bring about a consequence or fruit, (phala) or result (vipāka).-If that particular soul comes back to human world as rebirth, that particular human being will have distinct habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., according to his daily routine doings, habits previously. Those characters are not derived from his own parents, according to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism.-So one human being will have habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., distinct from his father and mother. In other words, if one pair of parents produces a lot, a lot of children, the parents will find that their children will have so many distinct personalities and intelligences different not only from the parents but also among the siblings.-But science will not accept that kind of answer because science has no concept of soul.--And what about morality?-Human beings are not blank slate at birth. According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, some people are born good regardless of their good or bad environment or good or bad behaviors of their parents. Some people are born bad regardless of their good or bad environment or good or bad behaviors of their parents, too.-According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, personality is learned as it was acquired from previous life (his/her repeated actions at that life). In one person's life, his/her actions, which he/she repeatedly does, become his/her habits, behaviors, and then become personality.-That does not means their good or bad behaviors, attitudes are fixed since birth. they can change from good to bad or bad to good during their lifetime. During the growing period from childhood to adulthood, they can become good or bad (especially bad if environment encourages) according to influence of environment (parents, teachers, surrounding people, etc). But it is easier to change from good to bad. It takes more effort to change from bad to good.--And also, one can know the impact of genetics on one's intelligence by studying the identical twins.-According to present day science, identical twins must have very similar or same intelligence due to same DNAs in their bodies.-In present day science of genetics and evolution concept, it cannot explain how the identical twins have different habits, different behaviors, different personalities, different I.Qs, different characters, different interests, different thinking process, etc. Someone will see a lot of explanations with different mechanisms. But those different mechanisms can't explain the initial differences during the first 3- 5 years of ages. Genetics can only give identical external physical appearances. Genetics cannot determine so called internal characters. Those internal characters are determined (inherited) by different unique soul or spirit.-Although science cannot explain the cause of differences in internal characters between identical twins, extreme differences between children and their parents (i.e very, very far from the tree), those differences can be explained by rebirth concept.-According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, although the identical twins have identical physical appearances due to identical genes, each has different intelligence (I.Q), personality, character according to actions and habits, etc from previous individual's lifetime. So one will see different personality, character, intelligence and talent between identical twins. It must be miracle to see those identical twins have same or identical so-called internal characters between them because they have different souls. And those extreme differences will be more and more common in society like USA because USA is the land of immigrants and rebirths may occur in family of different cultures, different concepts, different values, etc. One cannot select to rebirth in family with same culture, race with previous one.-But science will not accept that kind of answer because science has no concept of soul and science denies concept of rebirth.-Which concept is right? One needs to look into identical twins studies. Thousands of twins pairs were studied by scientists in the past. Or one can ask directly to those twins or their parents if you have friends with them.-On Same psychopath trait with different futures-Some people have psychopath brain change and personality and they develop into criminals in later life. But some people have psychopath brain change and personality and they develop into successful people in late life. Why?-Because they have different intelligence, wisdom.-If a person with psychopath personality has high I.Q, he will control his impulse because he the bad consequence and he will develop his personality as a advantage to be successful in his career.-If a person with psychopath personality has low I.Q, he cannot control his impulse and he will become a bad guy in later life.-So where does that high I.Q come from? If a person made a lot of learning, studying in previous life, he will find that it is easy to learn, easy to study in later life and he can have high I.Q. (If you find a person with much higher I.Q than you, he may work harder, learn harder, study harder than you in at least one lifetime ahead of you.