1. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF WORKING MEMORY WITH GIFTED CHILDREN
J-H Guignard, V.Camos, T.I. Lubart *
INTRODUCTION • From this point of view, cognitive inhibition is important in
executive functioning, as well as working memory capacity.
•Renzulli (1986) opposes "schoolhouse giftedness" (gifted • In a previous study, we observed different patterns of
population identified with IQ tests) and "creative productive development for gifted and non-gifted children on a divergent
giftedness" (expressed through novel, original productions). thinking task ; whereas the non-gifted sample showed increased
•Thus, classical assessments may be completed by other performances between 5th and 7th grade, the gifted sample tended
measures of individual characteristics to approach different forms to stagnate.
of giftedness. •We hypothesized that this difference could be explained with
•Schoolhouse giftedness is linked to a high level of cognitive regard to a creativity slump that occurs during development. The
resources, currently assessed with classical psychometric tests. emergence of new inhibition capacities temporally reduce creative
•According to Hambrick & Engle (2003), success in many tasks performances.
is predicted by the ability to maintain goals, action plans, and other • Following the multivariate conception of giftedness, we suggest
task-relevant information in a highly activated and accessible state, that the intellectually gifted are distinguished by high performance
and when necessary, to inhibit activation of irrelevant or on working memory and cognitive inhibition tasks. But such
distracting information. Indeed, working memory span tasks cognitive ressources are not sufficient for high level of
involving a complex activity performed concurrently with the performances in creative thinking .
retention of items have proven to be good predictors for high-level
of cognitive performance.
PARTICIPANTS
76 French children in 6th grade (Institution Ste Jeanne d’Arc, Melun and Cours Hattemer, Paris) : 28 children (m=11,22 years old
SD=0,84) identified as gifted (based on WISC III-R IQ ≥130) and 38 children not identified as gifted (m=11,92 years old, SD=0,44).
MATERIALS
• Reasoning and Verbal Fluidity tasks (PMA). • Cognitive inhibition is tested on a directed forgetting
task inspired by Kipp (2 half lists of 10 words in 3
• New working memory task (Reading Letters Span task):
conditions: Forget all, Remember all, and Forget only).
Children were asked to retain numbers as they read loudly a list of
• Divergent thinking task: Unusual Uses for a
letters appearing successively on a computer screen (see
Cardboard Box.
Barrouillet, Lépine & Camos, 2004).
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
Means SD F n
This poster presents the results of a larger study on
hp=18,18 4,95 F(1,74)=11,06; p<,001 28 giftedness. In this report, we examine cognitive
Reasoning
nhp=14,31 4,85 48 aspects of intellectual giftedness.
hp=23,18 8,35 F(1,74)=8,14; p<,001 28
Verbal Fluidity First, children with high IQ obtain higher scores on
nhp=18,73 5,26 48 the classical intelligence tests we used, which
hp=9,22 2,53 27 confirms their status of « gifted ». Moreover, we
Working memory F(1,70)=7,68; p<,001
nhp=7,46 2,64 45 found that other measurements of cognitive activity
hp=2,78 0,83 28 may be useful to assess giftedness. Indeed, Table 1
Inhibition NS shows a significant difference on RLS scores, in
nhp=2,75 0,96 48 favor of the gifted sample. This supports our
hp=14,62 7,11 hypothese on the role played by working memory in
Fluidity
nhp= 13,47 6,31 hp=26 giftedness, which seems to constitute a relevant
hp=8,61 3,44 indice of intellectual giftedness.
Flexibility NS
nhp=7,87 2,97 Secondly, as expected, the divergent thinking
hp=15,69 10,38 nhp=45 activity failed to discriminate intellectually gifted
Originality and non-gifted children. This result is consistent with
nhp=13,07 7,66
Table 1 : Analyse of Variance in 6th grade, comparing gifted (hp) vs. non-gifted (nhp)
a previous study involving 5th and 7th graders
(gifted performed best in 7th, but were weaker in
5th, showing a stagnation of creative thinking for
gifted group). We suggest that enhanced cognitive
inhibition capacities play a role in the development
Fluidity Flexibility Originality of gifted children’s creative thinking. This
Inhibition (hp, n=26) -0,43 -0,48 -0,39 hypothesis is partly confirmed in this study. Indeed,
the inhibition task does not show higher scores for
Inhibition (nhp, n=45) 0,29 0,00 0,37 the gifted, but we observed strong negative
correlations between divergent thinking and
Table 2 : Correlations between inhibition score and divergent thinking indices for gifted and inhibition scores. The next step of this research will
non-gifted children (in red, p<.05) be to compare our gifted sample with non-gifted
children of the same age, through different school
grades.
*Laboratoire Cognition et Développement, Université Paris 5 (CNRS-UMR 8605), 71 avenue Edouard Vaillant, 92774, Boulogne-Billancourt Cedex FRANCE.
Contact : guignard@psycho.univ-paris5.fr