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Editor notes that in this issue, the authors address some very diverse aspects of giftedness and talent, including perfectionism, language diversity, musical talent and appreciation, implicit influences on thought and action, social awareness, and some deep, inner, psychological dimensions of high ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

This article reviews studies investigating cognitive ability and academic achievement of students with Asperger syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA). Particular emphasis is placed on the mathematical ability of people with AS/HFA. A preliminary analysis of empirical data is presented. Findings indicate that: (1) the majority of individuals with AS/HFA have average mathematical ability; (2) the majority of individuals with AS/HFA have a significant but clinically modest math weakness; (3) some individuals with AS/HFA have mathematical giftedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Replies to several comments made by the original authors (see record 2007-12554-002). Examines and comments upon the cumulative science involved with reproducibly superior aspects of giftedness. Relevant misunderstandings, agreements, and disagreements are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Comments on the article by Ericsson, Roring and Nandagopal (see record 2007-12554-002). This paper presented well the achievements of the expert performance approach. The 10-year rule of expertise is one of them, a very practical rule. For example, when I meet a new physician, my first question always is: 'How many years of practical experience do you have?' 'Do not send me a bunch of non-experts to see my baby. Send me a paediatrician who has at least 10 years of experience', I demanded the administration of the Children's Hospital in Ottawa and forbade non-experts to enter my room. They promised to send me their best expert. The following morning Dr. Johnson came, saying that he had five years of experience and he thought that he was an expert. You can imagine my disappointment. However, the expert performance approach does not answer some important questions directly arising out of its main statements. The author expands upon these issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Different cultures have different conceptions of what it means to be gifted. But in identifying children as gifted, we often use only our own conception, ignoring the cultural context in which the children grew up. Such identification is inadequate and fails to do justice to the richness of the world's cultures. It also misses children who are gifted and may identify as gifted children those who are not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Comments on article by Ericsson, Roring and Nandagopal (see record 2007-12554-002) regarding the authors' failure to adequately explain the remarkableness of giftedness with respect to neurophysiological substrates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Comments on article by Ericsson, Roring and Nandagopal (see record 2007-12554-002) regarding the three challenges faced by giftedness researchers. Questions are posed for the original authors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

This issue of Gifted Child Quarterly includes five excellent articles on a variety of topics including underachievement, the implications of a conceptual model of giftedness for educational practice, gifted teachers’ attitudes toward technology, longitudinal outcomes of participation in an early college entrance program, and the role of honors’ colleges in the talent development of gifted individuals. Collectively, the articles address several important issues regarding the social and emotional development of gifted children and the impact of educational interventions on the lives and achievement of talented young people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Nowadays an approach to researches of creativity matches the Vygotsky's ideas to a greater degree. L.S. Vygotsky reasons that analytical methods connected to elements' analysis makes evident the necessity of synthetic study of creative abilities and giftedness. Psychology had been moving towards this approach for the XIX—XX centuries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

