ABSTRACT
The question of the influence of social and physical environmental upon human mental development has claimed the increasing attention of a growing number of psychologists. This emphasis, particularly in North America, has probably supplanted an alternative approach based on the assumption that certain identifiable groups of people transmit to their progeny different maximal cognitive capacities. A relatively advantaged sample and a relatively disadvantaged sample of children were drawn from both European and full-blood Aboriginal populations. The two European populations, which were drawn from Sydney, were described as high-socioeconomic and low-socioeconomic, in so far as they occupied extreme positions on the occupational prestige scale of Congalton. The statistical analysis, which is given in detail elsewhere, showed that significant differences in test performance were revealed by either one or both of the statistical tests between low- and high-contact Aboriginals, and between low- and high-socioeconomic Europeans.
