Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined

Some genetic expression lies dormant in all of us, waiting for the perfect environmental circumstances to trigger it. This phenomenon is called “cryptic genetic variation” and has received quite a bit of research attention in recent years 12 1
The environment can take even a tiny genetic or environmental advantage and “multiply” it again and again as such interactions are reiterated through the course of one’s development. The other side of the coin is also possible, of course 13 1
Some of the very same genes that have been associated with our lowest lows (such as depression, anxiety, and the inability to concentrate on an important task) have been shown under nurturing conditions to lead to our highest highs—such as positive emotions, intellectual curiosity, and an enhanced ability to regulate our emotions 13 1
Adopting a Swedish idiomatic expression, W. Thomas Boyce and Bruce Ellis refer to dandelion children as those who survive and thrive in whatever environments they encounter, just like dandelions prosper regardless of soil, sun, drought, or rain.39 In contrast, they describe orchid children as individuals whose survival and flourishing is heavily dependent on the environment. As they poetically note, “In conditions of neglect, the orchid promptly declines, while in conditions of support and nurture, it is a flower of unusual delicacy and beauty.” 13 1
In recent years there have been a number of studies that support the “Orchid Hypothesis” (as journalist David Dobbs puts it) 13 1
many of our genes don’t code for positive or negative outcomes. They are related to heightened sensitivity to the environment—for better and worse 13 1
the child who starts off reading well, or has been put in a position early to accumulate a large vocabulary, will read more, learn more, choose friends who are also good at reading, ask for more books, receive more books, and ultimately read better as a result. The child with a lower vocabulary will read more slowly, gain less enjoyment from reading, and not construct such a reading-enriched environment. The result is that the intellectual gap between the two children will become greater and greater 14 1
Children adopted from lower-SES backgrounds and living with genetically unrelated but higher-SES parents show a 12- to 18-point increase in IQ, on average, compared to their siblings who are left behind 14 1?
dyslexic individuals may excel at visual-spatial tasks that rely on the right hemisphere, because the right hemisphere tends to process information holistically 63-63 3
dyslexics have a wider visual perceptual mode than typical readers 63-63 3
This way of seeing the world could make reading difficult for dyslexics because of their inability to perceive individual words without interference from the surrounding text 63-63 3
dyslexia can serve as an advantage in situations that require identifying information in the periphery 63-63 3
While 15 percent of the general population has dyslexia, 35 percent of the entrepreneurs in her sample reported dyslexic characteristics. In contrast, less than 1 percent of the corporate managers reported dyslexic characteristics. Tellingly, people with dyslexia grew their own companies more quickly, and showed greater oral communication skills compared to those without dyslexia. Logan concluded that “dyslexic entrepreneurs may be more comfortable in a start-up or a serial entrepreneurial role so that they are able to do things in their own way.
Systematic studies show that intrinsic motivation decreases steadily starting from about third grade
the human cultural flourishing seen about 70,000 years ago was due to an expansion of our dopaminergic system.3 Dopamine also plays a crucial role in motivation. Dopamine has activating effects on cognition and behavior, pulling us to engage in the world and with ideas. While dopamine is often mentioned in association with pleasure, this is actually a very common misconception. Although we typically enjoy emotions such as pleasure and satisfaction, dopamine does not, in fact, arouse these emotions. Instead, its primary role is in making people want things. Dopamine arouses emotions such as desire, excitement, and hope. The dopaminergic system goes crazy when there is a possibility of a big payoff, especially when the risk is high (as in casinos). But once you obtain the object of your desire, dopamine offers no guarantee that you will necessarily like what you obtained. So while dopamine can make us feel good, it doesn’t necessarily make us feel good. Because of these features of dopamine, Kent Berridge argues that dopamine’s primary role in behavior is “incentive motivation,” influencing our attention and making things that are relevant to our personal interests more salient than other things 99 6?
