Calls to strengthen education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are underscored by employment trends and the importance of STEM innovation for the economy. The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) has been tracking over 5,000 talented individuals longitudinally for 40 years, throwing light on critical questions…

Students identified by talent search programs were studied to determine whether spatial ability could uncover math-science promise. In Phase 1, interests and values of intellectually talented adolescents (617 boys, 443 girls) were compared with those of top math-science graduate students (368 men, 346 women) as a function of their standing on…

Relationship between stimulus type (numeric or verbal) and type of precocity (mathematical and verbal) was studied in 104 gifted young adolescents through tasks measuring working memory. The relationship between type of stimulus and type of precocity suggests underlying differences between verbally and mathematically precocious youth in memory…

When a battery of tests commonly associated with intelligence was administered to 144 13 year olds identified as extremely precocious, the verbally precocious students scored higher on verbal and general knowledge types of tests, and mathematically precocious students scored higher on tests of nonverbal reasoning, spatial ability, and memory.…

Two experiments compared the working memory performance of 77 highly gifted seventh and eighth graders (13 and 14 Years ole) with verbal or mathematical precocity, or both. Different types of intellectual talent correlate with different working memory characteristics and differences in how digit and word stimuli are represented in memory. (SLD)

When 340 extremely mathematically or verbally talented 13 year olds were compared to 111 modestly gifted students, no differences were found in group activity participation or personality traits. In their ratings of peer perceptions, the modestly gifted exceeded the extremely gifted in being considered athletic and popular and in social standing.…

Indices of social and emotional adjustment were investigated in highly verbally or mathematically talented adolescents. Highly gifted students reported more internal locus of control and less popularity than the comparison students. No differences were found in self-esteem, depression, or the incidence of discipline problems. The Self Esteem…