To investigate speed as a factor in WISC-R performance, scores of 66 high-scoring (IQ 120 + ) and 36 average-scoring (IQ < 120) children were examined in a clinic for gifted children. Although significant mean group differences were found on all subtests, they were only marginal for Coding, which depends strongly on speed. On the three subtests using speed bonus points, the high-scoring group gave more correct answers, but on only one, Block Design, was there a trend toward more bonus points for speed. The results are interpreted as casting serious doubt on the utility of speed bonuses in tests of general intelligence with gifted children.It has long been established that brighter individuals tend to solve problems and learn new information more quickly than those who are less bright. It is tempting to assume that speed should therefore play a central role in intelligence tests.In constructing the prototype of his intelligence tests, David Wechsler (1944) took as his guide a comprehensive view of intelligence as a part of the total personality. The Performance Scales in particular were designed to include variables which Wechsler considered nonintellective, including speed of response. On the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for ChildrenRevised (WISC-R) (Wechsler, 1974), for example, bonus points are awarded for three of the five subtests on the Performance Scale (Picture Arrangement, Block Design, and Object Assembly), and speed constitutes the major scoring criterion for a fourth Performance subtest, Coding. Similarly, for the new Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence -Revised (WPPSI-R) (Wechsler, 1989) for younger children, bonus points are awarded for rapid performance on two subtests, Object Assembly and Block Design, with speed the major variable in an optional subtest, Animal Pegs (formerly Animal House). On both WISC-R and WPPSI-R, additional performance subtests and a verbal subtest, Arithmetic, also have time limits, as do those with bonus points, but the limits are sufficiently generous that correctness rather than speed usually determines the score.Wechsler viewed mental speed, then, as a noncognitive aspect of intelligence. Similarly, Kagan (1965) viewed response speed as a matter of cognitive style, rather than cognitive ability. More recent research has, however, focused upon speed of processing as an index of cognitive ability. After a long period of disfavor, research into reaction time has reemerged as a legitimate endeavor. Most investigators have looked at the relationship between IQ and reaction times on tasks such as choosing which key to touch in response to visual cues in the form of patterns of lights or shapes (e.g., Detterman, 1987;Jensen, 1982;Matthews & Dorn, 1989;Vernon, 1987). Other investigators have looked at the relationship between IQ and inspection time, typically the minimum time needed to apprehend information in tasks such as identifying the longer of two lines (Kranzler & Jensen, 1989) . Indeed, relationships have been discovered even in infancy between speed of ...

Three hundred sixty-six triads, each including a mother and her only two children, ages 7-14, completed questionnaires targeting mental ability and school achievement, child adjustment, and sibling relationship variables. Triads had been chosen as having 0, 1, or 2 children who were eligible for special classes for highly capable Students. Except for academic-ability variables, group comparisons according to school-based categories were not suggestive of sibling-giftedness effects. To focus on within-family perceptions, pairs were reclassified using a median split of the first principal component of maternal perceptions of child's giftedness. Contrary to findings of most previous studies, both giftedness and having a gifted sibling were generally associated with more favorable responses by children and mothers. Gender and age effects were also examined.

No abstract

Parents of gifted preschoolers play an important role in their children's cognitive, affective, and social development and motivation for achievement. While effective parenting of all children is assumed to involve responsiveness to the individual child, it is suggested that the parents of gifted preschoolers are faced with developmental characteristics unique to the gifted child. Also discussed are the difficulties that parents may experience in dealing with individuals outside the family who criticize the parents' abilities to raise their child effectively.