The Mind of the Prodigy
Posted: 07/09/2012 8:32 pm
Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D..
Cognitive psychologist, NYU; Co-founder, The Creativity Post

Prodigies dazzle us with their virtuoso violin concertos, seemingly prescient chess moves, and vivid paintings. While their work would be enough to impress us if they were 40, prodigies typically reach adult levels of performance in rule-based domains such as chess, art, and music before the age of 10.

Their performances are hard to explain from a purely deliberate-practice perspective. While it’s true that many prodigies receive support, resources, and encouragement from parents and coaches early on, their support is typically the result of a demonstrated “rage to learn,” as prodigy expert Martha J. Morelock refers to the phenomenon. The reason why they are so driven to deliberately practice in their domain requires explaining.

A new study in the journal Intelligence sheds some new light on prodigies. Psychologist Joanne Ruthsatz and violin virtuoso Jourdan Urbach adminstered the latest edition of the Stanford-Binet IQ test to nine prominent child prodigies who have all been featured on national and international television programs. Most of the children reached professional-level performance in their domain by the age of 10, and their chosen domains were notably rule-based. There was one art prodigy, one math prodigy, four musical prodigies, one prodigy who switched from music to gastronomy, and another prodigy who switched from music to art. Here’s an example to give you a flavor of the rapid development of some of these children:

The third child prodigy was 18 years old at the time of testing. He is the oldest child of two. His mother reported that he had advanced physical skills and was crawling by four months old and walking purposefully by 10 months of age. At 18 months, he was speaking in complete sentences, and by 22 months he was reading 1st and 2nd grade readers cover-to-cover, sounding out unfamiliar words.

At 28 months, the prodigy’s parents gave him a small violin. His mother reports that he demonstrated extraordinary facility with the bow, and unusual agility with his left hand (fingering hand) from the time he began playing. He completed in a month or two tasks that usually take children two years to learn. By four, he had learned all of the Suzuki volumes of classical music. In doing so, he was aided by his prodigious ability in reading music and his almost photographic memory for music. He could hear a song and play it back almost immediately. By five, he was winning regional competitions against much older students, and soon thereafter he made his professional Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall debuts as a soloist with major orchestras. At seven, he was recognized by the great virtuosos of our time and a pedagogue considered a star maker of violin prodigies took him on as her youngest student. He attended Juilliard’s Pre-College. He began to tour nationally by age 13 with a huge repertoire, including several different concerti and concert pieces that he had committed to memory.

Testing results

Total IQ Score = 129; Fluid reasoning = 106; Knowledge = 126; Quantitative Reasoning = 119; Visual Spatial Abilities = 126; Working Memory = 141

Full article here.

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