Some aspects of giftedness and creativity cannot be explained by cognitive, developmental, personality or social approaches considered in isolation. At the intersection of these approaches is something invisible, deeply hidden, but at the same time very important - the extracognitive facets of high ability. This volume brings together chapters by leading specialists from around the world responsible for much of the research in this field, presenting a wide range of perspectives for understanding exceptional achievement. "High ability" refers to human abilities described by terms, such as giftedness, talent, creativity, excellence, genius, child prodigies, exceptional leadership, and wisdom.
"Extracognitive factors" refer to phenomena like internally developed standards and subjective norms of intellectually creative behaviour; specific intellectual intentions and beliefs that influence exceptional achievements; specific feelings that scientific geniuses and other highly creative individuals say contribute to their advanced development; specific preferences and intellectual values; luck, chance, intuition, and other similar phenomena in extraordinary development and performance; and social, cultural, and historical influences on talent development. Although there are many works on the cognitive bases of high ability, this volume discusses the foundations of such achievements in extracognitive factors as defined here, thus providing a source of information on this topic to researchers, practitioners and graduate students of education, psychology, business and administration who work in the area of high ability.