Jonathan Wai

Creativity and Occupational Accomplishments Among Intellectually Precocious Youths: An Age 13 to Age 33 Longitudinal Study.

This study tracks intellectually precocious youths (top 1%) over 20 years. Phase 1 (N 1,243 boys, 732 girls) examines the significance of age 13 ability differences within the top 1% for predicting doctorates, income, patents, and tenure at U.S. universities ranked within the top 50. Phase 2 (N 323 men, 188 women) evaluates the robustness of discriminant functions developed earlier, based on age-13 ability and preference assessments and calibrated with age-23 educational criteria but extended here to predict occupational group membership at age 33. Positive findings on above-level assessment with the Scholastic Aptitude Test and conventional preference inventories in educational settings generalize to occupational settings. Precocious manifestations of abilities foreshadow the emergence of exceptional achievement and creativity in the world of work; when paired with preferences, they also predict the qualitative nature of these accomplishments.

The bachelor’s to Ph.D. STEM pipeline no longer leaks more women than men: a 30-year analysis

For decades, research and public discourse about gender and science have often assumed that women are more likely than men to “leak” from the science pipeline at multiple points after entering college. We used retrospective longitudinal methods to investigate how accurately this “leaky pipeline” metaphor has described the bachelor’s to Ph.D. transition in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in the U.S. since the 1970s. Among STEM bachelor’s degree earners in the 1970s and 1980s, women were less likely than men to later earn a STEM Ph.D. However, this gender difference closed in the 1990s. Qualitatively similar trends were found across STEM disciplines. The leaky pipeline metaphor therefore partially explains historical gender differences in the U.S., but no longer describes current gender differences in the bachelor’s to Ph.D. transition in STEM. The results help constrain theories about women’s underrepresentation in STEM. Overall, these results point to the need to understand gender differences at the bachelor’s level and below to understand women’s representation in STEM at the Ph.D. level and above. Consistent with trends at the bachelor’s level, women’s representation at the Ph.D. level has been recently declining for the first time in over 40 years.

Studying Intellectual Outliers Are There Sex Differences, and Are the Smart Getting Smarter?

By studying samples of intellectual outliers across 30 years, researchers can leverage right-tail data (i.e., samples at or above the 95th percentile on tests of ability) to uncover missing pieces to two psychological puzzles: whether there are sex differences in cognitive abilities among smart people, and whether test scores are rising (a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect) among smart people. For the first puzzle, data indicate that the high male-to-female ratio among extremely high scorers on measures of math ability has decreased dramatically, but is still likely one factor among many explaining female underrepresentation in some professions. For the second puzzle, data indicate that the right tail has risen at a similar rate as the general (or middle portion of the) distribution; it is thus likely that the entire curve is rising at a relatively constant rate, consistent with the Flynn effect, which may explain why a greater number of gifted students have been identified in recent years. However, the causes for these gains and whether they reflect real gains in intelligence continue to remain a mystery. We show how these two puzzles are linked and stress the importance of paying attention to the entire distribution when attempting to address some scientific questions.

Helping Disadvantaged and Spatially Talented Students Fulfill Their Potential Related and Neglected National Resources

For at least the last half-century, we have underserved advanced learners, losing countless minds and corresponding innovations. The scientific evidence is clear on educational interventions that are most effective and relatively easy to implement for this population. Despite this, such educational opportunities are not readily available to all students. Whereas financially advantaged students can access opportunities outside of school that develop their talents, financially disadvantaged students cannot, and their talents largely go underdeveloped. Another underserved population is spatially talented learners, who can reason by using well-structured visual images. They are often underidentified and neglected in standardized tests and school systems that emphasize verbal and mathematical skills. Although all advanced learners deserve to have their talents developed to the fullest, a policy focus on the financially disadvantaged and spatially talented would be an actionable and effective strategy to quickly level the playing field. Because spatial reasoning is less correlated with socioeconomic status than are math and verbal reasoning in the population, identifying spatial talent will also identify more students from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds. A policy focus on helping and challenging such disadvantaged students would contribute to fulfilling their talent and increasing their well-being; it also would increase demographic and intellectual diversity among the ranks of the highest achievers and benefit society. The current K-12 federal educational allocation to advanced learners is currently near zero. Research suggests a small early investment in advanced learners would pay off in intellectual and technological innovations, as well as GDP.

