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Why are Nobel laureates so innovative? Although the capacity of Nobel laureates for scientific innovation has attracted researchers' attention for decades, the phenomenon is far from understood. This chapter argues that scientific innovation of Nobel laureates is determined in part by specific preferences, feelings, beliefs, and intuitive processes, which constitute a whole field of unexplored or poorly understood scientific phenomena. Based on autobiographical and biographical accounts of Nobel laureates, the chapter explores these phenomena, demonstrating that they predict scientific productivity of the highest level that results in innovations and, consequently, outstanding scientific talent of Nobel caliber. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

During the more than fifty years society has recognized the concept of superior ability, or giftedness, a related issue has come to light: the fact that many of our brightest students are not achieving to their potential. Researchers have not arrived at a single clear explanation for this behavior or met with success in consistently reversing underachievement. Given that some of the best minds in the social sciences have been steadily attacking this problem without reliable success, how is it that some students have managed to self-intervene and reverse former poor performance? And, what factor(s) do they perceive as being critical to both their underachievement and subsequent success? Was there some particular moment when they suddenly decided to change? How did individuals who had been consistently told as students they would never amount to anything become self-fulfilled, competent, and successful citizens? The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of gifted students who once underachieved but who have since become achievers. The life-story qualitative research data were collected from four gifted adult participants via individual questionnaires and in-depth semi-structured personal interviews. Questions examined individual experiences of giftedness, related educational benefits and other issues, familial factors, social factors, and other pertinent information related to both giftedness and underachievement as well as perceptions related to both the moment and process of change. Data were then analyzed through inductive analytical processes. Once analyzed, the data described students who possessed both high intelligence and intellectual self-esteem, but who would not play The School Game. Participants came from families where important survival tactics such as study skills, self-regulation techniques, metacognitive processes or others were not taught, and parental involvement in children's education was minimal. Lack of success in school led to years of personal difficulty, including substance abuse and suicidal tendencies, leading to hitting bottom. After hitting bottom, each made the conscious choice to change, which included a return to college to successfully complete formal education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The unique characteristics of gifted children's emotional development are located in numerous theoretical papers and small sample case studies found in the literature on giftedness. A novel, more comprehensive conceptual approach was applied to this exploratory investigation. Emotion development was distinguished into four components: awareness and organization, motivation, regulation, and communication. This study explored the emotional development of gifted and average ability students through their ratings of five basic emotions on measures of emotional awareness and organization. Students (N = 357) in grades three, six, nine, or twelve were designated into gifted and average ability groups based on their most recent Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test scores. Three multifaceted measures were used to elicit participants' responses through Likert scale ratings, open-ended questions, and an emotion-word card-sort. Participants' emotion awareness (sensitivity and valence) and emotion organization (intensity and complexity) were perceived through five basic emotions (happy, sad, scared, loving, and angry). Separate MANOVA's were conducted for emotion: sensitivity (e.g., sensitivity-happy), valence (e.g., valence-scared), intensity (e.g., dimensionality-amounts of pleasantness and arousal), and complexity (e.g., unitary, blended, multiple, and complex emotions perceived in three sad situations). Significant differences between gifted students and their average ability peers were displayed on the first and second dimensions of the intensity variable and on the scared emotion situations of the complexity variable. No differences were shown on their emotion ratings on the sensitivity and valence variables. Significant effects were observed on the variables between genders and among students' grade levels supporting the applicability of this conceptual approach and these measures of emotion with respect to development. Further discussions and studies are required to identify the theoretical models, variables, and items that measure the multiple facets comprising gifted students' emotion development. The findings from this exploratory study suggest that basic rating scales require more breadth and depth to measure gifted students' emotion perceptions. The differences displayed in the students' organization of emotions require further scrutiny to understand the structures underlying their statistical data and graphic representations. Studies that include sample groups representing the various types (e.g., creative) and