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Pathfinder: A gamified measure to integrate general cognitive ability into the biological, medical and behavioural sciences

View ORCID ProfileMargherita Malanchini, View ORCID ProfileKaili Rimfeld, Agnieszka Gidziela, View ORCID ProfileRosa Cheesman, View ORCID ProfileAndrea G. Allegrini, Nicholas Shakeshaft, Kerry Schofield, Amy Packer, Rachel Ogden, Andrew McMillan, View ORCID ProfileStuart J. Ritchie, View ORCID ProfilePhilip S. Dale, View ORCID ProfileThalia C. Eley, View ORCID ProfileSophie von Stumm, View ORCID ProfileRobert Plomin
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.10.430571
Margherita Malanchini
1School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, UK
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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  • For correspondence: m.malanchini@qmul.ac.uk
Kaili Rimfeld
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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Agnieszka Gidziela
1School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, UK
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Rosa Cheesman
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
6PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Andrea G. Allegrini
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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  • ORCID record for Andrea G. Allegrini
Nicholas Shakeshaft
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
3QuodIt Ltd
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Kerry Schofield
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
3QuodIt Ltd
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Amy Packer
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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Rachel Ogden
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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Andrew McMillan
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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Stuart J. Ritchie
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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Philip S. Dale
4Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of New Mexico
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Thalia C. Eley
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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Sophie von Stumm
5Department of Education, University of York, UK
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Robert Plomin
2Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
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Abstract

Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have uncovered DNA variants associated with individual differences in general cognitive ability (g), but these are far from capturing heritability estimates obtained from twin studies. A major barrier is measurement heterogeneity. In a series of four studies, we created a 15-minute, online, gamified measure of g that is highly reliable, psychometrically valid and scalable. In a fifth study, we administered this measure to 4,751 young adults from the Twins Early Development Study. This novel g measure, which also yields verbal and nonverbal scores, showed substantial twin heritability (57%) and SNP heritability (37%). A polygenic score computed from GWA studies of five cognitive and educational traits accounted for 12% of the variation in g, the strongest DNA-based prediction of g to date. Widespread use of this engaging new measure will advance research not only in genomics but throughout the biological, medical and behavioural sciences.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted February 10, 2021.
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Pathfinder: A gamified measure to integrate general cognitive ability into the biological, medical and behavioural sciences
Margherita Malanchini, Kaili Rimfeld, Agnieszka Gidziela, Rosa Cheesman, Andrea G. Allegrini, Nicholas Shakeshaft, Kerry Schofield, Amy Packer, Rachel Ogden, Andrew McMillan, Stuart J. Ritchie, Philip S. Dale, Thalia C. Eley, Sophie von Stumm, Robert Plomin
bioRxiv 2021.02.10.430571; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.10.430571
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Pathfinder: A gamified measure to integrate general cognitive ability into the biological, medical and behavioural sciences
Margherita Malanchini, Kaili Rimfeld, Agnieszka Gidziela, Rosa Cheesman, Andrea G. Allegrini, Nicholas Shakeshaft, Kerry Schofield, Amy Packer, Rachel Ogden, Andrew McMillan, Stuart J. Ritchie, Philip S. Dale, Thalia C. Eley, Sophie von Stumm, Robert Plomin
bioRxiv 2021.02.10.430571; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.10.430571

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