Timothy Bates
Encyclopedia
Timothy C. Bates is a professor
of individual differences
in psychology
at the University of Edinburgh
(Scotland). His current research interests include the genetics
of reading and spelling, intelligence
, and personality
.
He is currently a member of the editorial board
of the journal Intelligence
. His Ph.D.
was completed in 1994 at the University of Auckland
(New Zealand) and integrated the Eysenckian
dimensional model of psychosis
with the categorical model of schizotypy
proposed by Paul E. Meehl
, using measures of personality, creativity
, evoked potential
s, and smooth pursuit eye movement dysfunction. He has since conducted research in individual differences, genetics
, and cognitive neuropsychology
, publishing nearly 100 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.
His principal academic achievements include demonstrating the existence of two separate forms of dyslexia
, underpinned by distinct gene
s, and, subsequently, demonstrating that the genes associated with dyslexia are also linked to normal variation in reading ability. This work evolved into searches for specific genes involved in reading
and language
.
In positive psychology
, he showed (along with Alexander Weiss and Michelle Luciano) that the genes for happiness
are genes for personality
, suggesting that a general factor of genetic well-being and specific genetic influences from the five factor model
traits
of Extraversion
, Neuroticism/Stability
, and Conscientiousness
completely explain the heritable
component of differences in happiness.
With Caroline Rae, Bates showed that creatine
supports cognitive function - finding that creatine supplements in vegan
s substantially increased their cognitive ability and working memory by comparison with placebo. This supported a literal 'mental energy' model of intelligence, first postulated by Charles Spearman
. In his work with the late Hans Eysenck
and subsequently with Con Stough
on the role of basic information processing speed in human intelligence, he used ERP complexity measures to argue for a modification to the Hendrickson and Hendrickson error or "string theory" (so named as pins and string were used to make the measurements of EEG
output) model of ability, to include a controlling role of attention. In related work on reaction time, he introduced a novel modification to the Jensen Box
, again controlling the role of attention in this task, and suggesting that under these conditions, intelligence is, as Arthur Jensen
proposed, related to the rate of information processing defined in Fitts Law and using Claude Shannon's information metrics.
At Edinburgh University he has investigated individual differences in intelligence, memory, and the genetic and environmental influences on social behaviours, such as coalition affiliation, politics, and altruism
. Working with Ian Deary
, Paul Irwing
, and Geoff Derr, he reported evidence for substantial gender differences
in intelligence in the form of much larger variance
amongst males than amongst females, with more boys and men scoring in both the extreme high range, and in the extreme low range.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of individual differences
Individual differences psychology
The science of psychology studies people at three levels of focus captured by the well-known quotation: “Every man is in certain respects like all other men, like some other men, like no other man" ....
in psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
(Scotland). His current research interests include the genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
of reading and spelling, intelligence
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
, and personality
Personality psychology
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...
.
He is currently a member of the editorial board
Editorial board
The editorial board is a group of people, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take.- Board makeup :...
of the journal Intelligence
Intelligence (journal)
Intelligence is a peer-reviewed academic journal of psychology that covers intelligence and psychometrics. It is published by Elsevier and the official journal of the International Society for Intelligence Research.The journal was established in 1977 and the editor in chief is Douglas K. Detterman...
. His Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
was completed in 1994 at the University of Auckland
University of Auckland
The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide...
(New Zealand) and integrated the Eysenckian
Hans Eysenck
Hans Jürgen Eysenck was a German-British psychologist who spent most of his career in Britain, best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas...
dimensional model of psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
with the categorical model of schizotypy
Schizotypy
Schizotypy is a psychological concept which describes a continuum of personality characteristics and experiences ranging from normal dissociative, imaginative states to more extreme states related to psychosis and in particular, schizophrenia...
proposed by Paul E. Meehl
Paul E. Meehl
Paul Everett Meehl was an American psychology professor.Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Meehl attended University of Minnesota, earning his bachelor's degree in 1941 and his doctorate in 1945...
, using measures of personality, creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
, evoked potential
Evoked potential
An evoked potential is an electrical potential recorded from the nervous system of a human or other animal following presentation of a stimulus, as distinct from spontaneous potentials as detected by electroencephalography or electromyography .Evoked potential amplitudes tend to be low, ranging...
s, and smooth pursuit eye movement dysfunction. He has since conducted research in individual differences, genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
, and cognitive neuropsychology
Cognitive neuropsychology
Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch of cognitive psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. It places a particular emphasis on studying the cognitive effects of brain injury or neurological illness with a view to...
, publishing nearly 100 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.
