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Investigations of differences between gifted and nongifted students have examined cognitive abilities, including intelligence quotient (IQ) differences, higher order thinking skills, and divergent thinking (DT). However, little is known about differences in problem finding (PF). Moreover, previous works on gifted students have never explored associations between PF and evaluative thinking (ET). Both PF and ET play a role in the creative process. The present study tested relationships between PF, DT, and ET and examined differences between gifted ( N = 175) and nongifted students ( N = 188). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences between gifted and nongifted students’ PF, DT, and ET, with effect sizes (η2) ranging from 0.048 to 0.192. Gender differences were also analyzed; gifted girls scored significantly higher than gifted boys in PF fluency and originality, DT originality, and in ET in PF. Originality scores in DT and PF significantly predicted the accuracy of students’ ET ( R2 = 34%–42%). Finally, canonical correlation analyses showed moderate-to-strong correlations between DT, PF, and ET scores. Limitations of this study are discussed.

Previous studies on poverty within the gifted population have shown that economically vulnerable gifted students are underrepresented in gifted programs. Moreover, the majority of published studies on this topic were conducted in Western cultures. We explored the psychological, cognitive, academic, social, and environmental supports for economically vulnerable students in the Arab culture. The sample consisted of 142 male and female students who were randomly selected from 10 middle schools in rural areas in Egypt. To assess the supports of gifted students, researchers developed a self-report questionnaire. Grade point average was used as an indicator of academic achievement. Results from cluster analysis showed that there were three profiles for low-income gifted students. Multiple regression analysis indicated that environmental, social, and psychological supports explained 44% of the variance in academic achievement. Environmental supports played the most effective role in predicting students’ academic achievement, followed by social and psychological supports.

After more than six decades of systematic study of creativity, there is still no agreement regarding components essential to define creativity. Prior studies of implicit and explicit theories have suggested adding criteria to the standard definition of what creativity is; however, an alternative approach is to explore what creativity is not. The current investigation aimed to study both perspectives. The social validation method was employed in Study 1 (an open-ended questionnaire) to identify laypeople’s notions of creativity using content analysis of participant responses (n = 92). Results from Study 1 were used to build a quantitative questionnaire employed in Study 2 (n = 306). Descriptive statistics and Spearman Rank Correlations were used to analyze participant ratings in Study 2, showing consistent agreement that creativity is highly related to and overlapped with Imagination, Artistic Expression, Innovation, Originality, and Invention, while Knowledge, Ability, Unconventional Behavior, Morality, and Insanity were less related to and overlapped with creativity. Both implicit and explicit theories agreed on Originality and Innovation and disagreed on Artistic Expression, Imagination, and Invention. Usefulness received low ratings, although it is considered in all creativity definitions. Morality was not rated to be closely associated with creativity. Detailed findings are discussed with suggestions for future studies.

This Meta-Analysis investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and giftedness. The study focused on whether gifted learners possessed higher levels of EI when compared with th...

Creative potential is one of the very most important topics for research. It is difficult to study because, unlike creative products, potential is by definition latent. There are several methods. One involves comparing creative activity expressed in various settings. Previous research has, for example, compared creativity expressed in school with that expressed by the same individuals when they are outside of school. There tends to be more creative activity outside of school, suggesting that the individual has creative potential, but it is only allowed to be expressed in certain settings. The present investigation extended this line of research by comparing creative activity in school, at home, and that occurring outside of school and home. Results indicated that the activity scores from the three settings shared less than 52% of their variance. The measures used were highly reliable, so the conclusion was that, as in previous research, various settings do indeed differentially allow the expression of creative potential. Comparisons of means also supported this finding. Interestingly, creative activity at home was significantly more common than creative activity at school and when outside of the home and school. A statistical test of method variance indicated that it was not a notable contribution nor confound. Limitations are discussed at the end of the manuscript.

The current study explored the influence of birth order and family size on academic achievement, divergent thinking (DT), and problem finding (PF) with a sample of 156 gifted male and female Arab students (M= 12.21 years, SD= 1.75). Regarding academic achievement, it was found that first-borns possessed higher grade point averages (GPAs) than did other-born children. Family size was also related to academic achievement-participants from smaller-sized families had significantly higher GPAs compared with gifted students from middle- and large-sized families. As for the influence of birth order and family size on both DT and PF, a multivariate analysis of variance showed significant differences for birth order and the interaction between birth order and family size in the originality dimension of PF. Non-significant differences were found concerning family size. The follow-up analyses of variance showed that later-born gifted students scored higher than first-, second-, third-, and fourth-born children in PF originality. Later-born gifted students who scored higher on originality were from smaller families. No significant influences for birth order and family size were found concerning fluency for both DT and PF as well as DT originality. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

This article investigated the impact of a robotic-based enrichment program on problem finding (PF) and active-openminded thinking skills (AOT) in 60 gifted female students. The participants were randomly selected from several cohorts of gifted students who participated in an enrichment summer program. The study instruments included the Problem Generation test and the AOT scale, which were administered to the participants at the beginning and at the end of the program. The change in the measured program outcomes after attending the robotics intervention program was assessed by regressing post-test scores on pre-test scores. The results revealed differences for the three subscales of AOT as well as the total score in favour of post-test condition. As for PF, fluency scores showed no significant differences between pre-test and post-test, while originality scores were significantly higher for the post-test scores.

Performance on divergent thinking (DT) tests varies by different testing conditions. Although many studies documented that DT performance increases when more time is provided, it still remains unanswered whether DT performance continues to increase linearly or follows a rather non-linear pattern as more time is allowed. The present study examined a potential curvilinear pattern in DT performance by synthesizing 237 effect size in 22 studies using a three-level approach to account for the nested structure of data. Results indicated that liberal time conditions provided significantly better DT performance than the restricted time conditions with the mean effect size (g = 0.666) being considered moderate to large. The effect size was small to moderate (g = 0.493) in a group of studies that merely compared “timed” and “untimed” conditions. The effect was larger (g = 0.901) in a group of studies comparing varying amounts of time. The quadratic term of time difference between the shorter and longer time conditions turned out significantly negative indicating the inverted J-shaped relationship between time-on-task and DT performance: the DT performance increases with more time, and the growth slows down at some point. Implications for testing DT are explored.

Previous research on divergent thinking (DT) indicates that fluency, originality, and flexibility change with time. Although there is a drop in the ideational productivity per minute, ideas tend to get more original and flexible as time passes, a phenomenon known as the order effect. The present research extends previous findings of longer latencies during flexible ideation and examined the relationship between latency and originality. 1325 verbal and 488 figural responses generated by 83 people were analyzed in a multilevel model (MLM) where ideas were nested under the type of DT tasks and the DT task(s) was nested under individuals. Originality was measured with a semantics-based algorithm and latency was measured as the difference in time between consecutive ideas. Analysis controlling the response order found that originality was higher with a longer latency. These findings indicate that longer think time (TT) is a predictor of originality. This holds true in both early versus late sections of DT, as well as across different type of DT tasks. The results are interpreted in terms of associational processes and executive functions.