Abstract
Nobel Prize is associated with a rare, superior degree of intellectually creative achievements. Although the capacity of Nobel laureates for great scientific discoveries has attracted researchers’ attention for decades, their scientific talent is far from well explained. This chapter argues that Nobel laureates’ unique type of representations—especially their highly objective cognition—is the essence of their talent. They see, understand, and interpret everything in a unique way. Their talent is also determined by extracognitive abilities—specific feelings, preferences, beliefs, intentions, and intuitive processes—which constitute a whole field of unexplored or poorly understood scientific phenomena. An individual’s unique intellectual picture of the world or his or her unique point of view and the extracognitive abilities predict intellectually creative accomplishments of the highest level that result in great discoveries and outstanding scientific talent of Nobel caliber.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Barron, F. (1969). Creative person and creative process. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Bower., K. S., Regher, G., Balthazard, C., & Parker, K. (1990). Intuition in the context of discovery. Cognitive Psychology, 22, 72–110.
Brown, A. L. (1978). Knowing when, where, and how to remember: A problem of metacognition. In R. Glaser (Ed.), Advances in instructional psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 77–165). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brown, A. L. (1987). Metacognition, executive control, self-regulation, and other even more mysterious mechanisms. In F. E. Weinert & R. H. Kluwe (Eds.), Metacognition, motivation, and understanding (pp. 64–116). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Cropper, W. H. (1970). The quantum physicists. New York: Oxford University Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity. New York: Harper-Perennial.
Dirac, P. A. M. (1963). The evolution of the physicist’s picture of nature. Scientific American, May.
Dirac, P. A. M. (1977). Recollections of an exciting era. Varenna Physics School, 57, 109–146.
Eiduson, B. (1962). Scientists. New York: Basic Books.
Einstein, A. (1949). Autobiographical notes. In P. A. Schlipp (Ed.), Albert Einstein: Philosopher and scientist (pp. 3–49). New York: The Library of Living Philosophers.
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1980). Verbal reports as data. Psychological Review, 87, 215–251.
Feist, G. J. (1999). Personality in scientific and artistic creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of Human Creativity (pp. 273–296). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ferrari, M. J., & Sternberg, R. J. (1996). Self-awareness. New York: Guilford Press.
Feynman, R. (1965). The character of physical law. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.
Flavell, J. H. (1992). Perspectives on perspective taking. In H. Beilin & P. Pufall (Eds.), Piaget’s theory: Prospects and possibilities (pp. 107–139). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Foster, W. (1986). The application of single subject research methods to the study of exceptional ability and extraordinary achievement. Gifted Child Quarterly, 30(1), 333–337.
Frey, D. (1978). Science and the single case in counselling research. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 56, 263–268.
Gardner, H., & Nemirovsky, R. (1991). From private intuitions to public symbol systems. Creativity Research Journal, 4(1), 3–21.
Gross, M. U. M. (1994). The early development of three profoundly gifted children of IQ 200. In A. Tannenbaum (Ed.), Early signs of giftedness (pp. 94–138). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Gruber, H. E. (1974). Darwin on man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gruber, H. E. (1986). The self-construction of the extraordinary. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 247–263). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gruber, H. E. (1989). The evolving systems approach to creative work. In D. B. Wallace & H. E. Gruber (Eds.), Creative people at work (pp. 3–23) . New York: Oxford University Press.
Gruber, H. E. (1996). Book review. Journal of Creative Behavior, 30(3), 213–228.
Hadamard, J. (1954). The psychology of invention in the mathematical field. New York: Dovers Publications.
Heisenberg, W. (1971). Physics and beyond. New York: Harper & Row.
Holton, G. (1973). Thematic origins of scientific thought: Kepler to Einstein. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
John-Steiner, V. (1985). Notebooks of the mind: Explorations of Thinking. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico.
Keller, E. F. (1983). A feeling for the organism: The life and work of Barbara McClintock. San Francisco: Freeman.
Kholodnaya, M. A. (1990). Is there intelligence as a psychological reality? Voprosu Psichologii, 5, 121–128.
Kholodnaya, M. A. (1991). Psychological mechanisms of intellectual giftedness. Voprosu psichologii, 1, 32–39.
Krebs, H. (1967). The making of a scientist, Nature, 215, 1441–1445.
Kuhn, T. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Kuznetsov B. G. (1979). A. Einstein: Life, death, immortality. Moscow: Nauka.
Lorenz, K. (1952). King Solomon’s ring. New York: Crowell.
MacKinnon, D. W. (1978). In search of human effectiveness. Buffalo: Creative Education Foundation.
Marton, F., Fensham, P., & Chaiklin, S. (1994). A Nobel’s eye view of scientific intuition: Discussions with the Nobel prize-winners in physics, chemistry and medicine (1970–86). International Journal of Science Education, 16(4), 457–473.
McMorris, M. N. (1970). Aesthetic elements in scientific theories. Main Currents, 26, 82–91.
Mercier, A. M. (1990). NASA’s Halem illustrates need for info visualization. Federal Computer Week, (8 Oct), 28.
Merriam, S. B. (1988). Case study research in education: A qualitative approach. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Miller, A. I. (1981). Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity: Emergence (1905) and early interpretation (1905–1911). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Miller A. I. (1989). Imagery and intuition in creative scientific thinking: Albert Einstein’s invention of the special theory of relativity. In D. B. Wallace & H. E. Gruber (Eds.), Creative people at work (pp. 171–187). New York: Oxford University Press.
Miller, A. I. (1992). Scientific creativity: A comparative study of Henri Poincare and Albert Einstein. Creativity Research Journal, 5, 385–4l8.
