유전과 환경 요인이 한국의 전청소년기 쌍둥이들의 공간능력에 미치는 영향 = Research Genetic and environmental influences on spatial abilities in a sample of Korean preadolescent twins

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The main purpose of the present study is to examine genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in spatial abilities in a sample of Korean pre-adolescents. The Hidden Patterns test measuring spatial visualization, Cube Comparisons measuring mental rotation, and the Water Level test measuring spatial perception were administered to 94 pairs of identical and 68 pairs of fraternal twins aged from 9 to 13 years. The unrelated first principal component scores were extracted from factor analyses of the three spatial tests and were used as a measure of general spatial ability. In general, genetic influences on measures of spatial abilities were not strong. Shared environmental influences, however, were high across different spatial tests. Approximately 20% of the variance in the first principal component scores of the spatial tests was attributable to genetic factors, 37%, to shared environmental factors, and the remaining variance (i. e., 43%), to nonshared environmental factors including measurement errors. Genetic effects were negligible in Hidden Patterns and Water Level. In contrast, 23% of the genetic variance was emerged from the analysis of Cube Comparisons. Shared environmental variance was10% for Cube Comparisons, 30% for Water Level, and 42% for Hidden Patterns. The present results were compared to those found in Western samples. Limitations of the present study were discussed.