Methods for Identifying Cognitively Gifted Children
Keywords:
сognitive giftedness, gifted children, giftedness identification, intelligence testing, IQ, domain specific Olympiads, fMRI
Abstract
A small percentage of children shows outstanding cognitive abilities and perform at much higher levels than their same age peers. Psychological science has absorbed knowledge from different spheres such as psychometrics, mathematics, statistics, and psychology to develop methods for identifying cognitively gifted children. The study of intelligence has a long history and has been influenced by social environment, wars, education systems and revolutions. In this paper we focus on two main techniques of identifying cognitively gifted children (a) intelligence testing and (b) domain specific exams called Olympiads (e.g., math and physics). We provide a short historical perspective of the evolution of intelligence testing in Europe and the USA and domain specific Olympiads in Russia. We discuss advantages and limitations of both techniques. Moreover, we highlight that cognitive neuroscientists have been trying to understand the brain mechanisms that may drive cognitive abilities in highly performing children using neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We summarize the knowledge we gained to date from fMRI studies and show that the majority of studies examine mathematically gifted male adolescents with mental rotation tasks. Despite critical advances there is still a lot to be done in understanding the semantic brain-behavior relations in cognitively gifted children.
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References
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33. Schneider, W. H. (1992). After Binet-French intelligence-testing. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 28(2), 111-132.
34. Siegel, J., Shaughnessy, M. E., & Knoble, R. (1994). An interview with Alan Kaufman. Educational Psychology Review, 8(2), 151-163.Steel, Z., & Silove, D. (2001). The mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers. Medical Journal of Australia, 175, 596-599.
35. Ushakov, D. V. (Ed.). (2000). Psikhologiya odarennosti. Ot teorii k praktike[Psychology of giftedness. From theory to practice]. Moscow: PER SE.
36. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society(Trans. M. Cole). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37. Walker, A. J, Batchelor, J., & Shores, A. (2009). Effects of education and cultural background on performance on WAIS-III, WMS-III, WAIS-R and WMS-R measures: Systematic review. Australian Psychologist, 44(4), 216-223.
38. Wechsler, D. (1949). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. New York: The Psychological Corporation.
39. Wechsler, D. (1981). Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Revised. New York: The Psychological Corporation.
40. Yerkes, R. M. (1915). A point scale for measuring mental ability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1, 114-117.
2. Ardila, A., Rosselli, M., & Ross, P. (1989). Neuropsychological assessment in illiterates: Visuospatial and memory abilities. Brain and Cognition, 11, 147-166.
3. Arsalidou, M., Pascual Leone, J., Johnson, J., Morris, D., & Taylor, M. J. (2013). A balancing act of the brain: Activations and deactivations driven by cognitive load. Brain and Behavior, 3(3), 273-285
4. Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117-148.
5. Boake, C. (2002). From the Binet-Simon to the Wechsler-Bellevue: Tracing the History of Intelligence Testing. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 24(3), 383-405.
6. Carstairs, J. R., Myors, B., Shores, E. A., & Fogarty, G. (2006). Influence of language background on tests of cognitive abilities: Australian data. Australian Psychologist, 41, 48-54.
7. Desco, M., Navas-Sanchez, F. J., Sanchez-Gonzblez, J., Reig, S., Robles, O., Franco, C., ... Arango, C. (2011). Mathematically gifted adolescents use more extensive and more bilateral areas of the fronto-parietal network than controls during executive functioning and fluid reasoning tasks. NeuroImage, 57(1), 281-292.
8. Duckworth, A. L., Quinn, P. D., Lynam, D. R., Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (2011). Role of test motivation in intelligence testing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(19), 7716-7720.
9. Frame, L. B., Vidrine, S. M. & Hinojosa, R. (2016). Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, 3rd edition. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 34(8), 811-818.
10. Freed, S. A., & Freed, R. S. (1992). Clark Wissler 1870-1947. National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Biographical Memoirs, 61, 468-497.
11. Godin, B. (2007). From eugenics to scientometrics: Galton, Cattell, and men of science. Social Studies of Science, 37(5), 691-728.
12. Grigorenko, E. L., & Clinkenbeard, P. R. (1994). An inside view of gifted education in Russia. Roeper Review, 16(3), 167-171.
13. Healy, W. (1914). A pictorial completion test. Psychological Review, 21(3), 189-203.
14. Hoppe, C., Fliessbach, K., Stausberg, S., Stojanovic, J., Trautner, P., Elger, C. E., & Weber, B. (2012). A key role for experimental task performance: effects of math talent, gender and performance on the neural correlates of mental rotation. Brain and Cognition, 78(1), 14-27.
