Innate Talent Research Articles

Widening Gap in College Admission and Improving Equal Opportunity in South Korea

As private education has become widespread over the last decade in South Korea, the education gap among regions and social classes has noticeably widened. The recent global financial crisis exacerbates the problem as the rich continue to utilize more private education, while the poor utilize it less. For the first time, we confirm the widening gap in academic achievement and college admission in recent years by using source materials on Korea's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and students admitted to Seoul National University (SNU). We also present a simple theory that suggests that, as the influence of socioeconomic background and educational environment on the entrance exam score rises over that of innate talents, labour productivity of overall society appears to decline. Controlling for student talent by using the scholastic ranking of the second year of middle school, we show that the socioeconomic status and learning environment exert a considerable influence on all college admissions criteria in this country. Finally, we discuss the importance of voluntary efforts by universities for expanding equal opportunity in higher education, as well as the government's response to the growing gap in college admissions.

Widening Gap in College Admission and Improving Equal Opportunity in South Korea

As private education becomes widespread over the last decade in South Korea, the education gap among regions and social classes, noticeably widens. The recent global financial crisis exacerbates the problem as the rich continues to utilize more private education while the poor utilizes it less. For the first time, we confirm the widening gap in academic achievement and college admission in recent years by using source materials on Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and students admitted to Seoul National University (SNU). We also present a simple theory that suggests as the influence of socioeconomic background and educational environment on the entrance exam score rises over that of innate talents, labor productivity of overall society appears to decline. Controlling for student talent by using the scholastic ranking of the 2nd year of middle school, we show that the socioeconomic status and learning environment exert a considerable influence on all college admissions criteria in this country. Finally, we discuss the importance of voluntary efforts by universities for expanding equal opportunity in higher education, as well as the government’s response to the growing gap in college admissions.

Facts are stubborn things

Space limitations do not allow me to fully address Ericsson's comments. Instead, I limit my discussion to five of the most salient issues upon which there are significant differences in the evaluation of the existing theory, methodological issues, and data. These relate to Ericsson's use of the construct “innate talent;” his misapplication of Ackerman's (1987, 1988) theory of individual differences during skill acquisition; inadequate attention to selection of tests and consideration of Brunswik Symmetry; oversights and misinterpretations in evaluating the results from Masunaga and Horn (2001); and differences in interpretations of several other studies. In the final analysis, although there has not been a definitive longitudinal study of deliberate practice with random selection/assignment and a control group, there is ample evidence from over 100years of research supporting the conclusion that abilities are significantly related to individual differences in the attainment of expert performance.

Innovative learning at the University of Edinburgh

The activities available to civil engineering students during the University of Edinburgh's innovative learning week in 2012 were examined. The academic staff proposed a wide range of possible activities and student participation was optional. Popular activities were those with a ‘hands-on’ element: making or doing something. The practical activities offered included designing and building trebuchets, relaying railway permanent way on a heritage railway, practical workshops on engineering in international development and learning to juggle. These activities suggested that heuristic learning by trial and error was likely to enhance the visualisation skills that contribute to good engineering design. Further, the linking of achievement to purposeful practice rather than innate talent could inform teaching methods in the future. They also showed that in some cases safety culture messages were still not fully assimilated by students.

“A bad head for maths”? Constructions of Educability and Mathematics in Adult Students' Narrative Life Histories

The article focuses on the social differences of educability constructed in Finnish general upper secondary school adult graduates' narratives on mathematics. Social class, gender, and age intertwine in the narratives that express the adult students' worries about their ability and competence to study and learn mathematics. Social differences of educability are transformed into individual conceptions of ability in an intrusive way that has consequences far beyond the ability to learn mathematics. This concerns such issues as whether one's ability and competence as a student and learner suffice to complete studies at GUSSA1 and pass the matriculation examination, as well as one's chances of succeeding in further studies and working life. The study confirms that mathematics continues to be constructed as a masculine prototype of intelligence. Being “good” at mathematics, moreover, implies having intelligence and innate natural talent. 1The general upper secondary school for adults—GUSSA for short in this text—is an institute that provides formal general education for adults of all ages. For students the schooling is free of charge, except for subject studies, and entrance is not limited by strict age requirements as the age limit of 18 can be lowered under special circumstances. GUSSA students can either aim at the general upper secondary school certificate and/or passing the matriculation examination, that is the school leaving exam of Finnish upper secondary school, or take courses in individual subjects. Today there are approximately 50 institutes specializing in general upper secondary education for adults in over 40 municipalities in Finland. In 2008 over 10,000 GUSSA students were pursuing general upper secondary qualifications and about 6% of the matriculation examinations were taken and passed by GUSSA students (Statistics of Finland, 2008). Besides this, there is an increasing number of students taking individual courses in some subjects. For more information see The Finnish National Board of Education (2008).