--On Personality1. Birth Order and personalityBirth order refers to the order a child is born, for example first born, second born etc. Birth order is often believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development.Alfred Adler (1870–1937) was one of the first theorists to suggest that birth order influences personality. He argued that birth order can leave an indelible impression on an individual's style of life. According to Adler, firstborns are "dethroned" when a second child comes along, and this may have a lasting influence on them. Younger and only children may be pampered and spoiled, which can also affect their later personalities. Additional birth order factors that should be considered are the spacing in years between siblings, the total number of children, and the changing circumstances of the parents over time.One modern theory of personality states that the Big Five personality traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism represent most of the important elements of personality that can be measured.In his book Born to Rebel, Frank Sulloway suggests that birth order has strong and consistent effects on the Big Five personality traits. He argues that first-borns are more conscientious, more socially dominant, less agreeable, and less open to new ideas compared to later-borns.Since the 1970s, one of the most influential theories to explain why firstborns frequently score higher on intelligence and achievement tests than other children is the confluence model of Robert Zajonc. This model states that because firstborns mainly have adult influences around them in their early years, they will spend their initial years of life interacting in a highly intellectual family environment. This effect may also be observed in siblings who, although later born, have a sibling at least five years senior with no siblings in between. These children are considered to be "functional firstborns". The theory further suggests that firstborns will be more intelligent than only children, because the latter will not benefit from the "tutor effect" (i.e. teaching younger siblings).Fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi...-2. Birth Order and personalityThe Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are is a 1982 non-fiction book by Dr. Kevin Leman on birth order and its potential influence on personality and development.First Born: First born children are described as leaders that are often perfectionists that desire approval from those in charge. Leman also states that first-borns are "typically aggressive" but are also often people pleasers.Middle Child: Middle children are sometimes diverse in that they are "guaranteed to be opposite of their older sibling" and often have the feeling that they are ignored in favor of their older and younger siblings. They are also described as having personalities that lean towards being secretive and can often serve as peacemakers between their older and younger siblings.Last Born: Leman describes the last children as "social and outgoing" but also the "most financially irresponsible of all birth orders". He also comments that they have the potential to be manipulative as well as charming.Fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th...-3. Birth Order and personalityThe idea that first-born children are smarter can be traced back to Francis Galton, a 19th-century scientist who worked in psychology, biology, and anthropology, among other fields. He noticed that a lot of his English scientist colleagues were first-born sons, and proposed that their intellectual success came from the resources and attention poured into them by their families. (First-born sons are the heirs, after all.)The evolutionary view of birth order effects is that siblings have to compete for their parents’ attention and favor, and they find different ways to do that. The oldest are physically stronger and mentally more developed than the younger siblings (at least while they’re all still children), so it behooves them to be aggressive (and bossy?). The later-born siblings need more help from others, and so become more extraverted.Fromhttps://www.theatlantic.com/heal...-4. Birth Order and personalityAccording to philosophy of modern science, the children's brains are like blank slate at birth. They will act with their environment and those actions and reaction will form their personalities during growth. Almost all first born children will have similar environment and they will act according to similar environmental stimulation. Therefore, those first born children will have similar personalities in later life. The same philosophy can be applied for middle born or last born children. So they reach conclusion that the same birth order children will have same personality traits.According to the philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, if so-called souls or spirits or minds are not released from cycles of life (except for those who are liberated or reached nirvana), some of them will come back to human life again. Those who come back to human world may bring their previous repeatedly actions as habits, behaviors, personalities with them along. So those personalities are according to previous personalities of particular souls, not according to birth order, in Theravada Buddhism view. The same environment (encountered by same birth order children) will not have too much influence in those (same birth order) children. Their previous personality traits are too much stronger to be changed by same environment. So the same birth order children will not have same personality traits, according to the Theravada Buddhism.-5. Birth Order and personality...... a couple of recent studies of large samples suggest that birth order does not matter when it comes to personality, and barely matters when it comes to intelligence.In a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Leipzig and Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, both in Germany, looked at more than 20,000 adults from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany, comparing siblings both within the same family, and people with the same birth order across families.