15. Jeltova, I., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2005). Systematic approaches to giftedness. Contributions of Russian psychology. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 171-186). Cambridge, MA [et al.]: Cambridge University Press.
16. Jung, R. E., & Haier, R. J. (2007). The Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT) of intelligence: Converging neuroimaging evidence. The Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 30(2), 135-154.
17. Karp, A. (2003). Thirty years after: The lives of former winners of mathematical Olympiads. Roeper Review, 25(2), 83-87.
18. Karp, A. (2010). Teachers of the mathematically gifted tell about themselves and their profession. Roeper Review, 32(4), 272-280.
19. Kaufman, A. S. (2009). IQ Testing 101. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
20. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2009). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology. New York: Worth Publishers.
21. Lee, K. H., Choi, Y. Y., Gray, J. R., Cho, S. H., Chae, J. H., Lee, S., & Kim, K. (2006). Neural correlates of superior intelligence: stronger recruitment of posterior parietal cortex.NeuroImage,29(2), 578-586.
22. Mcclain, M. C., & Pfeiffer, S. (2012). Identification of gifted students in the United States today: A look at state definitions, policies, and practices. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 28(1), 59-88.
23. Miller, S. A. (1986). Parent’s beliefs about their children’s cognitive abilities. Developmental Psychology, 22(2), 276-284.
24. Miller, S. A., Manhal, M., & Mee, L. L. (1991). Parental beliefs, parental accuracy, and children’s cognitive performance: A search for causal relations. Developmental Psychology, 27(2), 267-276.
25. Mohammad, N., Gholamreza, H., Hossein, N., & Mahmoud, H. (2012). The effect of Gardner theory application on mathematical/logical intelligence and student’s mathematical functioning relationship. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 47, 2169-2175.
26. O’Boyle, M. W. (2005). Some current findings on brain characteristics of the mathematically gifted adolescent. International Education Journal, 6(2), 247-251.
27. Owen, A. M., McMillan, K. M., Laird, A. R., & Bullmore, E. (2005). N-back working memory paradigm: A meta-analysis of normative functional neuroimaging studies. Human Brain Mapping, 25(1), 46-59.
28. Peel, E. A. (1954). The permanent contribution of Francis Galton to psychology. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 24, 9-16.
29. Prescott, J., Gavrilescu, M., Cunnington, R., O’Boyle, M. W., & Egan, G. F. (2010). Enhanced brain connectivity in math-gifted adolescents: An fMRI study using mental rotation. Cognitive Neuroscience, 1(4), 277-288.
30. Reynolds, C. R., Chastain, R. L., Kaufman, A. S., & McLean, J. E. (1987). Demographic characteristics and IQ among adults: Analysis of the WAIS-R standardization sample as a function of the stratification variables. Journal of School Psychology, 25, 323-342.
31. Reynolds, M. R., & Keith, T. Z. (2017). Multi-group and hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition: What does it measure? Intelligence, 62, 31-47.
32. Rottschy, C., Langner, R., Dogan, I., Reetz, K., Laird, A. R., Schulz, J. B., ... Eickhoff, S. B. (2012). Modelling neural correlates of working memory: a coordinate-based meta-analysis. Neuroimage, 60(1), 830-846.
33. Schneider, W. H. (1992). After Binet-French intelligence-testing. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 28(2), 111-132.
34. Siegel, J., Shaughnessy, M. E., & Knoble, R. (1994). An interview with Alan Kaufman. Educational Psychology Review, 8(2), 151-163.Steel, Z., & Silove, D. (2001). The mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers. Medical Journal of Australia, 175, 596-599.
35. Ushakov, D. V. (Ed.). (2000). Psikhologiya odarennosti. Ot teorii k praktike[Psychology of giftedness. From theory to practice]. Moscow: PER SE.
36. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society(Trans. M. Cole). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37. Walker, A. J, Batchelor, J., & Shores, A. (2009). Effects of education and cultural background on performance on WAIS-III, WMS-III, WAIS-R and WMS-R measures: Systematic review. Australian Psychologist, 44(4), 216-223.
38. Wechsler, D. (1949). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. New York: The Psychological Corporation.
39. Wechsler, D. (1981). Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Revised. New York: The Psychological Corporation.
40. Yerkes, R. M. (1915). A point scale for measuring mental ability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1, 114-117.
Published
2018-11-06
How to Cite
ЛяшенкоА. К., ХалезовЕ. А., & АрсалидуМ. (2018). Methods for Identifying Cognitively Gifted Children. Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 14(2), 207-218. https://doi.org/10.17323/1813-8918-2017-2-207-218
Issue
Section
Current Studies in Cognitive Development: Social Learning, Communication
