Cognitive and Noncognitive Characteristics of Innovators David Lubinski Vanderbilt University 24 August 2009
Human Capital
“The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.” Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell (2008, p. 79) “But beyond a certain threshold – an I.Q. of 115, say – there is no correlation between intelligence and creativity or genius.” Get smart (a New York Times book review) by Jim Holt, 29 March 2009
Accomplishments Across Individual Differences within the Top 1% of General Cognitive Ability: 25+ Years After Identification at Age 13
Doctorates (N = 534)
STEM Accomplishments
Z =.45
Fifty Years of Longitudinal Research on Spatial Ability
Terminal Bachelors
Terminal Masters
Doctorates
Occupations
Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and Corresponding Measures from Project Talent on Graduate Majors
Spatial Ability Stanine for STEM PhDs, Masters, and Bachelor Degrees from Project Talent
“There is good evidence that [visual-spatial reasoning] relates to specialized achievements in fields such as architecture, dentistry, engineering, and medicine…Given this plus the longstanding anecdotal evidence on the role of visualization in scientific discovery,…it is incredible that there has been so little programmatic research on admissions testing in this domain” (p. 136) Snow, R. E. (1999). Commentary: Expanding the breadth and depth of admissions testing. In S. Messick (Ed.), Assessment in higher education (pp. 133–140). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bachelor’s Degrees (N = 580)
Master’s Degrees (N = 472)