“All in all, we did not find any effect of birth order on extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, or imagination, a subdimension of openness,” the researchers write.......... another study published this summer in the Journal of Research in Personality looked at 377,000 U.S. high-school students, and also found little evidence for personality differences based on birth order.The researchers looked at the Big Five personality traits—openness, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion—and predicted that “firstborns (versus laterborns) should be higher in Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and the dominance aspect of Extraversion, whereas laterborns should be higher in Agreeableness and the sociability aspect of Extraversion.”Over this entire huge population, they found that firstborns did tend to be a little more conscientious and dominant, and less sociable, but also that they tended to be more agreeable and less neurotic (which goes against the stereotype). But the effect size of this finding was tiny—so tiny that if they hadn’t looked at hundreds of thousands of people, it wouldn’t have been significant at all. When it came to intelligence, firstborns did have an advantage—of one IQ point. As a comparison, another study found that some adolescents’ IQs changed by as much as 20 points within four years.“Birth order is often invoked as an important variable to explain the development of personality and intelligence within and across families,” the researchers wrote in the high-school birth-order study. “We would have to say that, to the extent that these effect sizes are accurate estimates of the true effect, birth order does not seem to be an important consideration for understanding either the development of personality traits or the development of intelligence in the between-family context.”Fromhttps://www.theatlantic.com/heal...http://www.pnas.org/content/112/...https://www.urbo.com/content/it-...-6. Birth Order and personalityOnly childAn only child is a person with no siblings, either biological or adopted. The term only child is generally applied only to those individuals who don't have siblings.In Western countries, only children can be the subject of a stereotype that equates them with "spoiled brats". Even today, only children are commonly stereotyped as "spoiled, selfish, and bratty". Susan Newman, a social psychologist at Rutgers University and the author of Parenting an Only Child, says that this is a myth. "There have been hundreds and hundreds of research studies that show that only children are no different from their peers."In China, perceived behavioral problems in only children has been called the Little Emperor Syndrome and the lack of siblings has been blamed for a number of social ills such as materialism and crime. However, recent studies do not support these claims, and show no significant differences in personality between only children and children in larger families.A 1987 quantitative review of 141 studies on 16 different personality traits failed to support the opinion, held by theorists including Alfred Adler, that only children are more likely to be maladjusted due to pampering. The study found no evidence of any greater prevalence of maladjustment in only children.In his book Born to Rebel, Frank Sulloway provides evidence that birth order influences the development of the "big five personality traits" (also known as the Five Factor Model). Sulloway suggests that firstborns and only children are more conscientious, more socially dominant, less agreeable, and less open to new ideas compared to laterborns. However, his conclusions have been challenged by other researchers, who argue that birth order effects are weak and inconsistent. In one of the largest studies conducted on the effect of birth order on the Big Five, data from a national sample of 9,664 subjects found no association between birth order and scores on the NEO PI-R personality test.--So,-Human beings are not blank slate at birth. According to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, each and every human being has own unique soul and when that human being dies, most of the souls has continual repetitive cycle of birth and death called samsara (not just in human world, also in other living worlds) according to his karma. In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions of body, speech or mind that spring from mental intent ("cetana"), and bring about a consequence or fruit, (phala) or result (vipāka).-If that particular soul comes back to human world as rebirth, that particular human being will have distinct habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., according to his daily routine doings, habits previously. Those characters are not derived from his own parents, according to philosophy of Theravada Buddhism.-So one human being will have habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, characters, etc., different from his father and mother. If there is a pair of identical twins, we will also observe different habits, behaviors, personality, I.Q, E.Q, thinking process, and even sexual orientation, etc., between identical twins.-……. beings are owners of kamma, heir to kamma, born of kamma, related through kamma, and have kamma as their arbitrator. Kamma is what creates distinctions among beings in terms of coarseness & refinement.From http://tipitaka.wikia.com/wiki/Culakammavibhanga_Sutta--So should you believe that kind of explanation?-………. Then the Kalamas said to the Blessed One:“There are, Lord, some ascetics and brahmins who come to Kesaputta. They explain and elucidate their own doctrines, but disparage, debunk, revile and vilify the doctrines of others. But then some other ascetics and brahmins come to Kesaputta, and they too explain and elucidate their own doctrines, but disparage, debunk, revile and vilify the doctrines of the others. For us, Lord, there is perplexity and doubt as to which of these good ascetics speak truth and which speak falsehood.” ………Complete Sutta at http://tipitaka.wikia.com/wiki/65._To_the_Kalamas