A Neuro-Psychological Model of the Creative Intelligence of Gifted Children^*

^*This research was supported by a grant from the Sir John Templeton Foundation, Pennsylvania. The Sir John Templeton Foundation is a philanthropic foundation which has supported several studies concerning aspects of giftedness

Abstract

There is a vast literature concerning the relationship between creativity and high intelligence. Several models of giftedness feature creativity as a necessary component of giftedness, along with high intelligence. Consequently, a number of leaders in the field of gifted education e.g., Urban (1996; 2003), McCann (1998), have constructed their recommendations for pedagogy and differentiated curricula for academically gifted children around the promotion of creative intelligence. Here we present a neuro-psychological model of high-functioning creative intelligence based on evidence from cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and validated against the literature on creativity, high intelligence, and giftedness (Geake & Dodson, 2004a). A central concept is fluid analogising as a means by which gifted individuals exploit their relatively greater working memory capacity, and enhanced neural connectivity, for creatively intelligent outcomes.

Notes

^* This research was supported by a grant from the Sir John Templeton Foundation, Pennsylvania. The Sir John Templeton Foundation is a philanthropic foundation which has supported several studies concerning aspects of giftedness