Miller, A. I. (1996). Insights of genius: Visual imagery and creativity in science and art. New York: Springer Verlag.
Mochalov I. I. (1970). Vladimir I. Vernadsky—Personality and Thinker. Moscow: Nauka (in Russian).
Ochse, R. (1990). Before the gates of excellence: The determinants of creative genius. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Planck, M. (1950). Scientific autobiography and other papers. London: Williams & Norgate.
Piaget, J. (1969). Selected psychological papers. Moscow: Nauka.
Poincare, H. (1913). Mathematics and science (New York: Dover, 1963). Originally published by Flammarion in 1913.
Poincare, H. (1952). Science and hypothesis. New York: Dover.
Policastro, E. (1995). Creative Intuition: An Integrative Review. Creativity Research Journal, 8(2), 99–113.
Renzulli J. S. (1986). The three-ring conception of giftedness: a developmental model for creative productivity. In R. Sternberg & J. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 53–92). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roe, A. (1952). The making of a scientist. New York: Dodd & Meed.
Roe, A. (1958). Early differentiation of interests. In C. W. Taylor (Ed.), The second (1957) research Conference on the identification of creative scientific talent (pp. 58–108). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Root-Bernstein, R. (2003). The art of innovation: Polymaths and universality of the creative process. In L. V. Shavinina (Ed.), The International Handbook on Giftedness (pp. 267–278). Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.
Root-Bernstein, R., & Root-Bernstein, M. (1999). Sparks of genius. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Root-Bernstein, R., & Root-Bernstein, M. (2003). Intuitive tools for innovative thinking. In L. V. Shavinina (Ed.), International Handbook on Innovation (pp. 377–387). Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.
Rosenblueth, A., & Wiener, N. (1945). Roles of models in science. Philosophy of Science, XX, 317.
Rothenberg, A. (1996). The Janusian process in scientific creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 9(2 & 3), 207–231.
Shavinina, L. V. (1994). Specific intellectual intentions and creative giftedness. European Journal for High Ability, 5(2), 145–152.
Shavinina, L. V. (1995). The personality trait approach in the psychology of giftedness. European Journal for High Ability, 6(1), 27–37.
Shavinina, L. V. (1996). The objectivization of cognition and intellectual giftedness. High Ability Studies, 7(1), 91–98.
Shavinina, L. V. (1997). Extremely early high abilities, sensitive periods, and the development of giftedness. High Ability Studies, 8(2), 245–256.
Shavinina, L. V. (1998). On Miller’s insights of genius: What do we know about it? Creativity Research Journal, 11(2), 843–845.
Shavinina, L. V. (1999). The psychological essence of the child prodigy phenomenon: sensitive periods and cognitive experiences. Gifted Child, 43(1), 25–38.
Shavinina, L. V. (2003). Understanding scientific innovation: The case of Nobel Laureates. In L. V. Shavinina (Ed.), The international handbook on innovation (pp. 445–457). Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.
Shavinina, L. V. (2004). Explaining high abilities of Nobel laureates. High Ability Studies, 15(2), 243–254.
Shavinina, L. V. (2006a). Micro-social factors in the development of entrepreneurial giftedness: The case of Richard Branson. High Ability Studies, 17(2), 225–235.
Shavinina, L. V. (2006b). Was Einstein gifted as a child? Invited lecture at the Canadian Museum of Nature on the occasion of the opening of a special exhibition on Albert Einstein (23 November, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada).
Shavinina, L. V., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.). (2004). Beyond Knowledge: Extracognitive Aspects of Developing High Ability. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum Publishers.
Shavinina, L. V., & Kholodnaya, M. A. (1996). The cognitive experience as a psychological basis of intellectual giftedness. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 20(1), 4–33.
Simonton, D. K. (1980). Intuition and analysis: A predictive and explanatory model. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 102, 3–60.
Simonton, D. K. (2003). Exceptional creativity across the life span: The emergence and manifestation of creative genius. In L. V. Shavinina (Ed.), The international handbook on innovation (pp. 293–308). Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.
Simonton, D. K. (2004). Creativity in science. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Simonton, D. K. (in press). Scientific talent, training, and performance: Intellect, personality, and genetic endowment. Review of General Psychology.
Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (1988). The triarchic mind: A new theory of human intelligence. New York: Viking.
Sternberg, R. J., Forsythe, G. B., Hedlund, J., Horvath, J. A., Wagner, R. K., Williams, W. M., et al. (2000). Practical intelligence in everyday life. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Uznadze, D. (1966). Psychological research. Moscow: Nauka.
Vernadsky V. I. (1988). Diaries and letters. Moscow: Molodaja Gwardia.
Wallace, D. B., & Gruber, H. E. (1989). Creative people at work. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wechsler, J. (1978). On aesthetics in science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Wertheimer, M. (1959). Productive thinking. West Port, CT: Greenwood Press.
Wilson, M. (1972). Passion to know. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Woodward, C. E. (1989). Art and elegance in the synthesis of organic compounds: Robert Burns Woodward. In D. B. Wallace & H. E. Gruber (Eds.), Creative people at work (pp. 227–253) . New York: Oxford University Press.
Zuckerman, H. (1977). Scientific elite. New York: Free Press.
Zuckerman, H. (1983). The scientific elite: Nobel Laureates’ mutual influences. In R. S. Albert (Ed.), Genius and eminence. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shavinina, L.V. (2009). Scientific Talent: The Case of Nobel Laureates. In: Shavinina, L.V. (eds) International Handbook on Giftedness. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6162-2_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6162-2_32
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6161-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6162-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)