Conceptual level, working memory capacity and domain-specific skills in exceptional intellectual performance during middle and late childhood
Creators: name: Loewen, Susan Nedda
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: The purpose of this case study was to examine the conceptual level, working memory capacity and domain-specific skills of four child prodigies from Case's (1992) neo-Piagetian theoretical perspective. The research questions addressed were: 1. Will the children in this study show age-related levels of performance on dimensional measures of conceptual level in the logico-mathematical, narrative, and spatial domains of thought? 2. Will the children in this study show a correspondence between their performance on dimensional measures of conceptual level and dimensional measures of working memory capacity? 3. Will the children in this study show significant advancement on measures of domainspecific language, mathematical and drawing skills as compared to their age-related levels of performance on dimensional measures of conceptual level in the logico-mathematical, narrative and spatial domains of thought? Five measures of conceptual level were administered (one in the logico-mathematical domain; two in the narrative domain; two in the spatial domain) to investigate the first research question, two measures of working memory capacity (one assessing verbal working memory capacity; one assessing spatial working memory capacity) were administered to investigate the second research question and data from the WISC III Intelligence Test, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition, the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-Standard Battery were obtained to investigate the third research question. Additional data on domain specific language and drawing skills were obtained from qualitative analyses of the stories told for the conceptual measures in the narrative domain and the drawings done for the conceptual measures in the spatial domain. The results showed that all but one of the children performed at an age-appropriate level or within the age-appropriate range on all of the measures of conceptual level, only one of the children showed a correspondence between age-related levels of performance on all of the measures of conceptual level and age-related levels of performance on the related measures of working memory capacity and all of the children showed levels of performance on the WISC III Intelligence Test, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition and Woodcock-John son Tests of Achievement-Standard Battery that greatly exceeded their age-related levels of performance on the measures of conceptual level. Qualitative analyses of the children's stories and drawings indicated that the stories of all of the children showed some of the characteristics of the stories of verbally gifted children and the drawings of only two of the children showed some of the characteristics of the drawings of spatially gifted children. The results of the conceptual measures included under Specifics A are in accordance with the Piagetian theoretical perspective, Case's (1992) neo-Piagetian theoretical perspective, other neo-Piagetian theoretical perspectives, the results of studies from Case's theoretical perspective, the results of studies from other neo-Piagetian theoretical perspectives and the results of studies from the Piagetian theoretical perspective if the neo-Piagetian notion of age-appropriate range is taken into consideration. These results are also consistent with the limited amount of empirical data that are available from the neo-nativist theoretical perspective. The results of the comparisons between the children's levels of performance on the measures of conceptual level and working memory capacity are not in accordance with Case's (1992) neo-Piagetian theoretical perspective, other neo-Piagetian theoretical perspectives, the results of studies from Case's theoretical perspective or the results of studies from other neo-Piagetian theoretical perspectives. However, several explanations for these results have been suggested. The results of the measures included under Specifics A and Specifics B are in accordance with Case's (1992) neo-Piagetian theoretical perspective and the results of Porath's (1988, 1992) study from this theoretical perspective. These results may also be consistent with the case study data that have been collected by researchers from the neo-nativist theoretical perspective; however, the subjective and anecdotal nature of these case study data makes this difficult to determine. The results of the qualitative analyses of the stories the children told for the story-telling and interpreting family stories tasks and the drawings the children did for the boats and mother-boy (girl) tasks support arguments for the domain specificity of development and appear to be consistent with Case's (1992) neo-Piagetian theoretical perspective, other neo-Piagetian theoretical perspectives, the neo-nativist theoretical perspective and the results of Porath's (1988, 1992) study from Case's (1992) neo-Piagetian theoretical perspective.