The reported study investigated students' perceptions of their high-performing classmates in terms of intelligence, social skills, and conscientiousness in different school subjects. The school subjects for study were examined with regard to cognitive, physical, and gender-specific issues. The results show that high academic achievements in…

In "Towards a systemic theory of gifted education," A. Ziegler and S.N. Phillipson have proposed a systemic approach to gifted education. For this approach, they built a model that they call an "actiotope" model. As they explained in the article, an actiotope consists of the acting individual and the environment with which he or she interacts. The…

The objective of this research was to study whether ability climate was a useful construct in exploring the possible pattern by which abilities were valued in the countries and cultures of Europe. Based on Moscovici's theory of social representations lists of famous and notable individuals published by the "Wikipedia Encyclopedia" were analyzed.…

Do gifted students adjust poorly to their social environment? There are currently two competing positions: one that sustains that giftedness is by itself a risk factor for social adaptation, and another that holds that high cognitive abilities involve distinctive features that are protective and hence increase individual resilience. Empirical…

The authors are pleased with commentators' willingness to respond to their target article's challenge to identify observable reproducible phenomena that could be widely accepted as strong scientific evidence for innate talent. In this reply, the authors have organized the ideas in the commentaries into three general categories, namely the…

In this commentary, the author focuses on the claim summarized in the last sentence of the target article's abstract. To begin, the concept of talent does not require the existence of "innate constraints to the attainment of elite achievement". On the contrary, genetic endowment may merely influence the rate at which domain-specific expertise is…

This paper presented the achievements of the expert performance approach. The 10-year rule of expertise is one of them, a very practical rule. However, the expert performance approach does not answer some important questions directly arising out of its main statements. The cognitive-developmental theory of giftedness can help in this regard…

Ericsson and colleagues have provided an exhaustive review of research on the role of training in the acquisition of expert performance and their framework continues to be invaluable for examining issues in this area. However, several researchers have noted limitations with the theoretical foundations of the deliberate practice approach. In this…

Less than a decade ago, Howe et al. (1998) attempted to demonstrate the lack of scientific support for the concept of innate talent (IT). Most ([approximately equal to] 75%) of the 30 commentators to that target article clearly disagreed with their core position. In spite of Ericsson's current efforts to counter or circumvent the major objections…

The expert performance approach championed by Ericsson et al. provides a scientific way forward for research on giftedness, and offers exciting new ways to further one's understanding of the determinants of high ability within a particular domain of expertise. While the methods the authors use are commendable and are likely to further one's…

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…

The conceptual level, working memory capacity and domain-specific skills of two girls (aged 7 and 11 years old) and two boys (aged 9 and 10 years old) who displayed exceptional intellectual performance were investigated from Case's neo-Piagetian theoretical perspective. Five measures of conceptual level and two measures of working memory capacity…

Two studies were conducted to explore mathematical precocity in young children. Study 1 examined mathematically gifted first and third graders' working memory development. The results showed that mathematically gifted children's working memory growth was similar to that expected of their age peers. Study 2 examined changes in mathematically gifted…

The maintenance of skilled performance is of increasing interest and importance in our aging society. Bortz and Bortz (1996) suggested that cognitive and physical abilities decline at a rate of 0.5% per year from peak performance. However, examinations of expert performance in cognitive-motor activities suggest that performance in these areas can…

The purpose of this study was to identify common and domain-specific cognitive characteristics of gifted students based on an integrated model of human abilities. This study is based on the premise that abilities identified by tests can appear as observable characteristics in test or school situations. Abilities proposed by major models of…