Putting practice into perspective: Child prodigies as evidence of innate talent

The debate over whether exceptional abilities are primarily the product of nature or nurture began centuries ago — and continues to this day. Recently, much of this debate took place within the context of considering the abilities of exceptional musicians. Several of such studies suggested that general intelligence and domain specific skills, both of which fall on the nature side of the spectrum, play a significant role in the development of musical abilities. In this paper, the author demonstrates that those studies which attempted to argue for a purely nurture-driven account of such musical talent, moreover, merely showed that practice has some role to play in the development of talent; they failed to rule out the possibility that factors such as general intelligence and domain specific skills also contribute to the development of exceptional performance abilities. If the evidence generated by studies of exceptional musicians provides a strong basis for believing that nature is the primary driver of exceptional talent, that evidence receives a powerful boost from recent studies of child prodigies. Child prodigies provide a particularly fascinating view on the nature versus nurture debate because of the extremely young age at which the prodigies demonstrate their remarkable abilities, thus, limiting the extent to which their abilities can be solely the result of extreme dedication to practice. Despite this fact, some have still argued that child prodigies' abilities are nurture-driven. Recent research, however, demonstrates that child prodigies' skills are highly dependent on a few features of their cognitive profiles, including elevated general IQs, exceptional working memories, and elevated attention to detail. Other innate characteristics of the child prodigies predict the domain in which the prodigies will excel. Music prodigies, for example, tend to score better with respect to their general IQs, visual spatial abilities, and working memories, than art prodigies. This new research on a group of exceptional – and exceptionally young – performers strongly supports nature as the primary driver of extreme talent.

Testing Einstein's faux formula: fast computers+slow humans=creative brilliance

An experiment was designed for the purpose of testing the proposition that creative decision-making can be greatly improved by making use of the personal computer to solve a set of word anagrams serving as hints to a surprise phrase. The authors hypothesised that the experimental condition of students using various unscramble word jumble websites would significantly outperform the control group of students who attempted to unscramble the words and solve the surprise answer by hand. Results were mixed and the authors conclude that certain types of creative problem solving exercises might benefit more from the innate abilities and talents of the participants rather than the speed and accuracy of the computer.

Digital competence: Is it an innate talent of the new generation or an ability that must be developed?

Digital competence: Is it an innate talent of the new generation or an ability that must be developed?

Performing Arts in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Curriculum for Youths Employability

Two major arguments are presented in this paper. The first one is that the Performing Arts courses constitute programmes that aid the reduction of unemployment in many nations. The second argument is that, based on that premise, the Open and Distance Learning institutions could include it in their curricula to boost the employability of youths because the courses that make up the Performing Arts (Music, Dance and Drama) are areas of specialization that guarantee immediate employment to the professionals in most cases. This claim is premised on the number of emerging musicians, dancers, actors, actresses, the frequency and popularity of musical shows/jamborees, the increasing number of awards for performers, TV reality programmes and the astronomic rise in dramatic productions (home videos, films, soaps and other TV plays) in Nigeria. With the flexibility, accessibility, and wide coverage of the university, NOUN could design undergraduate, certificate and diploma programmes to enable those with innate talents to improve on them and others with the desire to learn. The recommendation include a blended e-learning approach that would be made up of 30% face to face whereby students meet with their instructors; 30% individual learning and practice and 40% collaboration with group mates.

Structural Cognition: 60 Skills -- The Role of Structure in High Performer Cognition -- People Who Apply Ordinary Cognitive Operators Not to 1 or a Few Ideas at Once But to Structured Patterns of 60 to 100 Ideas with the Same Quality and Time