Our knowledge of dopamine helps us understand motivation in a number of ways. For one, there is research showing that some people are more willing to put in a greater effort to accomplish a dull task, and these people show increases in dopamine production when the potential monetary payoff is high 100 6
Then the researchers turned the task into a game. Triangles, circles, and squares became birds, butterflies, and bumblebees. Rather than being asked to point to the location they thought an object would move to, they were asked to move a cursor resembling a butterfly net to “capture the prey.” Children were rewarded points for each correct capture, and sound effects were added to indicate that the child had earned points. In this context, virtually all of the children learned the rules perfectly within the first 400 trials. In another study, they made the rules even more complex, and again found a substantial improvement when the game was put within the context of a motivating video game. Ceci notes, “These data would seem to dispel the belief that young children are … incapable of grasping more complex, multiplicative models. Had the children been tested in only the disembedded laboratory context (squares, circles, etc.), a vastly underrated estimation of their competence would have resulted.” 100-101 6
three core aspects of inspiration: evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation.14 First, inspiration is evoked spontaneously and without intention by some force—whether it’s a sudden insight that comes from within or an encounter with an inspiring person such as a role model. Inspiration is also transcendent of our more self-serving concerns and limitations. Such transcendence often involves a moment of clarity and awareness of new possibilities… inspired people were more intrinsically motivated and less extrinsically motivated. Inspired people were also more open to new experiences and reported more absorption and flow in their activities… Inspired individuals also reported having a stronger drive to master their work, but were less competitive. Inspiration was least related to variables that involve agency (such as conscientiousness) or the enhancement of resources, consistent with the transcendent nature of inspiration. Inspired people also reported higher levels of psychological resources, including belief in their own abilities, self-esteem, and optimism. Inspired people also viewed themselves as more creative and showed actual increases in self-ratings of creativity over time. Patent-holding inventors reported being inspired more frequently and intensely than did those who did not hold patents, and the higher the frequency of inspiration, the higher the number of patents held. 103-104 6
Those who scored higher on the Inspiration Scale displayed increased goal progress, and their progress was a result of setting more inspired goals. These results held even after taking into account other personality traits. Importantly, the relationship between inspiration and goal progress was reciprocal: goal progress also predicted future goal inspiration 104 6
other studies show that inspiration is also a state of being that can be turned on and off by an inspiring memory, role model, or story 104 6
One study found that the state of inspiration predicted the creativity of writing above and beyond sheer effort and SAT verbal scores.20 Taken 104 6
everyone has a preference for some activity, but the reason an activity is preferable and enjoyable is because it satisfies the basic human needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Over time these activities can eventually become a central part of a person’s identity. For instance, while intrinsic motivation involves feeling joy from playing basketball, passion involves being a basketball player 105 6?
Overall, they found that the adoption of performance goals was associated with less intrinsic motivation and enjoyment in a task compared to the pursuit of mastery goals. Crucially, they found that experiments that focused on the possibility of a negative performance outcome, thereby activating a performance-avoidance goal, had a damaging effect on all of their measures of intrinsic motivation. This included reduced persistence when given a choice, as well as reduced levels of reported task interest and engagement 112 7?
Children high in approach temperament tend to experience positive emotions more frequently, and smile, laugh, and talk more often. They also tend to be more impulsive, show a higher rate of approaching objects, experience more pleasure in high-intensity situations, and find social interactions more rewarding. Although these children are at risk for developing externalizing problems such as aggression, they are less likely to develop internalizing problems such as low selfesteem and depression. According to Jeffrey Gray’s biopsychological theory of personality, approach behavior is driven by the Behavioral Activation System (BAS), which is highly sensitive to the possibility of reward 113 7
The approach temperament is primarily associated with the adult personality trait extraversion but also shows a positive relationship with openness to experience 113 7
children high in avoidance temperament tend to show higher levels of discomfort, fear, and sadness, and lower levels of activity, impulsivity, and aggression. They also tend to have lower positive expectations for reward, which puts them at higher risk for developing depression. Children who are high in approach and low in avoidance are at particular risk for developing behavioral problems due to their heightened impulsivity unbridled by fear. The avoidance temperament is driven by Gray’s Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), which is sensitive to the presence of threats, punishment, intense stimulation, and fear 113 7
extraversion and positive affect were consistently related to mastery and performance-approach goals but were unrelated to performance-avoidance goals. In contrast, neuroticism and negative emotions were consistently linked to performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals but were unrelated to mastery goals. 114 7
Even though personality traits tend to remain stable across different contexts, specific situations do matter. 12 Introverts can appear quite engaged if you give them something that intrinsically interests them, and extroverts can appear introverted in environments that do not provide high levels of social engagement 119 7?
Dweck and colleagues found that praising the ability of students after doing well on a test promoted a fixed view of ability, whereas praising the effort that contributed to the performance led to a growth mindset 118 7
teachers who held a fixed theory of intelligence were significantly more likely to diagnose a student as having low ability based upon a single, initially poor, performance.22 They were also more likely to “comfort” students for their low ability, saying things like “It’s OK—not everyone can be good at math,” which did in fact reduce student engagement with school subjects. Also disconcerting, students who were exposed to comfort-oriented messages reported less motivation, expected lower final grades, and viewed their professors as having lower engagement in their learning 118 7
teachers’ expectations had systematic effects on their grading as well as on students’ performance on standardized achievement tests 119 7?
even though teachers gave twice as much verbal praise to students they thought were learning disabled, they also displayed more negative nonverbal feedback such as discouraging head movements 120 7?