High-Ability Students’ Time Spent Outside the Classroom:

This study considered how three groups of academically talented high school students—those who attended an academic summer program (TIP), those who qualified for the program but chose not to attend (QNA), and those who did not qualify (DNQ)—spent time outside the classroom. These groupings differentiated students by ability (QNA vs. DNQ) and attendance (TIP vs. QNA). Male–female comparisons were also conducted. By comparing participation rates across a variety of activities and by sex, the current study helps explain the lives of high-ability students outside the arena by which they are defined: their academic ability. Results reveal numerous group and sex differences based on how high-ability students spend their time outside the classroom. Females tended to participate more than males in activities that were generally positively associated with academic achievement, while also participating in more types of activities. Males, however, reported watching more TV and were less likely to participate in any activity. QNA students reported spending more time on academic-related activities, such as homework and academic clubs, than did DNQ students, indicating a generally higher interest in academic endeavors. However, the QNA and TIP groups differed only in their service club participation rates, indicating that attending a summer program is not associated with spending time outside the classroom differently during the school year. This research underscores the heterogeneity of different groups of high-ability students and suggests some caution when generalizing from research findings based only on program participants. Knowing how students spend their time can help parents, educators, and researchers understand and foster adolescent development.

The Academic Gap: An International Comparison of the Time Allocation of Academically Talented Students.

Despite growing concern about the need to develop talent across the globe, relatively little empirical research has examined how students develop their academic talents. Toward this end, the current study explored how academically talented students from the United States and India spend their time both in and out of school. Indian students reported spending roughly 11 more hours on academics than their U.S. peers during the weekend in both STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and non-STEM topics. U.S. students reported spending about 5.4 more hours than their Indian peers on non-STEM academics during the week, leaving an approximately 7-hour-a-week academic gap between U.S. and Indian students. Additionally, U.S. students reported using electronics over 14 hours per week more than their Indian peers. Indian students also reported having control over a greater proportion of their time during the week than U.S. students did. Generally, there were far more cross-cultural differences than gender differences. These results inform discussions on how academically talented students develop within educational systems as well as what each culture supports in and out of school.

Teach Students What They Don’t Know but Are Ready to Learn A Commentary on “Rethinking Giftedness and Gifted Education”

We were thrilled to see an article focusing on giftedness, written by such thoughtful and well-respected researchers as Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, and Worrell (2011). The expansive scope of their synthesis is so impressive that it could serve as a crash course introduction to gifted education. In our commentary, we focus specifically on the perspective of education service delivery. From this perspective, we review their guiding principles, chief goal, and provide some follow-up questions for further clarification as well as an implementation option also based on talent development.

What Innovations Have We Already Lost?: The Importance of Identifying and Developing Spatial Talent

In a famous talent search by Lewis Terman, there were two young boys who were not identified as gifted but would go on to win the Nobel Prize in physics. Their names were William Shockley and Luis Alvarez and the scientific area in which they achieved their fame was arguably heavily visual-spatial in nature. Why were two Nobel winners missed? Likely because Terman had used the highly verbal Stanford-Binet, which did not include a good spatial measure. Many standardized tests in schools today lack spatial measures, and this means many spatially talented students are not being identified, and their talent is therefore not fully encouraged and developed. This chapter first reviews over 50 years of data showing that spatial ability in addition to math and verbal ability has predictive power in STEM domains. Next, the issue of spatial training and females in STEM are discussed. Then, how these findings and other research can be translated into education practice is presented. Finally, a discussion of the broader societal implications of neglecting spatially talented students will be laid out. For example, how many innovations have we already lost because we have not adequately identified and developed the talent of some of our most promising innovators?

What goes into high educational and occupational achievement? Education, brains, hard work, networks, and other factors

Abstract There are many factors that go into high educational and occupational achievement, including hard work, motivation, and luck. But how important is talent? Specifically, how likely were global innovators and leaders intellectually talented or gifted when younger? This paper reviews retrospective data on multiple US samples (Total N = 11,745), including Chief Executive Officers, federal judges, politicians, multi-millionaires and billionaires, business leaders, elite journalists, and the “most globally powerful men and women”, examining to what extent these groups were in the top 1% in general intellectual talent in youth, also examining their educational backgrounds. About 50% of these leaders were in the top 1% of our indicator of ability, so overrepresented by a factor of about 50. Elite education, and especially the impact of Harvard, was notable, suggesting that in addition to talent, elite education and networks were important. These data suggest that various occupations may draw from different levels of intellectual giftedness. Based on this data and a synthesis of prior literature, concrete policy recommendations for gifted education are provided. We recommend a policy focus on talented low income and disadvantaged students, who are greatly underrepresented among these leaders of US society.

Effects of Violent Media on Verbal Task Performance in Gifted and General Cohort Children

At the request of the Journal Editor(s) and the Publisher and/or the author(s), the following article has been retracted. Çetin, Y., Wai, J., Altay, C., & Bushman B. J. (2016). Effects of violent media on verbal task performance in gifted and general cohort children. Gifted Child Quarterly, 60(4), 279-287. doi: 10.1177/0016986216660382 Joseph Hilgard, postdoctoral fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, contacted the journal with questions regarding the pattern of results and conducted reanalyses of the data that called into question the credibility of the data. Unfortunately, the data collection procedures could not be verified because the author who collected the data (Cengiz Altay) could not be contacted following the attempted coup in Turkey. Therefore, as the integrity of the data could not be confirmed, the journal has determined, and the co-authors have agreed, to retract the study.