Insight in the gifted

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Abstract
We propose a subtheory of intellectual giftedness according to which giftedness is understood in terms of individuals' insight skills. Insight skills are proposed to be of three kinds: (a) selective encoding, by which relevant information in a given context is sifted from irrelevant information; (b) selective combination, by which relevant information is combined in a novel and productive way; and (c) selective comparison, by which new information is related in a novel way to old information. The article opens with an introduction to our point of view, and an historical overview of alternative views of giftedness. Next, we present the motivation for our subtheory. Then, we present and compare conventional notions of the nature of insight. We then present our own theory of insight and relate it to giftedness. We next show how the theory could be tested, and provide some preliminary data regarding it. Finally, we discuss the major ways in which our theoretical proposals, and their implications for assessment, differ from alternative approaches to theory and assessment.

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