In the group situation, the participants received their score and were told their rank in the group. In this situation, in which implicit signals of social status were broadcast to everyone in the group, everyone performed worse. Those who suffered the most, however, were those who were told they were the “low performers.” Not only was their IQ score lower than their earlier performance, but they also showed brain changes in areas associated with fear and working memory (amygdala, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and nucleus acumbens), suggesting that such lowered expectations brought about anxiety that prevented them from showing their true colors. Low expectations shut down their brains. 120 7?
women experiencing stereotype threat displayed greater activation in the ventral cingulate cortex compared to those in a control condition.51 This brain region has been linked to social evaluation and emotion regulation 125 7
women experiencing stereotype threat displayed greater activation in the ventral cingulate cortex compared to those in a control condition 125 7
The pattern of brain activity (larger error related negativity, or ERNs) indicated that those who assigned a greater value to their performance (e.g., “being good at academics is an important part of who I am”) showed heightened vigilance, monitoring, and attention to the errors made during the task when they were led to believe the task was diagnostic of their intelligence compared to the control condition. This suggests that those whose identity was threatened showed increased motivation to excel so they could disprove the stereotype 125 7
They selected females whose math SAT scores were greater than 500 and who were aware of the stereotype that women are worse than men in math. Before taking a test of working memory, some females were told by a male experimenter that performance might be related to underlying gender differences in “quantitative capacity.” Females who were given this framing of the task showed reduced working memory performance, assessed by the number of words they were able to recall compared to females who were just told the test was a measure of working memory. Their second study found similar results among a Latino population, and their third study found that the reduced working memory of women under threatening situations was the key factor explaining their reduction in math performance 126 7
stereotype threat occurs because people are actively trying to regulate the negative thoughts and feelings that have been activated by the stereotype.57 Because the experience of threat activates a goal to avoid confirmation of the stereotype, and the experience of self-doubt or anxiety is often interpreted as a sign of failure, efforts are made to detect and suppress these negative thoughts and feelings and push them out of mind. This suppression is mentally taxing and relies on the same working memory resources necessary to solve the problem 126 7
In total, their evaluation consisted of 147 preschoolers (with an average age of 5) from low-income families who all came from the same neighborhood. The children received either the district’s standard literacy curriculum or the Tools curriculum for one or two years. Both programs covered the same academic content, but the literacy curriculum didn’t address the development of self-regulation. All of the classrooms received the same resources, teacher training, and support. The results were so striking that after the first year, educators in one school using the Tools curriculum halted the experiment so that the students receiving the standard curriculum could get the same benefits! On tasks involving cognitive inhibition, children experiencing the Tools curriculum outperformed those receiving the standard curriculum. On tasks requiring multiple “executive functions”—working memory, inhibitory control, and mental flexibility—roughly twice as many students who had the Tools curriculum scored better than 75 percent correct as compared to children taught the standard curriculum. 137 8
Montessori has also been found to be effective in improving school readiness 138 8
According to Diamond, the Tools curriculum and the Montessori programs share the following features:17 1. They help children exercise their executive functions and constantly challenge them to do so at higher levels. 2. They reduce stress in the classroom. 3. They rarely embarrass a child. 4. They cultivate children’s joy, pride, and self-confidence. 5. They take an active and hands-on approach to learning. 6. They easily accommodate children progressing at different rates. 7. They emphasize character development as well as academic development. 8. They emphasize oral language. 9. They engage children in teaching one another. 10. They foster social skills and bonding. 138 8
These programs work on a number of skills, such as self-regulation, awareness of feelings, identification of emotions, perspective taking, affective self-monitoring, managing feelings, the empathic realization of the effects of one’s behavior on others, and adaptive problem solving. These programs have shown improvements not only in behavioral and social outcomes, but also in more traditional academic outcomes, such as emerging language and literacy skills 138 8
These programs work on a number of skills, such as self-regulation, awareness of feelings, identification of emotions, perspective taking, affective self-monitoring, managing feelings, the empathic realization of the effects of one’s behavior on others, and adaptive problem solving. These programs have shown improvements not only in behavioral and social outcomes, but also in more traditional academic outcomes, such as emerging language and literacy skills 138 8
These programs work on a number of skills, such as self-regulation, awareness of feelings, identification of emotions, perspective taking, affective self-monitoring, managing feelings, the empathic realization of the effects of one’s behavior on others, and adaptive problem solving. These programs have shown improvements not only in behavioral and social outcomes, but also in more traditional academic outcomes, such as emerging language and literacy skills 138 8
Systematic research has shown clear benefits of children’s engagement in pretend games from the age of about 2½ through age 6 or 7.* Studies have demonstrated cognitive benefits such as increases in language usage, including subjunctives, future tenses, and adjectives. The important concept of “theory of mind,” an awareness that one’s thoughts may differ from those of other persons and that there are a variety of perspectives of which each of us is capable, is also closely related to imaginative play. 139 8
