LMA Seminar, Dr Elsje van Bergen
Decoding the Gene-Environment Interplay of Reading Ability
Abstract
In this talk I will discuss what heritability means and how heritability information can help us to study causality between children’s reading ability and voluntary reading practices. That is, does reading a lot lead to better reading skills or does reading a lot follow from high initial reading skills? Next, I will argue that heritability can cause confounds in studying the effect of the home learning environment. I will illustrate how we can deal with this with research with and without genetic data available.
Bio
Dr Elsje van Bergen studies causes and consequences of individual differences in learning. In her research on educational skills she integrates theories and methods from educational sciences, psychology, and genetics. She is particularly intrigued by the interplay between genetic and environmental influences.
Van Bergen is Assistant Professor in Biological Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Before taking up this position she was a postdoctoral researcher in developmental psychology, University of Oxford. She obtained her PhD in educational sciences, University of Amsterdam. For more, see www.evanbergen.com or @drElsje.
For access to this seminar, please register here, a link will be sent to you within a few days of the talk. For later registrations, the link will be sent an hour before the start time.
