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O Kempthorne

Publications and source records attributed to O Kempthorne.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Heritability: uses and abuses.

This paper begins with a brief summary of the history of the development of ideas in the field of quantitative genetics. Next there is discussion of the controversy surrounding the contention that IQ tests validly estimate some highly heritable general intelligence factor. The validity of the reasoning supporting this contention is questioned. The theory of correlation between relatives has been of vast importance in plant and animal breeding because it is possible to design and carry out experiments to estimate variance components in expressions for covariances between relatives. However, data on humans is observational and individuals are not randomly assigned to environments, so that estimation of heritability from such data is not on the same firm foundation as it is in plant and animal breeding contexts.

Animal Husbandry↗
PubMed1978

Logical, epistemological and statistical aspects of nature-nurture data interpretation.

In this paper the nature of the reasoning processes applied to the nature-nurture question is discussed in general and with particular reference to mental and behavioral traits. The nature of data analysis and analysis of variance is discussed. Necessarily, the nature of causation is considered. The notion that mere data analysis can establish "real" causation is attacked. Logic of quantitative genetic theory is reviewed briefly. The idea that heritability is meaningful in the human mental and behavioral arena is attacked. The conclusion is that the heredity-IQ controversy has been a "tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". To suppose that one can establish effects of an intervention process when it does not occur in the data is plainly ludicrous. Mere observational studies can easily lead to stupidities, and it is suggested that this has happened in the heredity-IQ arena. The idea that there are racial-genetic differences in mental abilities and behavioral traits of humans is, at best, no more than idle speculation.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1975

A note on goodness of fit of a population to Hardy-Weinberg structure.

The test of goodness of fit of a population to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium given by Levene [2] and Haldane [1] is valid within a widely accepted recipe for testing goodness of fit of a composite hypothesis. The nature of the result of Cannings and Edwards [3] is described. The result was shown to be quite different than they claimed and, although possible of some interest, not relevant to the testing of goodness of fit to Hardy-Weinberg structure.

Gene Frequency↗