A school atmosphere in which pretend games are encouraged, or even just tolerated in the curriculum or in children’s recess play, has been shown to lead to even greater amounts of imaginativeness and enhanced curiosity, and to learning skills in preschoolers and children in the early grades 140 8
One study found that adolescents in a two-year emotional intelligence training program in Spain increased their skills in perceiving, facilitating, understanding, and managing emotions. Importantly, these effects persisted six months after the program concluded 140 8
Another intervention, by Mark Brackett and colleagues, consisted of a thirty-week social and emotional learning curriculum for fifth- and sixth-graders in fifteen classrooms.35 They used the RULER curriculum, which is designed to help students understand feeling words—words that include the full range of human experience, such as excitement, shame, alienation, and commitment. Those in classrooms using the RULER curriculum scored higher in year-end grades and teacher ratings of social and emotional competence, such as leadership, social skills, and study skills, compared to students who didn’t receive the program. 140 8
The researchers found that the PATHS curriculum was effective, reducing levels of teacherreported externalizing and internalizing behaviors as well as reductions in self-reported levels of depression among the children. Both the teachers and the children recognized these changes, and the decreases remained two years after the intervention. In contrast, children in the control group showed a continual increase in both externalizing (e.g., aggression) and internalizing (e.g., depression) behaviors. Additionally, the PATHS curriculum led to significant improvements in knowledge of both comfortable and uncomfortable feelings, as well as a greater fluency in understanding emotions and recognizing cues in other people, and a greater ability to provide nonconfrontational solutions to situations, indicating improved self-control. 140 8
their expertise, but that they may fail when presented with abstract versions of the same problem.23 Similar results have been found for adults who can do quite complex reasoning within their area of expertise but do poorly operating on content that is not within their area of expertise—from bartenders remembering drink orders to expert grocery shoppers doing mental arithmetic 160 9
At the start of their study, IQ, motivation, and cognitive strategies significantly predicted math performance, with motivation and cognitive strategies adding additional prediction above IQ 168 9
complete a thirty-minute written intervention that involved mental contrasting (vividly imagining the goal and writing down possible obstacles) with implementation intentions (coming up with two if-then contingency plans if an obstacle presents itself). They found that students undergoing the intervention completed more than 60 percent more practice questions on the PSAT compared to a placebo control group who were instead asked to write about an influential person or event in their 169 9?
Phillip Ackerman and Eric Heggestad integrated multiple strands of research by showing the substantial overlap among cognitive, affective (e.g., anxiety and motivation), and conative (e.g., self-control, directed effort) traits. 175 9
spatial, verbal, and perceptual-motor tasks that correlated more strongly with g recruited the lateral prefrontal cortex (located just behind the forehead in the outermost region of the brain) much more than tasks that had low correlations with g 195-196 10
cells in the lateral prefrontal cortex are critical for maintenance of diverse content in working memory 195-196 10
They found that subjects who scored highest on the Raven’s test were better at the working memory task and showed more neural activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex and parietal lobe regions (located at the top of the head toward the back) associated with sensory integration. What’s more, brain activity differences in these regions were most pronounced on lure trials, in which interference was high and attentional control was particularly necessary. This study suggests that fluid reasoning tasks recruit areas of the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices to maintain focus on a goal to inhibit distractions, and rapidly update the contents of working memory 195-196 10
According to their Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory of Intelligence (P-FIT), different brain regions play a role at different stages of information processing. In the first few stages, the brain’s temporal regions (located behind the ears) and occipital regions (located in the back of the head) process basic sensory information, and the parietal cortex integrates this information. Then, the next “hypothesis testing” stage involves higher levels of abstraction and requires efficient information flow between the frontal and parietal regions, with white matter helping to reliably move information across the frontal parietal network. (White matter consists of axons surrounded by a fatty insulation called myelin that helps different gray matter regions of the brain communicate with each other. The prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex are gray matter.) Then once the best solution is determined, the anterior cingulate is recruited to select the appropriate response and inhibit alternative responses.198 10
The most striking evidence comes from a growing number of large-scale lesion studies that have all implicated the prefrontal parietal network as crucial for fluid reasoning 197 10
Consistent with the P-FIT theory, they found that damage to specific areas of the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortex impaired the integration and control of a distributed pattern of neural activity throughout the brain. They found that the tests of g and executive function that were most affected by prefrontal and parietal damage involved verbal comprehension, working memory, mental flexibility, and attentional control. The researchers argue that the prefrontal parietal network is at an “ideal site” in the brain to support goal-directed behavior because of its tight connections and broad access to perceptual and motor representations. 197 10
a recent analysis of Albert Einstein’s brain shows that although the overall size and shape of his brain weren’t abnormal, he did have unusual frontal and parietal lobes (among other unusual brain regions), with the frontal pole being particularly unusual within his prefrontal cortex 198 10?