RESEARCH QUESTIONS --Research Question 1 BASIS OF HIGH MENTAL PERFORMANCES: What does either talent or professional practice generate that causes high mental performance?Research Question 2 WHAT DOES NON-LINEAR AMPLIFICATION OF INITIAL DIFFERENCES PRODUCE: When slight initial differences in ability via use produce slightly better rewards which constitutes practice of use increasing ability slightly increasing rewards slight -- what does this positive feedback of escalating investment/rewards produce that enables great mental performance?LITERATURE ISSUE --Psychology research on abilities and competencies has diverged into two competing approaches -- the innate talent approach and the professional practice approach. Non-linear system dynamics phenomena have been used as bridges between those two, recently, for example, suggesting a rich get richer exponential growth link between slight initial differences in talent amplified by slight recognition and reward differences into larger efforts, producing larger recognition and reward, and so on (and a Simonton thesis about non-linear combinations of genes). This article adds a fourth factor -- structure -- among talent, professional practice,and non-linear amplification. Non-linear amplification, more rewards causing more practice causing more rewards, seems to work, when actual transcripts are reviewed, by layered automation of operations -- lists of mental operations in sequence, turned into hierarchies having conscious lists of categories under each of which are sequence-lists of operation practiced into unconscious operation, such hierarchies made fractal by ordering patterns copied across levels, then the fractal hierarchies regularized in branch factor and naming conventions within/across levels.THEORY BUILDING METHOD --Method 1 BROAD SURVEY OF DIVERSE MENTAL HIGH PERFORMERS FOR MENTAL PROTOCOL CONTENTS: Transcripts of many diverse experts handling tough and creativity-requiring cases reviewed for common mental growth between novice and expert levels of performance on specific tasks. 177 transcripts of 77 experts in 42 different fields were reviewed for this paper to produce a categorical model of 60 domains of cognitive high performance where a particular structure (of ideas or actions) produced significantly better cognitive performance than average (both the structure, the cognitive high performance attained via it, and the disorder reduced or removed by the structure are presented in the model for each of the 60 domains). Replacing disorder with order seems to lubricate, speed up, make more comprehensive and accurate lists, hierarchies of lists, fractalized hierarchies, regularized fractal hierarchies, multiplied regularized fractalized hierarchies -- allowing more items of great diversity to be considered in relation to each other in the same amount of time and effort.THREE RESULTS --Result 1 FIVE ROLES OF STRUCTURE IN HIGH COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE: 1) lists, 2) hierarchies of categorized lists, 3) fractalized hierarchies, 4) regularized fractal hierarchies, 5) with such hierarchies multiplied to form tables and matrices -- in sequence emerge as novice-hood gives way to expert performance.Result 2 TWO HYPOTHESES -- THE ULTIMATE STRUCTURE AND THE VOLUME-DIVERSITY DRIVE: a. the multiplied-regularized-indexed-lists form will be found in the highest performers of all major cognitive functions as key to their achievement of that performance. b. the ultimate structure -- multiplied-regularized-fractalized-indexed-lists -- emerges from professional practice because high performers achieve high cognitive performance in any cognitive function via handling more items/ideas/actions and more diversity of items/ideas/actions than average performers, “chunking” now made-by-practice unconscious contents under still conscious categories which categories are themselves later made by practice unconscious similarly.Result 3 AMBIGUOUS ROLE OF REGULARIZATION -- regularizing a structure decreases attention it draws and holds while making it better liked because easy to process = easy access easy ignoring. The initial provisional result is a structure-performance hypothesis including trade-offs among factors and four roles of structure in attaining high cognitive performance. Ambiguities in the role of structure in cognitive high performance are discussed. One particular ambiguity, whether more topologically regular structure improves or hinders cognitive high performance, though not resolved in this research, is well framed and discussed herein. Two hypotheses result, finally,from reviewing the 60 cases of cognitive high performance herein -- the Ultimate Structure hypothesis, and the Volume and Diversity Drive hypothesis. Subsequent research should confirm or deny them, this paper suggests.

You Can't Teach Speed: Sprinters Falsify the Deliberate Practice Model of Expertise

Most scientists agree that expertise requires both innate talent and proper training. Nevertheless, the highly influential deliberate practice model (DPM) of expertise holds that either talent does not exist, or that its contribution to performance differences is negligible. It predicts that initial performance will be unrelated to achieving expertise and that a long period of deliberate practice — at least 10 years or 10,000 hours — is necessary and sufficient for achieving expertise. We tested these predictions in the domain of sprinting. Study 1 reviewed the biographies of 15 Olympic sprint champions. Study 2 reviewed the biographies of the 20 fastest male sprinters in U.S. history. In all documented cases, sprinters were exceptional prior to or coincident with their initiation of formal training. Furthermore, most reached world class status rapidly (Study 1 median = 3 years; Study 2 median = 7.5). Study 3 surveyed U.S. national collegiate championships qualifiers in sprints and throws. Sprinters recalled being faster as youths than did throwers, whereas throwers recalled greater strength and overhand throwing ability. Sprinters’ best performances in their first season of high school, generally the onset of formal training, were consistently faster than 95-99% of their peers. Collectively, these results falsify the DPM for sprinting. Because speed is foundational for many sports, they challenge the DPM generally.

