The purpose of the study was to reveal the cognitive characteristics of talented children who come from economically vulnerable contexts in Chile. Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) was administered to a sample of 5,160 students who took part in the process of identification of gifted students from the program PENTA UC in Chile between 2001 and 2010, when the participants were in the fifth grade. Results showed that there is a possible ceiling effect in SPM and thus Advanced Progressive Matrices might be more appropriate in the future identification process. Gifted Chilean students from public schools differ from not gifted students in both perceptual and analytical abilities, even at the early age of 10-11 years. Important gender differences emerged in solving the most difficult items of the test, more precisely in the rules applied in their solution. Gifted boys showed an advantage in addition/subtraction or distribution of two rules, whereas gifted girls did better in distribution of three rules. Results from this study could contribute not only to the process of identification of gifted students, but also to the proposition of adequate educational policy, corresponding to the cognitive characteristics of the children with academic talent.