the development of better behavioral restraint across four testing periods (ages 14, 20, 24, and 36 months) was accompanied by the development of worse mental flexibility 200 10
One recent study found that variation in a gene that codes for dopamine transportation was related to improvements in working memory and fluid reasoning in preschool children following training. 207 10
Another recent study found effects of personality on cognitive training.87 Conscientious participants were better than other participants on working memory training, but their improvement in working memory didn’t transfer to a measure of fluid reasoning. In contrast, participants scoring higher in neuroticism (a proxy for anxiety) showed lower training scores on a difficult version of a working memory task, but showed more gains on an easier version. It seems that in the easier version, higher levels of emotion may have been an advantage, allowing them to maintain their concentration and vigilance, whereas on the more difficult version of the task they became overwhelmed. Therefore, personal characteristics should be taken into account when considering the effectiveness of cognitive training. 207 10
All of the prodigies showed uneven cognitive profiles. In fact, one prodigy obtained a total IQ score of 108 and a visual spatial IQ score of 71, which is worse than 97 percent of the general population. That didn’t prevent him from winning a prestigious award for his violin jazz improvisational abilities, becoming the youngest person ever to perform with Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center! He also scored three films without any formal composition lessons. These findings are also consistent with prior research showing that balanced cognitive test profiles are more the exception than the rule among academically precocious students as well as students who are precocious in art and music 221 10
While deliberate practice explained far more of the performance outcomes than working memory, working memory performance was still correlated with these tasks even among individuals with high levels of specific experience and knowledge for the domain 221 10
implicit learning ability was independently associated with verbal analogical reasoning, processing speed, and performance on two foreign language exams (French and German). Implicit learning was also associated with various aspects of personality, including a preference for intuition, openness to perceptual and aesthetic experiences, and impulsivity. I also found a relationship between implicit learning and music creative achievement 238 11
The positive-constructive daydreaming style was associated with openness to experience, reflecting curiosity, sensitivity, and exploration of ideas, feelings, and sensations. Poor attentional control was related to low levels of conscientiousness, and guiltydysphoric daydreaming was positively related to neuroticism. 250 12
participants who were given the same easy task used in the prior two experiments during an incubation period showed greater improvements in divergent thinking compared to those who engaged in a demanding task, had quiet rest, or had no break during the incubation period.25 In fact, the individuals who were provided with the best conditions for mind wandering showed an improvement of 40 percent compared to their baseline level of divergent thinking performance! 256 12
any experience that violates how things are supposed to happen or forces someone to think like an outsider can enhance divergent thinking and cognitive flexibility 263 12?
Interestingly, fantasy proneness was also a strong marker of Openness 270 12
some forces cause Openness and Intellect to vary together, whereas other forces cause them to vary inversely. One system that is probably acting on the entire openness to experience domain is the dopaminergic system 272 12
dopamine has mostly activating effects on behavior and cognition and contributes to approach behavior, sensitivity to rewards, and breadth of thinking (see Chapter 6). Dopamine has shown linkages to extraversion, positive affect, mental flexibility, and reduced latent inhibition 272 12
Intellect, but not Openness, was correlated with IQ, working memory, and brain activity typically related to working memory… Intellect was associated with working memory but not implicit learning, whereas Openness was associated with implicit learning but not working memory. DeYoung and colleagues point out that our normal human capacity for implicit learning can lead to overinterpretation of coincidence an 272- 273 12
there is some degree of antagonism between dopamine levels in the lateral prefrontal cortex (which is associated with working memory) and dopamine levels in the striatum (which is associated with implicit learning). Elevated levels of striatal dopamine are often associated with reduced dopamine in the lateral prefrontal cortex, and vice versa 273 12
positive schizotypy is associated with elevated striatal dopamine levels 273 12
schizophrenia, schizotypy, and Openness are all related to reduced latent inhibition, which in turn is associated with increases in dopamine 273 12
