{{Short description|Psychologist and behaviour geneticist (born 1963) }} {{for|the field hockey player|Tim Bates}} {{BLP primary sources|date=September 2022}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Timothy Bates | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = 1963 | birth_place = Auckland | death_date = | death_place = | field = Psychology, behaviour genetics | work_institution = University of Edinburgh | alma_mater = University of Auckland | thesis_title = Psychometric & psychophysiological measures for schizotypy, creativity & psychoticism | thesis_url = https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/56158 | thesis_year = 1993 | doctoral_advisor = Gordon Mangan | doctoral_students = | known_for = Research on the genetics of dyslexia, intelligence, personality, wellbeing | prizes = | footnotes = }} '''Timothy C. Bates''' (born 1963) is a professor of differential psychology at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include the genetics of reading and spelling, intelligence, and personality.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/people/tbates/ |title=Timothy Bates – Psychology |publisher=University of Edinburgh |work=School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |access-date=20 July 2011}}</ref>
== Biography ==
He is a member of the editorial board of the journal ''Intelligence''. His PhD 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 potentials, and smooth pursuit eye movement dysfunction. The title of his doctoral thesis was ''Psychometric & psychophysiological measures for schizotypy, creativity & psychoticism''.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Bates |first=Timothy |year=1993 |type=Doctoral thesis |title=Psychometric & psychophysiological measures for schizotypy, creativity & psychoticism |publisher=ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland |hdl=2292/56158}}</ref>
Subsequent academic publications include demonstrating the existence of two separate forms of dyslexia, underpinned by distinct genes,<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/s11145-006-9022-1 |title=Genetic and environmental bases of reading and spelling: A unified genetic dual route model |year=2006 |last1=Bates |first1=Timothy C. |last2=Castles |first2=Anne |last3=Luciano |first3=Michelle |last4=Wright |first4=Margaret J. |last5=Coltheart |first5=Max |last6=Martin |first6=Nicholas G. |journal=Reading and Writing |volume=20 |issue=1–2 |pages=147–171|s2cid=17016723 }}</ref> and, subsequently, demonstrating that the genes associated with dyslexia are also linked to normal variation in reading ability.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Bates TC, Luciano M, Castles A, Coltheart M, Wright MJ, Martin NG |title=Replication of reported linkages for dyslexia and spelling and suggestive evidence for novel regions on chromosomes 4 and 17 |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=194–203 |date=February 2007 |pmid=17119535 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201739 |doi-access=free }}</ref> This work lead to searches for specific genes involved in reading and language.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Bates TC, Luciano M, Medland SE, Montgomery GW, Wright MJ, Martin NG |title=Genetic variance in a component of the language acquisition device: ROBO1 polymorphisms associated with phonological buffer deficits |journal=Behavior Genetics |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=50–7 |date=January 2011 |pmid=20949370 |doi=10.1007/s10519-010-9402-9 |s2cid=13129473 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Bates TC, Lind PA, Luciano M, Montgomery GW, Martin NG, Wright MJ |title=Dyslexia and DYX1C1: deficits in reading and spelling associated with a missense mutation |journal=Molecular Psychiatry |volume=15 |issue=12 |pages=1190–6 |date=December 2010 |pmid=19901951 |doi=10.1038/mp.2009.120 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Weiss A, Bates TC, Luciano M |title=Happiness is a personal(ity) thing: the genetics of personality and well-being in a representative sample |journal=Psychological Science |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=205–10 |date=March 2008 |pmid=18315789 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02068.x |hdl=20.500.11820/a343050c-5c67-4314-b859-09c56aa10d3b |s2cid=13081589 |url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/16424671/WEISS_A_Happiness_is_a_personality_thing_postprint.pdf }}</ref>
With Caroline Rae, Bates showed that creatine supports cognitive function – finding that creatine supplements in vegans 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<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0191-8869(80)90003-3 |title=The biological basis of individual differences in intelligence |year=1980 |last1=Hendrickson |first1=Donna E. |last2=Hendrickson |first2=Alan E. |journal=Personality and Individual Differences |volume=1 |pages=3–33}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0191-8869(93)90063-9 |title=String length, attention & intelligence: Focussed attention reverses the string length-IQ relationship☆ |year=1993 |last1=Bates |first1=T. |last2=Eysenck |first2=H.J. |journal=Personality and Individual Differences |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=363–371}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0160-2896(95)90004-7 |title=Intelligence and complexity of the averaged evoked potential: An attentional theory |year=1995 |last1=Bates |first1=T |journal=Intelligence |volume=20 |pages=27–39}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0160-2896(99)80052-X |title=Improved reaction time method, information processing speed, and intelligence |year=1998 |last1=Bates |first1=T |journal=Intelligence |volume=26 |pages=53–62}}</ref>
At the University of Edinburgh he has investigated individual differences in intelligence, memory,<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Bates TC, Price JF, Harris SE, Marioni RE, Fowkes FG, Stewart MC, Murray GD, Whalley LJ, Starr JM, Deary IJ |title=Association of KIBRA and memory |journal=Neuroscience Letters |volume=458 |issue=3 |pages=140–3 |date=July 2009 |pmid=19397951 |doi=10.1016/j.neulet.2009.04.050 |s2cid=143816223 }}</ref> and the genetic and environmental influences on social behaviours, such as coalition affiliation,<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Lewis GJ, Bates TC |title=Genetic evidence for multiple biological mechanisms underlying in-group favoritism |journal=Psychological Science |volume=21 |issue=11 |pages=1623–8 |date=November 2010 |pmid=20974715 |doi=10.1177/0956797610387439 |s2cid=27351021 }}</ref> politics,<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Lewis GJ, Bates TC |title=From left to right: How the personality system allows basic traits to influence politics via characteristic moral adaptations |journal=British Journal of Psychology |volume=102 |issue=3 |pages=546–58 |date=August 2011 |pmid=21752005 |doi=10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02016.x }}</ref> and altruism.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Lewis GJ, Bates TC |title=A common heritable factor influences prosocial obligations across multiple domains |journal=Biology Letters |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=567–70 |date=August 2011 |pmid=21307044 |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2010.1187 |pmc=3130221}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.intell.2006.09.003 |title=Brother–sister differences in the g factor in intelligence: Analysis of full, opposite-sex siblings from the NLSY1979 |year=2007 |last1=Deary |first1=I |last2=Irwing |first2=P |last3=Der |first3=G |last4=Bates |first4=T |journal=Intelligence |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=451–456}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official website|http://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/people/tbates}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Timothy C.}} Category:1963 births Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh Category:21st-century British psychologists Category:Intelligence researchers Category:Behavior geneticists Category:Living people Category:Dyslexia researchers Category:University of Auckland alumni Category:Scientists from Auckland Category:21st-century New Zealand psychologists Category:20th-century New Zealand psychologists Category:20th-century British psychologists