levels (e.g., exceptional) of giftedness would also further our understanding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The magnitude of ethnic minority students' special education placement has been criticized on methodological grounds. Particularly, Reschly & Bershoff (1999) identified the prevalence rate calculation in Office of Civil Rights reports as over estimating the special education placement of ethnic minority students. Reschly & Bershoff (1999) identified the prevalence rate calculation found in descriptive epidemiology research for use. The present study calculated prevalence rates through the descriptive epidemiology method. The present study examined the role of cultural concerns in the assessment and placement practices of ethnic minority students in special and gifted education. The role of cultural concerns was particularly noted in federal and state definitions of special education categories. Campbell & Fiske's (1952) MMTM approach was outlined to conceptualize the cultural concerns research. The present study found that African-American students were overrepresented in the Emotional Disturbance (ED) and Specific Learning Disabled (SLD) categories, underrepresented in the Gifted (GI) category, and placed at a proportional rate in the Mentally Retarded (MR) and Speech Language Impaired (SLI categories. Hispanic students were overrepresented in the SLD and SLI categories, underrepresented in the GI and MR categories, and placed at a proportional rate in the ED category. Native American students were overrepresented in the SLD and SLI categories and underrepresented in the ED, MR and GI categories. Asian/Pacific Islander students were overrepresented in the GI category, underrepresented in ED category, and placed at a proportional rate in the SLI, MR, and SLD categories. Anglo students were overrepresented in the GI, ED, SLI, and SLD categories and underrepresented in the MR category. The significant finding on the proportional placement of African-American students in the MR category suggest that prevalence rates are reviewed. The underestimate of ethnic minority students in the GI category suggest a broadening to include cultural definitions of giftedness. Of the cultural concerns reviewed, cultural role taking, which may include consultation with interpreters, cultural advisors, healers along with training, was found critical in the assessment of cultural variables in psychopathology and placement of ethnic minority students in special and gifted education. Lastly, school practices such as problem solving approaches as well as culturally responsive teaching are recommended for use as prereferral interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

The Personal Development Test is designed to identify the "at-risk" high school and college freshmen student for dropping out of school. In repeated tests the PDT scores were able to discern between high school and college drop-out students and corresponding typical individuals. In addition, it provides a meaningful index of honesty, and serves to identify the gifted individuals. This is done through the use of 21 Pairs of items from the test scored separately as a Confluence core. Half of those items are opposites, and the other half are at odds to each other in varying degrees; so if an individual scores one of the pairs one way, and fails to score the second item in the pair the opposite, the scores are at odds to fact. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The author discusses the issue of publishing scientific archives, which has at least two aspects--scientific and ethical. The scientific aspect involves evaluation of the significance of materials for the development of science. This aspect acquires additional importance when archival research discovers opinions which conflict with the publicized version presented in the papers published in the author's lifetime. The ethical side of the problem consists in the inability to answer the question whether the author ever wanted to see his views published. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Introduces the current issue of High Ability Studies, which will mark the premiere of an exceptional format for presenting and discussing new ideas: A target article and peer commentaries. The editorial provides information on submission of electronic manuscripts, and overviews the articles appearing in the current issue of the journal which cover topics including WICS as a model for giftedness, emotional and behavioural adjustment of the gifted, and career orientations of gifted early adolescent girls. In addition, the editorial previews the content of the upcoming issue of High Ability Studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Dr. Robinson's (see record 2004-11188-001) proposed action plan will serve the needs of highly achieving gifted students. However, defining giftedness as high academic performance based on traditional assessment procedures could reverse the field's fledgling success in supporting culturally diverse gifted children and youth. Changing the focus of equity in gifted education to economic representation will not decrease educators' responsibility to understand the learning needs of racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students. Nevertheless, a focus on children of poverty with high potential is a worthy and achievable goal and will require extraordinary commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This 10-year longitudinal study sought to determine whether children identified as academically gifted at pre-school but who received no specific support would be identifiably different from