A recent study conducted on people with above-average IQ scores found that openness to experience and divergent thinking were related to decreased white matter integrity in the same areas seen in those with schizophrenia 273 12
lateralization of brain functions may be another factor that pulls Openness and Intellect in opposite directions. Although both hemispheres of the brain are constantly communicating with each other, at the gross level of analysis our left hemisphere specializes in functions relating to semantic and serial logical operations whereas the right hemisphere specializes in functions related to global pattern recognition, images, and spatial relations.109 g is associated with the structure and function of many different brain regions in the frontal and parietal lobes, but more associations are typically found in the left hemisphere. In contrast, schizophrenia, apophenia, and divergent thinking are all typically associated with reduced left-hemisphere dominance for language 274 12
Some psychologists argue that elevated levels of dopamine in the right hemisphere produce the magical thinking and loose associations associated with positive schizotypy 274 12
With too strong a focus on the structure of reality, you miss out on hidden connections. But misidentify the structure of reality too frequently, and you’re in danger of dipping too deep into madness. Therefore, a couple sprinkles of schizotypy combined with a reasonable amount of executive functioning and intellectual engagement is conducive to mental flexibility, innovation, and discovery 275 12
“[Intellect] may compensate for the overinclusive pattern recognition associated with apophenia, diminishing the attendant risk for schizophrenia. In fact, it may be precisely high Openness with insufficient [Intellect] that produces severe apophenia. It might even be that Intellect and Openness covary in part because Intellect has been selected by evolution to occur with high Openness, so as to avoid the maladaptive drift into severe apophenia 275 12
people with ADHD tend to score higher on tests of divergent thinking, creative style, and creative achievement 275 12
Bonnie Cramond has noted the incredible similarities between the behavioral manifestations of ADHD and creativity 275 12
among a sample of college students that Openness, but not Intellect, moderately predicted total creative achievement across ten domains in the arts and sciences 276 12
Explicit cognitive ability and intellectual engagement were significantly associated with creative achievement in the sciences (consisting of creative achievement in scientific discovery and inventions) but not in the arts (consisting of creative achievement in visual arts, music, dance, creative writing, humor, and theater and film). In fact, intellectual engagement was a better predictor of creative achievement in the sciences than was explicit cognitive ability. This is consistent with other research by Sophie von Stumm, Benedikt Hell, and Tomas Chamorro-Premzic, who found that a “hungry mind” (intellectual curiosity) predicted academic performance independently of traditional measures of intelligence 277 12
found a small but positive correlation between divergent thinking and IQ 279 12
Convergent and divergent skills can also be investigated independently of each other even on the same IQ test, and both skills independently contribute to creativity 279 12
1a small but positive correlation between divergent thinking and creative achievement. She found a significantly higher relationship, however, between divergent thinking test scores and creative achievement than between IQ test scores and creative achievement in art, music, writing, science, leadership, and social skills 280 12
1divergent thinking test scores explained about half of the differences in adult creative achievement 280 12
the tendency toward magical ideation (such as belief in telepathy) is positively related to the identification of meaningful patterns in noisy or random visual information
People with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also tend to show increased mind wandering and a lack of default network suppression with increasing task difficulty

References

Uncovering Cryptic Genetic Variation, Hidden Reaction Norms, Cryptic Genetic Variation, and Evolvability, Developmental Genetics and Psychopathology: Some New Feathers for a Fine Old Hat
Nature-Nurture Reconceptualized in Developmental Perspective: A Bioecological Model
“Cumulative-Genetic Plasticity, Parenting and Adolescent Self-Regulation, A Novel Differential Susceptibility Gene: CHRNA4 and Moderation of the Effect of Maltreatment on Child Personality
Biological Sensitivity to Context: I. An Evolutionary-Developmental Theory of the Origins and Functions of Stress Reactivity, “Biological Sensitivity to Context: II. Empirical Explorations of an Evolutionary-Developmental Theory
“The Nature (and Nurture?) of Plasticity in Early Human Development
For Better and for Worse: Differential Susceptibility to Environmental Influences, “Sensory Processing Sensitivity: A Review in the Light of the Evolution of Biological Responsivity
Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy
