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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1411981
This article is part of the Research Topic Reviews in Educational Psychology View all 17 articles

Giftedness identification and cognitive, physiological and psychological characteristics of gifted children: A systematic review

Provisionally accepted
Elizaveta Kuznetsova Elizaveta Kuznetsova 1*Anastasiia Liashenko Anastasiia Liashenko 2Natalia Zhozhikashvili Natalia Zhozhikashvili 3Marie Arsalidou Marie Arsalidou 4
  • 1 Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
  • 2 Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergology, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
  • 3 National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
  • 4 Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Despite the extensive history of investigation, characterization and diagnostics of giftedness is still a point of debate. The lack of understanding of the phenomenon affects the identification process of gifted children, development of targeted educational programs and state of research in the field of gifted education. In the current systematic review, we seek to delineate the specific aspects in which gifted children differ from their typically developing peers in cognitive abilities, psychophysiology and psychological characteristics. Secondly, we aim to document the prevalence and criteria of intelligence tests used to assess gifted children and adolescents. We reviewed 104 articles from more than 25 countries that examined a total of 77,705 children ages 5-18 years. Results reveal a discernible trend towards adopting more culturally appropriate measures for assessing giftedness in children.Findings highlight that gifted children generally outperform their peers in several cognitive domains such as verbal working memory, inhibition, geometric problem solving, attentionswitching and elemental information processing, showcasing an accuracy-reaction time tradeoff. Psychophysiological assessments demonstrate heightened and accelerated brain activity during complex effortful cognitive processes. Psychological and behavioral measures reveal that gifted children score higher on tests measuring intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and openness to experience; as well as achieving higher grades in school and employing better problem-solving strategies. Our systematic review can be beneficial in educational and research contexts, giving directions in assessment of giftedness and designing future research.

    Keywords: Giftedness, Intelligence, Children, Intelligence Tests, cognitive abilities

    Received: 03 Apr 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kuznetsova, Liashenko, Zhozhikashvili and Arsalidou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Elizaveta Kuznetsova, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 00014, Uusimaa, Finland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.