The paper reviews research on the cognitive structures of gifted students. Theories of R. Sternberg and his triarchic model of intelligence are described. Sternberg asserts that three processes appear to account for insight: selective encoding, selective combination, and selective comparison. H. Gardner's perspective citing six types of intelligence is also discussed. An attempt at meta-analysis of these perspectives is offered, and it is concluded that gifted students process information more quickly, more expediently, and more insightfully than others, and that they are highly perceptive and insightful in their combining, comparing, and encoding of information. Domains in which gifted students can be distinguished from non-gifted students are identified. (CL)