School counselors, when serving as consultants and assuming consultee roles, can contribute significantly to the well-being of gifted students at all school levels. This article summarizes pertinent current training of school counselors, social and emotional concerns of gifted children and adolescents, and the practice of consultation as it relates to school counseling. In addition, brief narratives describe consultations related to peer relations, underachievement, college and career decisions, assistance to classroom teachers and parents, small-group work, potential misdiagnosis, alternative and affective curriculum, and diversity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This study examined the relationships between components of leadership giftedness and multiple intelligences among 510 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students perceived their strengths in intrapersonal, interpersonal and verbal-linguistic intelligences, and their weaknesses in bodily-kinesthetic and naturalist intelligences. They also rated themselves higher on leadership flexibility and goal orientation than on leadership self-efficacy. In predicting the three leadership components, intrapersonal and verbal-linguistic intelligences emerged as common and significant predictors, suggesting that self-reflection and self-management skills as well as a good command of language use were important in leadership. Other significant predictors such as logical-mathematical intelligence for leadership self-efficacy as well as goal orientation and interpersonal intelligence for leadership flexibility suggested that critical thinking might be important for the sense of confidence or efficacy and the vision of goals, whereas relational or people skills might be important for the openness to different options. Students who were classified high on both verbal-linguistic intelligence and personal intelligences, high on one and low on the other, and low on both were found to be generally high, medium and low on all three leadership components, respectively. Implications of the findings for inferring different levels of components of leadership giftedness from specific intelligences and for developing leadership training programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Reviews the book, Educational psychology and developmental psychology, Vol. 55: Professional interests in highly gifted adolescents by Jörn R. Sparfeldt (2006). Highly gifted children and adolescents often are seen as being at risk for underachievement or other developmental problems, including diffuse professional interests because they have too many options to choose among. However, giftedness might also help in developing professional interests. The existing literature on possible links between giftedness and professional interests suffers from methodological problems such as selective samples or missing comparison groups. Sparfeldt's peer-reviewed monograph thus fills an empirical gap. The author used data from the Marburg Highly Gifted Project. Most comparisons were drawn between 107 gifted and 107 average adolescents who were identified from a large sample at grade 3 and confirmed at grade 9, and between 134 highly and 122 normally achieving youths. The results showed few differences between gifted and high-achieving, respectively, youth and the comparison groups. Gifted adolescents had more various general interests, but a clearer profile of professional interests than normally intelligent adolescents. Gifted and highly-achieving youths had stronger intellectual and cultural professional interests, but valued self-actualization, leadership, and safety in the profession less than the comparison groups. In conclusion, gifted adolescents appear not as an at-risk group, falsifying the common cliché. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The purpose of this study is to examine the underlying construct of over excitabilities (OEs) and to identify individual- and family-level factors that may explain gifted students’ patterns of OEs. Data are collected from a convenience sample of identified gifted students ( N = 143) and their parents ( N = 161) using a Likert-type questionnaire, the Over excitabilities Questionnaire II, developed to measure levels of the five intensities of the OEs. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance and hierarchical linear modeling are used to differentiate between gender and age groups and to explain between- and within-group variance on the five subscales of the OEs: Psychomotor, Intellectual, Imaginational, Sensual, and Emotional. Results suggest that there were significant differences between gender and age groups and that most of the variance among students on the OEs was explained by family membership. This study represents an important step in our understanding of affective characteristics of giftedness and creativity. Putting the Research to Use: Dabrowski’s over excitabilities represent a multifaceted lens through which to view the intensities of gifted children. The challenge for researchers and practitioners is to examine these intensities and promote intervention strategies that will enhance students’ positive characteristics while teaching them to compensate for the negative. To address this challenge, researchers should explore and explain these sensitivities to gifted students, their parents, and their teachers. Those in charge of identifying gifted, talented, and creative students should use the over excitabilities as an additional tool in a multifaceted and inclusive model of identification. Furthermore, teachers must be aware that characteristics indicating a learning disability or behavioral disorder may be characteristics of giftedness manifested through these over excitabilities. Finally, students and their parents should be assisted in understanding and celebrating students’ unique sensitivities and intensities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

It is of major importance to use psychological tests and questionnaires that are carefully constructed so that their reliability and validity can be determined in different (sub)cultures (Campbell & Tirri, 2004). However, a necessary prerequisite for this is the development of solid conceptual constructs. Otherwise, the researcher runs into the danger of empirically collecting data and loosing touch with reality. A theory-free empirical approach also makes it difficult to relate findings to other psychological research. We first show why and how the Munich Dynamic Ability-Achievement Model (MDAAM) evolved from the Munich Model of Giftedness (MMG). We will then illustrate how the MDAAM can stimulate and structure theoretical and empirical research. The MDAAM can be used as an integrative model of giftedness, talent, expertise, and achievement and could this way bridge the gap between the process-oriented approaches of cognitive studies as well as expertise research and psychometric studies in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Definitions of giftedness and self-perceptions of abilities were examined among adults who have been participating in a longitudinal study of academically talented students since their high-school graduation in 1988. For the present study, participants answered open-ended questions and completed scales measuring adult giftedness and adult self-perceptions of abilities in 12 different domains. Gender differences in perceptions were examined. When participants were asked if they believed they were gifted in high school and now, more men than women responded affirmatively to both questions. Further, significant gender differences were identified for perceived competencies in four areas: job competence, nurturance, athletic competence, and morality. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Giftedness researchers have long debated whether there is empirical evidence to support a distinction between giftedness and attained level of achievement. In this paper we propose a general theoretical framework that establishes scientific criteria for acceptable evidence of superior reproducible performance, which any theory of exceptional performance must explain. We review evidence for superior reproducible performance, generally emerging only after extended periods of deliberate practice that result in subsequent physiological adaptations and complex cognitive mechanisms. We also apply this framework to examine proposed evidence for innate talents. With the exception of fixed genetic factors determining body size and height, we were unable to find evidence for innate constraints to the attainment of elite achievement for healthy individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

