IQ scores are often viewed as inadequate measures of giftedness. Most of the investigators define giftedness in terms of multiple qualities, not all of which are intellectual. The many different conceptions of giftedness presented, although distinct, are interrelated in several ways. This is particularly evident in the reexamination of 'giftedness' by Sternberg and Davidson in their collection of articles Conceptions of Giftedness (1986 second edition 2005). Research conducted in the 1980s and 1990s has provided data that supports notions of multiple components to intelligence. Guilford, and Louis Leon Thurstone) have argued that intellect cannot be expressed in such a unitary manner, and have suggested more multifaceted approaches to intelligence. Later researchers (e.g., Raymond Cattell, J.

Since Lewis Terman in 1916, psychometricians and psychologists have sometimes equated giftedness with high IQ. īecause of the key role that gifted education programs in schools play in the identification of gifted individuals, both children and adults, it is worthwhile to examine how schools define the term 'gifted'. Developing useful identification procedures for students who could benefit from a more challenging school curriculum is an ongoing problem in school administration. During the twentieth century, gifted children were often classified via IQ tests other identification procedures have been proposed but are only used in a minority of cases in most public schools in the English-speaking world. It has since become an important issue for schools, as the instruction of gifted students often presents special challenges. The identification of giftedness first emerged after the development of IQ tests for school placement.

There is still much controversy and much research on the topic of how adult performance unfolds from trait differences in childhood, and what educational and other supports best help the development of adult giftedness. In particular, the relationship between artistic ability or musical ability and the high academic ability usually associated with high IQ scores is still being explored, with some authors referring to all of those forms of high ability as 'giftedness', while other authors distinguish 'giftedness' from 'talent'. For example, by some definitions, an intellectually gifted person may have a striking talent for mathematics without equally strong language skills. The various definitions of intellectual giftedness include either general high ability or specific abilities. Definitions of giftedness also vary across cultures. There is no generally agreed definition of giftedness for either children or adults, but most school placement decisions and most longitudinal studies over the course of individual lives have followed people with IQs in the top 2.5 percent of the population-that is, IQs above 130. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, with various consequences studied in longitudinal studies of giftedness over the last century. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. For other uses, see Gifted (disambiguation).

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