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Testing the limits of the ontogenetic sources of talent and excellence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1998

Paul B. Baltes
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germanysekbaltes@mpib-berlin.mpg.de

Abstract

Experiential factors such as long-term deliberate practice are powerful and necessary conditions for outstanding achievement. Nevertheless, to be able to reject the role of biology based individual differences (including genetic ones) in the manifestation of talent requires designs that expose heterogeneous samples to so-called testing-the-limits conditions, allowing asymptotic levels of performance to be analyzed comparatively. When such research has been conducted, as in the field of lifespan cognition, individual differences, including biology based ones, come to the fore and demonstrate that the orchestration of excellence requires joint attention to genetic–biological and experiential factors.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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