their peers after 10 years of Finnish comprehensive school. In 1989, using the Breuer-Weuffen Discrimination Test, 37 students were identified as being gifted, while a control group was also identified. In a 10-year follow-up of both groups, analyses of variance indicated that the gifted group scored significantly higher than the Control group for final school grades and Scholastic Competence. However, low correlations between Scholastic Competence and Global Self-Worth for the gifted group indicated that their school experiences lacked challenge, while girls were found to generally outperform boys. These results suggest that all gifted students would benefit from more specific support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Complex mathematical tasks such as problem solving are an ideal way to provide students opportunities to develop higher order mathematical processes such as representation, abstraction, and generalization. In this study, 9 freshmen in a ninth-grade accelerated algebra class were asked to solve five nonroutine combinatorial problems in their journals. The problems were assigned over the course of 3 months at increasing levels of complexity. The generality that characterized the solutions of the 5 problems was the pigeonhole (Dirichlet) principle. The 4 mathematically gifted students were successful in discovering and verbalizing the generality that characterized the solutions of the 5 problems, whereas the 5 nongifted students were unable to discover the hidden generality. This validates the hypothesis that there exists a relationship between mathematical giftedness, problem-solving ability, and the ability to generalize. This paper describes the problem-solving experiences of the mathematically gifted students and how they formulated abstractions and generalizations, with implications for acceleration and the need for differentiation in the secondary mathematics classroom. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Comments on Sternberg's article on WICS as a model for giftedness (see record 2004-10570-002). The current author suggests that while the world would undoubtedly be better if some gifted schools and fellowship and scholarship programmes adopted WICS, the world would not be improved if they all accepted Sternberg's proposal to adopt WICS or any common model of giftedness. The proposal is unrealistic, morally questionable, and undesirable. A world in which wise, intelligence, and creative people, however conceived, encourage the development of many types of gifted persons (including emotionally and spiritually gifted and even the gifted who seem bad bets) is more likely to produce a vigorous, interesting, and healthy future than one that follows Sternberg's monocultural proposal. A world with equal investment in everyone's development is even better. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This article presents the case of Geoffrey, a prolific 5-year-old writer. It examines his writing and how his intrapersonal factors and propitious environment contribute to his prodigious output. Childhood precocity is presented as an age-based comparable rather than as an adult-based predictor, consistent with Jackson's (2000) domain-specific developmental theory of giftedness. Geoffrey demonstrated highly precocious writing, both in production and in sophistication, and he demonstrated these abilities across a range and variety of content topics. The convergence of contributing influences evident in Geoffrey's life supports a growing literature on the coalescence factor within precocity. This implies that parents and educators have to carefully consider their influences. Suggestions are made concerning how developmental models of giftedness may need to expand to accommodate precocious writers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Comments on Sternberg's article on WICS as a model for giftedness (see record 2004-10570-002). The current authors focus on how to avoid selecting the "Denny's" of the world, referring to to a former gifted student who seemed primed for success-but then committed suicide. They argue that gifted education programmes, and especially those for younger students, should focus on finding all students of high ability and helping them develop their talents. In doing so we also hope the number of Denny's in the world might be reduced-not by excluding them from gifted programmes, but by including them and better preparing them to deal both with the positive and negative consequences of giftedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Six hundred and thirty-nine Chinese primary and secondary gifted students were assessed on their adjustment problems using the revised Student Adjustment Problems Inventory (SAPI-24). Students' responses indicated that intense involvement, perfectionism, unchallenging schoolwork, multipotentiality, and parental expectations could be relatively common problems among gifted students. Less salient was the problem of poor interpersonal relationships. While the notion linking giftedness and vulnerability to adjustment problems was not borne out by the data with traditional IQ measure, specific adjustment problems were found to be associated with specific intelligences, which conferred both increased and reduced vulnerability dependent on the adjustment problems involved. Implications of the findings for future research into the complex relationships between adjustment problems and giftedness or multiple intelligences are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Comments on Sternberg's article on WICS as a model for giftedness (see record 2004-10570-002). The current author argues that the way Sternberg conceptualizes successful intelligence, creativity, and wisdom makes a compelling case that giftedness cannot be simply the genetic makeup of an individual. A valuable feature of the model is that it deviates from the traditional ability-centric conceptions of giftedness. As a point of disagreement, although Sternberg is correct in arguing that the distinction between natural ability and acquired expertise is a theoretical one, and that empirically teasing apart the two is extremely difficult, it seems safe to say that fluid ability tests rely much less on experience and prior knowledge than crystallized ability tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