His principal academic achievements include demonstrating the existence of two separate forms of dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, underpinned by distinct gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
s, and, subsequently, demonstrating that the genes associated with dyslexia are also linked to normal variation in reading ability. This work evolved into searches for specific genes involved in reading
Reading (process)
Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning . It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas...
and language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
.
In positive psychology
Positive psychology
Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in...
, he showed (along with Alexander Weiss and Michelle Luciano) that the genes for happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
are genes for personality
Personality psychology
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...
, suggesting that a general factor of genetic well-being and specific genetic influences from the five factor model
Big Five personality traits
In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality....
traits
Trait theory
In psychology, Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over...
of Extraversion
Extraversion and introversion
The trait of extraversion-introversion is a central dimension of human personality theories.Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and interested in seeking out external stimulus. Introverts, in contrast, tend to be introspective, quiet and less sociable. They are not necessarily loners but...
, Neuroticism/Stability
Neuroticism
Neuroticism is a fundamental personality trait in the study of psychology. It is an enduring tendency to experience negative emotional states. Individuals who score high on neuroticism are more likely than the average to experience such feelings as anxiety, anger, guilt, and depressed mood...
, and Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is the trait of being painstaking and careful, or the quality of acting according to the dictates of one's conscience. It includes such elements as self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, organization, deliberation , and need for achievement. It is an aspect of what has...
completely explain the heritable
Heritability
The Heritability of a population is the proportion of observable differences between individuals that is due to genetic differences. Factors including genetics, environment and random chance can all contribute to the variation between individuals in their observable characteristics...
component of differences in happiness.
With Caroline Rae, Bates showed that creatine
Creatine
Creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in vertebrates and helps to supply energy to all cells in the body, primarily muscle. This is achieved by increasing the formation of Adenosine triphosphate...
supports cognitive function - finding that creatine supplements in vegan
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
s substantially increased their cognitive ability and working memory by comparison with placebo. This supported a literal 'mental energy' model of intelligence, first postulated by Charles Spearman
Charles Spearman
Charles Edward Spearman, FRS was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient...
. In his work with the late Hans Eysenck
Hans Eysenck
Hans Jürgen Eysenck was a German-British psychologist who spent most of his career in Britain, best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas...
and subsequently with Con Stough
Con Stough
Con Stough is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, director of the Swinburne Centre for Neuropsychology and director of the newly formed National Institute of Complementary Medicine Collaborative Centre for the study of herbal and...
on the role of basic information processing speed in human intelligence, he used ERP complexity measures to argue for a modification to the Hendrickson and Hendrickson error or "string theory" (so named as pins and string were used to make the measurements of EEG
Electroencephalography
Electroencephalography is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain...
output) model of ability, to include a controlling role of attention. In related work on reaction time, he introduced a novel modification to the Jensen Box
Jensen Box
The Jensen Box was developed by University of California, Berkeley psychologist Arthur Jensen as a standard apparatus for measuring choice reaction time, especially in relationship to differences in intelligence....
, again controlling the role of attention in this task, and suggesting that under these conditions, intelligence is, as Arthur Jensen
Arthur Jensen
Arthur Robert Jensen is a Professor Emeritus of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen is known for his work in psychometrics and differential psychology, which is concerned with how and why individuals differ behaviorally from one another.He is a major proponent...
proposed, related to the rate of information processing defined in Fitts Law and using Claude Shannon's information metrics.
At Edinburgh University he has investigated individual differences in intelligence, memory, and the genetic and environmental influences on social behaviours, such as coalition affiliation, politics, and altruism
Altruism
Altruism is a concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and a core aspect of various religious traditions, though the concept of 'others' toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. Altruism is the opposite of...
. Working with Ian Deary
Ian Deary
Ian J. Deary is a Scottish psychologist and Professor of Differential Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. Ian Deary is currently engaged in a 10-year study into the effects of ageing on mental ability using the 1932 Scottish Mental Survey funded by , entitled...
, Paul Irwing
Paul Irwing
Dr Paul Irwing is a Reader in organisational psychology at the University of Manchester. He is currently a member of the editorial board of Intelligence, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. His D.Phil. was completed in 1992, and integrated goal-setting, job characteristics and...
, and Geoff Derr, he reported evidence for substantial gender differences
Gender differences
A sex difference is a distinction of biological and/or physiological characteristics associated with either males or females of a species. These can be of several types, including direct and indirect. Direct being the direct result of differences prescribed by the Y-chromosome, and indirect being...
in intelligence in the form of much larger variance
Variance
In probability theory and statistics, the variance is a measure of how far a set of numbers is spread out. It is one of several descriptors of a probability distribution, describing how far the numbers lie from the mean . In particular, the variance is one of the moments of a distribution...
amongst males than amongst females, with more boys and men scoring in both the extreme high range, and in the extreme low range.