The Malleability of IQ as Judged from Adoption Studies, How Can We Boost IQs of ‘Dull’ Children? A Late Adoption Study, “Adoption and Cognitive Development: A Meta-Analytic Comparison of Adopted and Nonadopted Children’s IQ and School Performance,
Dyslexia Linked to Talent: Global Visual-Spatial Ability,
Wider Recognition in Peripheral Vision Common to Different Subtypes of Dyslexia
Developmental Dyslexia: A Different Perceptual Strategy and How to Learn a New Strategy for Reading
Wide and Diffuse Perceptual Modes Characterize Dyslexics in Vision and Audition
Dyslexic Entrepreneurs: The Incidence; Their Coping Strategies and Their Business Skills
“Intrinsic Motivation and the Process of Learning: Beneficial Effects of Contextualization, Personalization, and Choice
The Mysterious Motivational Functions of Mesolimbic Dopamine, Dopamine in Motivational Control: Rewarding, Aversive, and Alerting, The Debate over Dopamine’s Role in Reward: The Case for Incentive Salience, “From Prediction Error to Incentive Salience: Mesolimbic Computation of Reward Motivation
Dopaminergic Mechanisms of Individual Differences in Human Effort-Based Decision-Making
Cast in Six Ponds and You’ll Reel In Something: Looking Back on 25 Years of Research
Inspiration as a Psychological Construct, Inspiration: Core Characteristics, Component Processes, Antecedents, and Function
“Inspired to Get There: The Effects of Trait and Goal Inspiration on Goal Progress
“Inspiration: Core Characteristics, Component Processes, Antecedents, and Function”, Inspiration and the Promotion of Well-Being: Tests of Causality and Mediation
Mediating between the Muse and the Masses: Inspiration and the Actualization of Creative Ideas
“On the Psychology of Passion: In Search of What Makes People’s Lives Most Worth Living
Les passions de l’âme: On Obsessive and Harmonious Passion
Temperament and Personality: Origins and Outcomes, Approach and Avoidance Temperament as Basic Dimensions of Personality
Developing a Model for Adult Temperament
Anxiolytic Action on the Behavioural Inhibition System Implies Multiple Types of Arousal Contribute to Anxiety
Approach-Avoidance Motivation in Personality: Approach and Avoidance Temperaments and Goals
The Stability of Behavior: I. On Predicting Most of the People Much of the Tim, The Stability of Behavior: II. Implications for Psychological Research, Toward a Structure- and Process-Integrated View of Personality: Traits as Density Distributions of States, Moving Personality Beyond the Person-Situation Debate: The Challenge and the Opportunity of Within-Person Variability, The Implications of Big Five Standing for the Distribution of Trait Manifestation in Behavior: Fifteen Experience-Sampling Studies and a Meta-Analysis
Inferring Abilities After Influencing Performance
It’s OK—Not Everyone Can Be Good at Math’: Instructors with an Entity Theory Comfort (and Demotivate) Students
“Beleaguered Pygmalion: A History of the Controversy over Claims That Teacher Expectancy Raises Intelligence, An Interaction-Based Approach to Enhancing Secondary School Instruction and Student Achievement, A Course on Effective Teacher-Child Interactions: Effects on Teacher Beliefs, Knowledge, and Observed Practice,,
Evaluative Feedback as a Determinant of the Pygmalion Effect
“Implicit Signals in Small Group Settings and Their Impact on the Expression of Cognitive Capacity and Associated Brain Responses
The Negative Consequences of Threat: An fMRI Investigation of the Neural Mechanisms Underlying Women’s UnN/Aerformance in Math
Neural Basis of Stereotype-Induced Shifts in Women’s Mental Rotation Performance
The Role of Devaluing and Discounting in Performance Monitoring: A Neurophysiological Study of Minorities Under Threat
“Converging Evidence That Stereotype Threat Reduces Working Memory Capacity
Stereotype Threat and Executive Resource Depletion: Examining the Influence of Emotion Regulation
“Preschool Program Improves Cognitive Control, Educational Effects of the Tools of the Mind Curriculum: A Randomized Trial,
The Early Years: Evaluating Montessori Education
Activities and Programs That Improve Children’s Executive Functions
The Mediational Role of Neurocognition in the Behavioral Outcomes of a Social-Emotional Prevention Program in Elementary School Students: Effects of the PATHS Curriculum
Improving Preschool Classroom Processes: Preliminary Findings from a Randomized Trial Implemented in Head Start Settings, CSRP’s Impact on Low-Income Preschoolers’ Pre-academic Skills: Self-Regulation as a Mediating Mechanism
Promoting Academic and Social-Emotional School Readiness: The Head Start REDI Program
Theory of Mind and Social Behavior: Casual Models Tested in a Longitudinal Study, “Pretense and Representation: The Origins of ‘Theory of Mind,
Play in the Preschool Classroom: Its Socioemotional Significance and the Teacher’s Role in Play,
Short- and Midterm Effects of Emotional Intelligence Training on Adolescent Mental Health
Enhancing Academic Performance and Social and Emotional Competence with the RULER Feeling Words Curriculum
Sustained Effects of the PATHS Curriculum on the Social and Psychological Adjustment of Children in Special Education
Remembering Drink Orders: The Memory Skills of Cocktail Waitresses,”