Thinking Beyond the Myths and Misconceptions of Talent: Creating Music Education Policy that Advances Music's Essential Contribution to Twenty-First-Century Teaching and Learning

At present, there is growing scientific evidence of music's powerful, positive influence on the neurological, cognitive, and social-emotional development of all children. At the same time, a flurry of new studies now show that extensive, deliberate, and deep practice supported by an ability growth mindset—and not a fixed degree of talent—is the primary predictor of future expertise in music, as it is in other disciplines. This article argues that parents and educators today must therefore shed the outdated myths and misconceptions of predetermined talent in order to embrace substantial development of “acquired expertise” in music as an agent for engaging and optimizing every child's capacity to learn across many areas of a school's academic and social curriculum. Thus, music education policy stakeholders need to support innovative teaching practices that are free of lingering explicit, implicit, or unconscious assumptions of “innate talent” in order to craft and implement public education policies that will lead to early, ongoing, and equitable access to an intensive study of music that is aligned with the evolving twenty-first-century views of this area's essential contribution to all children's human development.

Are You Experienced or Are You Talented?: When Does Innate Talent versus Experience Explain Entrepreneurial Performance?

We explore whether entrepreneurial performance is due to innate talent or the accumulation of entrepreneurial experience. Using a novel data set with multiple observations of founding attempts per individual, we generate a unique measure of entrepreneurial talent. In contrast to prior findings, the relative importance of experience versus talent changes with the context. When the current market or technology is familiar, experience dominates. However, when the venture context is unfamiliar, talent is more important. Individuals with experience and talent handle both familiar and unfamiliar aspects and may extract more from a given level of experience. The findings advance our understanding of how the drivers of venture performance shift with the broader technological and industry environment and places limits on when experience aids performance. Copyright © 2012 Strategic Management Society.

A Survey on Practitioner Attitudes toward Research in Interior Design Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate interior design practitioners’ perceived attitudes toward the inclusion of research at the undergraduate and graduate levels, minimum degree requirements for practice and teaching, and the value of the graduate degree in the field of interior design. Interior design practitioners who are members of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) were surveyed ( n = 250) using an online questionnaire based on several existing scales. The questionnaire was distributed through a primary contact with ASID as an e–mail blast to all members within the organization. As a whole, the participants in this investigation believed that undergraduate and graduate students should have an understanding of research and be able to apply findings to design projects. However, practitioners did not respond positively to positioning the Master of Interior Design (MID) as the first professional degree or to a graduate degree in general as a minimum credential to practice. Some practitioners valued the graduate degree to increase marketability, enhance the prestige of the profession, and provide specialization. Others placed more emphasis on practical experience, continuing education, and innate talent rather than a graduate degree. More educated individuals with advanced degrees who were younger than 40 and were practicing commercial design were significantly more likely to value research. The fact that some educators have been advocating for the MID as the first professional degree for the discipline shows a disconnect between practice and academia.

Selecting the Better Model by Using Data, Occam's Razor, and a Little Common Sense: Reply to Ericsson

The issue is which model, practice-alone or innate talent affecting learning speed and limiting asymptotic performance level, better accounts for expertise development in international chess. The innate talent model does much better by the usual criteria. A study to determine what innate talent for chess might consist is now needed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Practice other than playing games apparently has only a modest role in the development of chess expertise

Evidence that chess expertise rests on practice alone mostly comes from studies using a correlational retrospective recall paradigm, which confounds amount of study with number of games played and possible innate talent. Researchers also often use latest performance rating and include participants who play and study little. Study 1 partially replicated such studies with improvements such as use of peak rating and a large, skilled sample. Number of internationally-rated games played was the strongest predictor of peak rating. Total study hours was a significant but weaker predictor. Study 2 controlled for sampling confounds by including only very well-practiced players who had played at least 350 internationally-rated games. Total study hours did not predict rating at 350 games. Study 3 found that the subjective phenomenon of reaching a performance ceiling and undertaking specific practice to get beyond it does occur but does not distinguish between stronger and weaker players. Study 4 found that many players play relatively few internationally-rated games mostly because of other commitments, such as work and education. Extensive study may go along with great interest in and persistence at chess but apparently lacks a major causative role in chess performance level.