To truly understand gifted performance, it is necessary to merge research on giftedness with current thinking in cognitive development and intelligence. This article presents traditional research on gifted children's cognitive development then considers how the application of newer models and theories from the field of cognitive development can be combined with research on giftedness to change the way people think about gifted performance. First, four factors that have often been associated with giftedness are discussed from the perspectives of cognitive developmental psychology and gifted education. Next, emphasis is placed on investigating the strategic development of gifted children. Specifically, R. S. Siegler's ( Emerging Minds: The Process of Change in Children's Thinking, Oxford University Press, New York, 1996) model of strategy development is addressed in terms of what it may contribute to understanding gifted cognition. Finally, future lines of research using models from cognitive development and complex systems models of development are recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

There have been many definitions, across the history, about what means to be gifted. From the first Galton's definitions, resting on psychometric correlations and concerning with intelligence as measured, to the current global and integral definitions that include many different factors. Nevertheless, it seems that the giftedness field is still spread. In this paper we present a Dimensional Analysis made through a wide review of bibliography and working with a hundred of variables that seem to define giftedness. Our main goal is to establish an evolutional and chronologically hierarchical organization of the factors that play a role in the giftedness definition. The result of the analysis is very interesting not just at theoretical level, but always for its importance for educational practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Comments on Sternberg's discussion of WICS as a model for giftedness (see record 2004-10570-002) and discusses whether the WICS model can accurately predict who will develop into an elite level athlete. The current authors agree that the concepts presented in the WICS model are important factors in explaining giftedness across a wide range of domains, however, evaluating a person's wisdom, intelligence, and creativity as the sole indicators of 'giftedness' is problematic because this approach does not consider two more significant factors in attaining high achievement, access to essential resources and commitment. They make the claim that regardless of the level of wisdom, intelligence and/or creativity a person has, if they are not properly committed to perform the thousands of hours of training required to refine their skills, they will not achieve 'greatness', and suggest that further development is required before the WIGS model can be seen as a model of giftedness that can be applied to sport. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Comments on Sternberg's article on WICS as a model for giftedness (see record 2004-10570-002). The current author examines the reasons for the fact that complex models of giftedness seem to be en vogue at the start of this new millennium, and discusses whether the WICS model can offer new insights regarding the nature of giftedness from a cross-cultural perspective. He suggests that if Sternberg is able to theoretically and empirically confirm the three components intelligence, creativity, and wisdom not only with respect to their complementary relationships, but also regarding their different levels of complexity (with wisdom as inclusive, encompassing, and the highest level of complexity), he may accomplish-similar to the coup made by the hierarchical model of intelligence prominent in the English school during the middle of the last century-a 'Quantum leap' in giftedness research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

The present study examined an implicit theory of giftedness among service Chinese teachers. Participants were 189 second year students (preservice teachers, 74 male and 115 female, average age 20 yrs) from China Central Teachers' University. Participants responded to inventory based on Stemberg and Zhang's (1995) pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness and a simple questionnaire designed to cross-validate two of the five criteria in the pentagonal model. Results indicate that in making judgments about giftedness, participants took into consideration three of the five criteria specified in the pentagonal model excellence, productivity, and value. The excellence and productivity criteria were also confirmed by results from the simple questionnaire. Rarity and demonstrability, the two other criteria specified in the pentagonal model, were not taken into consideration by the participants in their evaluation of giftedness. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)