This study reports on an analysis of the standardization sample of a rating scale designed to assist in identification of gifted students. The Gifted Rating Scales--Preschool/Kindergarten Form (GRS-P) is based on a multidimensional model of giftedness designed for preschool and kindergarten students. Results provide support for: the internal structure of the scale; no age differences across the 3-year age span 4:0-6:11; gender differences on only one of the five scales; artistic talent; and small but statistically significant race/ethnicity differences with Asian Americans rated, on average, 1.5 scale-score points higher than whites and Native Americans and 7 points higher than African American and Hispanic students. The present findings provide support for the GRS-P as a valid screening test for giftedness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Conceptual models of giftedness that cannot explain the full spectrum of depicted behaviors are incomplete. The same is true for frameworks that purport to analyze those behaviors. Within giftedness, extraordinary and rare talents afford us the opportunity to extend and modify models and frameworks. This article presents an analysis of the first 2 years of writing of a precocious child whose prolific language, complex sentence structures, and sophisticated conceptual development belie his age. Attempts to conduct comparative analyses found that existing frameworks could not explain the data's holistic and thematic tones. This led to the construction of a new synthetic-analytic framework for precocious writing that more fully depicts the known spectrum of writing elements exhibited by highly gifted children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Following an introductory definition of 'scientific ability and creativity', product-oriented, personality and social psychological approaches to studying scientific ability are examined with reference to competence and performance. Studies in the psychometric versus cognitive psychological paradigms are dealt with in more detail. These two research strategies complement each other in describing and explaining scientific ability and creativity in the field of science and technology. Whereas psychometric studies seem to be essential for diagnostic and prognostic purposes, cognitive psychological studies help to explain the development of individual competencies and excellent performances. In the last two decades, another research paradigm has arisen that has been characterized as 'giftedness as developing expertise'. The so-called 'expert-novice paradigm' is based on a dynamic concept of giftedness in which creativity and motivation play an indispensable role. As an example of this approach, the Munich Dynamic Ability Achievement Model (MDAAM)--an extended version of the Munich Model of Giftedness (MMG)--will be discussed in greater detail. Furthermore, empirical data from the author's studies of scientific ability and technical creativity will be presented and their theoretical context described. Finally, various possibilities for nurturing scientifically and creatively talented adolescents and adults are discussed, with sex-related problems being touched upon. Generally, the hypothetical construct 'scientific ability' can be defined as scientific thinking potential or as a special talent for excellence in (natural) sciences. Similar to this definition, 'scientific creativity' or 'technical creativity' can be conceptualized as individual and social capacities for solving complex scientific and technical problems in an innovative and productive way. Both descriptive and explanatory terms are necessary for a theoretically and practically efficient definition. This further necessitates different research strategies, which will be demonstrated with respect to several study examples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The present study sought to examine the perceptions of giftedness and identification procedures held by experienced teachers of gifted minority students. Twenty-seven 4th-grade teachers of gifted students in an urban school system with a high representation of minority and economically disadvantaged students were surveyed. Results indicated that experienced teachers still held a narrow conception of giftedness and were not aware of how culture and environmental factors may influence the expression of giftedness in minority and economically disadvantaged students. Findings also indicated that these teachers expressed concerns for approximately one third of their students qualifying for the gifted program. These concerns were based primarily on students having a skill deficit in one area, poor work habits, or behavioral or family problems. Teachers were less likely to notice gifted characteristics in these students compared to other identified students, even though both groups were identified in the same way. Implications for teaching gifted minority and economically disadvantaged students are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)