Terahertz Pioneer: Paul L. Richards

As the son of Lorenzo A. Richards [1], a well-known physicist, and pioneer in Soil Physics, and with seven uncles holding Ph.D. degrees, perhaps it was inevitable that Paul Linford Richards1 would find himself choosing a career in science. However much this may have been favorably influenced by his relationship with his family, it was not forced upon him, for as he told me, his father insisted that he, Paul, spend appropriate apprentice time with individuals practicing alternate professions before he chose to enroll in Harvard and to begin a long and stellar career in physics. We should all be very happy that his own force of will, innate talents, and strong desire to take the path less trodden, placed him in a position to have such a profound and widespread impact on Terahertz science and the instrument and device technologies that are so commonly employed today throughout our field.

Talking to Families About Mental Illness: What Clinicians Need to Know

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewsFull AccessTalking to Families About Mental Illness: What Clinicians Need to KnowFrederick J. Frese, Ph.D.Frederick J. FreseSearch for more papers by this author, Ph.D.Published Online:13 Jan 2015https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.62.11.pss6211_1398AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Talking to Families About Mental Illness: What Clinicians Need to Know by GalynkerIgor; New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, 288 pages, $32.95Charles Nemeroff's topmost blurb on this book's back cover states that this volume “should be required reading for all mental health professionals, especially those in training.” Many who read this excellent offering will probably not only agree with Dr. Nemeroff but may even want to expand his recommendation of this volume to include friends and family of persons with mental illness.This book is deserving of such high praise because author Igor Galynker, M.D., Ph.D., drew from his lengthy experience working with people with serious mental illness and combined this with his unusual innate talent for engaging family members in conversation. The result is that he has produced an excellent manual for teaching practitioners how to effectively communicate with family members about important issues related to having a loved one with mental illness. Dr. Galynker has over 20 years' professional experience in an acute inpatient psychiatric unit. He has been working as a family therapist at the Family Center for Bipolar Disorder, which he founded several years ago, and he is a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.One particularly valuable aspect of this book is the author's use of scores of case vignettes throughout the text. These paragraph-long vignettes provide specifically worded templates for responding to typical questions from family members about the side effects of medicines, poor hygiene, possible dangerousness, and so on. In doing so, he is careful to avoid psychiatric jargon, and his use of plain English is refreshing.Although the book has several sections on talking to family members about conditions that may include psychosis, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression, he also includes chapters on generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and personality disorders.In keeping with the book's focus on dealing with practical issues, the author also devotes a major section of the book to such real-life issues as stress management and school and work considerations. Galynker also takes on social questions, such as whether persons with mental illness should marry and have children. Particularly noteworthy is how the author stresses the deleterious effects of using illicit drugs, especially cannabis, frequently stressing the association of illicit drug use with the likelihood of developing psychotic disorders.Despite my strong overall endorsement of this book, I do have some reservations. For example, I was somewhat disappointed by how little attention is given to the value of mental health-oriented family and consumer advocacy groups, such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health America. Also, probably because the author's experience primarily has been in the New York City area, some of his recommendations assume a greater availability of psychiatrists than exists in many parts of the country.Dr. Frese is associate professor of psychiatry, Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown, Ohio.The reviewer reports serving as a board member for NAMI Ohio and receiving an award from Mental Health America. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 62Issue 11 November 2011Pages 1398-1398 Metrics PDF download History Published online 13 January 2015 Published in print 1 November 2011

Does high-level intellectual performance depend on practice alone? Debunking the Polgar sisters case

The famous Polgar sisters started chess very young, undertook extensive study, and two became grandmasters. This case often is cited as decisive evidence that practice alone is key in development of expertise, that innate talent is unimportant or non-existent, and that almost anyone can become a grandmaster. But on close examination these claims do not hold up. Performance differences among the sisters cannot be accounted for by practice differences. Furthermore, two sisters reached peak performance levels comparable to those of many far less-practiced players entering the international domain around the same time and only one sister ever reached the top ten. Contrary to a popular view, the case does not show that becoming a grandmaster requires only practice and raises innate talent as a plausible contributor.

Domestic and domesticating education in the late Victorian city

This article explores the various types of domestic education, particularly cookery, available in Manchester between 1870 and 1902. The work of the two local School Boards and the Manchester School of Domestic Economy are shown as part of a complicated network of provision – a mixed economy of welfare, including enthusiastic philanthropists and educational entrepreneurs offering a range of practical and academic classes for middle‐class ladies as well as working‐class schoolgirls. The campaigners for domestic education managed a dual vision of what it was to be domestically competent, insisting on the value of lessons from professionals, while arguing that domesticity was a natural, innate feminine talent. Likewise, although women’s education and/or employment could be blamed for a decline in domestic skills, re‐centring domestic education in schools and evening classes could make education a cure not just for a generation of inadequate mothers and wives, but also for racial degeneration.