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

doi:10.1038/s41380-021-01300-0

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

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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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 to finding more of this ‘missing heritability’ is assessment––the use of diverse measures across GWA studies as well as time and the cost of assessment. In a series of four studies, we created a 15-min (40-item), online, gamified measure of g that is highly reliable (alpha = 0.78; two-week test-retest reliability = 0.88), psychometrically valid and scalable; we called this new measure Pathfinder. 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 reliable verbal and nonverbal scores, correlated substantially with standard measures of g collected at previous ages (r ranging from 0.42 at age 7 to 0.57 at age 16). Pathfinder showed substantial twin heritability (0.57, 95% CIs = 0.43, 0.68) and SNP heritability (0.37, 95% CIs = 0.04, 0.70). 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.

Original language	English
Journal	Molecular Psychiatry
Volume	26
Issue number	12
Early online date	1 Oct 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01300-0
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 1 Oct 2021

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Malanchini, M., Rimfeld, K., Gidziela, A., Cheesman, R., Allegrini, A. G., Shakeshaft, N., Schofield, K., Packer, A., Ogden, R., McMillan, A., Ritchie, S. J., Dale, P. S., Eley, T. C., von Stumm, S., & Plomin, R. (2021). Pathfinder: a gamified measure to integrate general cognitive ability into the biological, medical, and behavioural sciences. Molecular Psychiatry, 26(12). Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01300-0

@article{d275dba09415498d9d43c25404e97deb,

title = "Pathfinder: a gamified measure to integrate general cognitive ability into the biological, medical, and behavioural sciences",

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 to finding more of this {\textquoteleft}missing heritability{\textquoteright} is assessment––the use of diverse measures across GWA studies as well as time and the cost of assessment. In a series of four studies, we created a 15-min (40-item), online, gamified measure of g that is highly reliable (alpha = 0.78; two-week test-retest reliability = 0.88), psychometrically valid and scalable; we called this new measure Pathfinder. 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 reliable verbal and nonverbal scores, correlated substantially with standard measures of g collected at previous ages (r ranging from 0.42 at age 7 to 0.57 at age 16). Pathfinder showed substantial twin heritability (0.57, 95% CIs = 0.43, 0.68) and SNP heritability (0.37, 95% CIs = 0.04, 0.70). 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.",

author = "Margherita Malanchini and Kaili Rimfeld and Agnieszka Gidziela and Rosa Cheesman and Allegrini, {Andrea G.} and Nicholas Shakeshaft and Kerry Schofield and Amy Packer and Rachel Ogden and Andrew McMillan and Ritchie, {Stuart J.} and Dale, {Philip S.} and Eley, {Thalia C.} and {von Stumm}, Sophie and Robert Plomin",

note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing contribution of the participants in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) and their families. TEDS is supported by a programme grant to RP and TCE from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/ V012878/1 and previously MR/M021475/1), with additional support from the US National Institutes of Health (AG046938). KR is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship. AG is supported by a Queen Mary School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences PhD Fellowship awarded to MM. This study presents independent research [part-] funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King{\textquoteright}s College London. We thank Emily Smith-Woolley and Ziada Ayorech for their help with the initial phases of this work. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2021",

month = oct,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41380-021-01300-0",

language = "English",

volume = "26",

journal = "Molecular Psychiatry",

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Malanchini, M , Rimfeld, K, Gidziela, A, Cheesman, R, Allegrini, AG , Shakeshaft, N , Schofield, K, Packer, A, Ogden, R, McMillan, A, Ritchie, SJ, Dale, PS, Eley, TC, von Stumm, S & Plomin, R 2021, 'Pathfinder: a gamified measure to integrate general cognitive ability into the biological, medical, and behavioural sciences', Molecular Psychiatry, vol. 26, no. 12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01300-0

TY - JOUR

T1 - Pathfinder

T2 - a gamified measure to integrate general cognitive ability into the biological, medical, and behavioural sciences

AU - Malanchini, Margherita

AU - Rimfeld, Kaili

AU - Gidziela, Agnieszka

AU - Cheesman, Rosa

AU - Allegrini, Andrea G.

AU - Shakeshaft, Nicholas

AU - Schofield, Kerry

AU - Packer, Amy

AU - Ogden, Rachel

AU - McMillan, Andrew

AU - Ritchie, Stuart J.

AU - Dale, Philip S.

AU - Eley, Thalia C.

AU - von Stumm, Sophie

AU - Plomin, Robert

N1 - Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing contribution of the participants in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) and their families. TEDS is supported by a programme grant to RP and TCE from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/ V012878/1 and previously MR/M021475/1), with additional support from the US National Institutes of Health (AG046938). KR is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship. AG is supported by a Queen Mary School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences PhD Fellowship awarded to MM. This study presents independent research [part-] funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. We thank Emily Smith-Woolley and Ziada Ayorech for their help with the initial phases of this work. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/10/1

Y1 - 2021/10/1

N2 - 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 to finding more of this ‘missing heritability’ is assessment––the use of diverse measures across GWA studies as well as time and the cost of assessment. In a series of four studies, we created a 15-min (40-item), online, gamified measure of g that is highly reliable (alpha = 0.78; two-week test-retest reliability = 0.88), psychometrically valid and scalable; we called this new measure Pathfinder. 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 reliable verbal and nonverbal scores, correlated substantially with standard measures of g collected at previous ages (r ranging from 0.42 at age 7 to 0.57 at age 16). Pathfinder showed substantial twin heritability (0.57, 95% CIs = 0.43, 0.68) and SNP heritability (0.37, 95% CIs = 0.04, 0.70). 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.

AB - 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 to finding more of this ‘missing heritability’ is assessment––the use of diverse measures across GWA studies as well as time and the cost of assessment. In a series of four studies, we created a 15-min (40-item), online, gamified measure of g that is highly reliable (alpha = 0.78; two-week test-retest reliability = 0.88), psychometrically valid and scalable; we called this new measure Pathfinder. 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 reliable verbal and nonverbal scores, correlated substantially with standard measures of g collected at previous ages (r ranging from 0.42 at age 7 to 0.57 at age 16). Pathfinder showed substantial twin heritability (0.57, 95% CIs = 0.43, 0.68) and SNP heritability (0.37, 95% CIs = 0.04, 0.70). 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.

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U2 - 10.1038/s41380-021-01300-0

DO - 10.1038/s41380-021-01300-0

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85116779130

SN - 1359-4184

VL - 26

JO - Molecular Psychiatry

JF - Molecular Psychiatry

IS - 12

ER -

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

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