Predicting Long-Term Growth in Students’ Mathematics Achievement: The Unique Contributions of Motivation and Cognitive Strategies
Self-regulation Strategies Improve Self-discipline in Adolescents: Benefits of Mental Contrasting and Implementation Intention
“Intelligence, Personality, and Interests: Evidence for Overlapping Traits
A Neural Basis for General Intelligence
“Neural Substrates of Mathematical Reasoning: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Neocortical Activation during Performance of the Necessary Arithmetic Operations, “Integration of Diverse Information in Working Memory Within the Frontal Lobe, Dorsolateral Prefrontal Contributions to Human Intelligence, A Meta- Analysis of Executive Components of Working Memor
Neural Mechanisms of General Fluid Intelligence
The Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT) of Intelligence: Converging Neuroimaging Evidence
Fluid Intelligence Loss Linked to Restricted Regions of Damage Within Frontal and Parietal Cortex, Distributed Neural Systems for General Intelligence Revealed by Lesion Mapping, An Integrative Architecture for General Intelligence and Executive Function Revealed by Lesion Mapping, “Dorsolateral Prefrontal Contributions to Human Intelligence,
An Integrative Architecture for General Intelligence and Executive Function Revealed by Lesion Mapping
“The Cerebral Cortex of Albert Einstein: A Description and Preliminary Analysis of Unpublished Photograph
“Developmental Trajectories in Toddlers’ Self-Restraint Predict Individual Differences in Executive Functions 14 Years Later: A Behavioral Genetic Analysis
Dopamine, Working Memory, and Training Induced Plasticity: Implications for Developmental Research, Changes in Cortical Dopamine D1 Receptor Binding Associated with Cognitive Training
Influence of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness on Working Memory Training Outcome
Rethinking Multipotentiality Among the Intellectually Gifted: A Critical Review and Recommendations, The Commonality of Extreme Discrepancies in the Ability Profiles of Academically Gifted Students
“Limits on the Predictive Power of Domain-Specific Experience and Knowledge in Skilled Performance, Deliberate Practice Is Necessary but Not Sufficient to Explain Individual Differences in Piano Sight-Reading Skill
Implicit Learning as an Ability
Daydreaming Styles, Emotionality and the Big Five Personality Dimensions
Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation
Delineating the Structure of Normal and Abnormal Personality: An Integrative Approach
Fantasy-Proneness Dimensionalized: Dissociative Component Is Related to Psychopathology, Daydreaming as Such Is No
Sources of Openness/Intellect: Cognitive and Neuropsychological Correlates of the Fifth Factor of Personality
Metatraits of the Big Five Differentially Predict Engagement and Restraint of Behavior
“Intellect as Distinct from Openness: Differences Revealed by fMRI of Working Memory
Genes, Dopamine and Cortical Signal-to-Noise Ratio in Schizophrenia
Elevated Striatal Dopamine Function Linked to Prodromal Signs of Schizophrenia
Openness and Extraversion Are Associated with Reduced Latent Inhibition: Replication and Commentary
White Matter Integrity, Creativity, and Psychopathology: Disentangling Constructs with Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Schizophrenia as the Price That Homo sapiens Pays for Language: A Resolution of the Central Paradox in the Origin of the Specie, “Are Creativity and Schizotypy Products of a Right Hemisphere Bias?
Psychometric Schizotypy Modulates Levodopa Effects on Lateralized Lexical Decision Performance
Introduction to the Special Issue: Creativity and the Schizophrenia Spectrum, The Genetics of Creativity: A Serendipitous Assemblage of Madness
From madness to genius
“Uninhibited Imaginations: Creativity in Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,, “Creative Style and Achievement in Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Creativity: What Is the Connection
Are Openness and Intellect Distinct Aspects of Openness to Experience? A Test of the O/I Model
The Hungry Mind: Intellectual Curiosity Is the Third Pillar of Academic Performance
“Can Only Intelligent People Be Creative?,Are Intelligence and Creativity Really So Different?, Creativity and Intelligence Revisited: A Latent Variable Analysis of Wallach and Kogan (1965), Another Look at Creativity and Intelligence: Exploring Higher-Order Models and Probable Confounds,
Solving and Creating Raven Progressive Matrices: Reasoning in Well- and Ill-Defined Problem Spaces, “Creative Reasoning across Developmental Levels: Convergence and Divergence in Problem Creation
“Meta-Analyses of the Relationship of Creative Achievement to Both IQ and Divergent Thinking Test Scores
Is the Proof in the Pudding? Reanalyses of Torrance’s (1958 to Present) Longitudinal Data, “A Report on the 40-Year Follow-Up of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: Alive and Well in the New Millennium
“Seeing Things: Visual Recognition and Belief in the Paranormal
Task Unrelated Thoughts of College Students Diagnosed as Hyperactive in Childhood, “A Lack of Default Network Suppression Is Linked to Increased Distractibility in ADHD